My youngest decided to go on a road trip last week and included a visit to RCH to see her Gramps.
She's pretty 'challenged' by navigational tasks at the best of times and my heart sank when she suggested that she'd be driving through London from Bedford, but when she said she was borrowing a tomtom I thought all would be well...
So it came as a bit of a surprise to be told that she'd parked the car at Epping and got the train into London.
Not sure how you get to Epping having joined the M1 just south of Bedford with a view to driving down the Edgeware Road...
anyways, she was in Epping, spotted a station and eventually got to Marble Arch and askled for directions to RCH.
A bus was suggested, but she couldn't find one that bore the recommended number. So she did the sensible thing and rang Gramps who told her to get a taxi, ask the driver to take her to London Gate and he would meet her.
The meter read £6.20 and Lucy was about to pay when Dad appeared and proffered a tenner to the cabbie, saying 'take £7'.
The cabbie not only refused the tip, he only took £6.
Only 20p, but it all adds up
Add it to the free tea in Fortnum & Masons tearooms last week; the reduced price theatre tickets he's been getting (Singing in the Rain; Billy Elliott; A Chorus of Disapproval, all since he got back from Canada); the discounts he gets on all sorts of stuff locally; and the goodwill that just washes over all the In-Pensioners and it is a good life he's leading.
Did I mention he'd spent four weeks in Canada? Visiting my sister on Vancouver Island. Wendy went out there in 1973 and this would have been around his twentieth visit - quite sad really, the thought that he was doing everything for the last time there. But he's back and fully in the swing, and really enjoying his new life.
He's even going to be on TV - he's one of the In-Pensioners who will be at The Albert Hall for the Service of Remembrance in November; and at the Cenotaph on the Eleventh.
Netx weekend there's this..
Click to see full-size image. |
Manchester United v Stoke City...
Car parking; champagne and canapies pre-match; free bar (wasted on my teetotal Dad and I'm driving...); four course meal; programme; top seats on the halfway line; post match food and drinks...
He's also got tickets for Stamford Bridge when United are there the following Sunday - what a life!