Monday and I wake up alone for the first time in a long time apart from the odd night in hospital, but that’s quite another kind of alone altogether. Its my turn to pack my bags and prepare to to go off for some nights away in York to see friends and to talk to my mentor. I take my vitals for the last time for a days I am away as I just cannot be arsed to take all the equipment a couple of hundred miles north. It’s going to be my first solo trip since November 2023 when I last went to York. I see it as a challenge to stand up and do normal times and not let my cancer define me. Although I’ve done a lot positive this year there has been a lot of medical stuff thrown in this year so I want to get out there and do the ordinary. Just the drive, the hotel and talking with people outside the family and local friends is, in my head a challenge. I am hoping that I will navigate all this and come out the other side Christmas an New Year ready.
Having packed my bag and office back pack I check my tyre pressures with the mobile compressor and then drive to the garage to fill up, then home to load up. My drive starts at about twelve o’clock along the familiar route to junction 22 on the M1, as I pull onto the motorway I hear on the radio that there is an accident at Leeds that has closed the M1. I shrug thinking that by the time I get there it will be cleared. As I get back into motorway driving I relax into it and now in my later middle years I am content to jog along at the speed limit or a bit under. As I progress up the M1 there signs are not good about the Leeds closure at the junction I need to go through. To add salt to the anxiety thee is a huge stretch of 50mph speed limit outside Sheffield which take ages to get through. By the time I am half an hour out of Leeds its clear the M1 is still closed and I am already way behind my schedule so I take a pit stop and down an egg sandwich, crunchie and a red bull and take a comfort break before heading north again. Sure enough as Leeds comes up on the satnav it is clear that the M1 is still closed and I have no option but to join the crawling queue towards junction 44 where everything is being diverted of the motorway and advised to follow the yellow diamond alternative route. As I came to the top of the slip road and edged out onto the roundabout traffic was going diamond-wards but I spotted the access road back to the M1 was not closed so I turned onto it and found myself on an empty motorway. The next sign warned “Accident” but as I drove there was no sign of anything and I began to glimpse other cars far back but following me. The accident never appeared, not a sign I can only assume that the accident happened between the on and off slip roads a the junction. The rest of my journey was straight forward until the York traffic needed to be negotiated. All in all I think I managed the journey well even if it took me in excess of three hours, longer than my usual time.
The booking into the hotel was a surprise. It had had a complete face lift of the reception, lounge and dining area. I got the same routine of thanks for being an IHG member and was given my keys. For once I got a ground floor room close to the rear car park entrance, which suited me fine. Having unpacked I took stock of how I was. Tired certainly but pleased I had manged the journey so well. I read for a while and watch some TV before messaging people to tell them I had arrived but tired. My friend who was not sure if she was going to be well enough to come for a meal confirmed that eating at the hotel would be doable . So I read and wrote until about 7 o’clock when she arrived. I was really good to see my friend again, it had been over a year since we had been in the same place so there was a lot to catch up on. After a lot of talking and eating we were both tired so we said farewell at 10:30 with me handing over a box of Christmas presents for her and her family. I took my meds and tried to settle down to sleep. It was a disturbed night but I eventually got to sleep for a while before my 8:30 alarm woke me.
Tuesday, I wake in a strange non medical bed and feel a bit disorientated. I get myself up and take my meds before going to the hotel restaurant. I wander in and take a seat clutching my cereals, orange juice and decaf coffee with me. No asked to see my breakfast card or ask me what room I was in, I could have been anyone who had strolled in for a free meal. Breakfast was standard hotel food and help yourself. With refuelling over I get ready to drive into York to look at the Christmas market. Having lived in York I know my way around but the traffic has got worse than I remember it, but I slowly find my way to the parking lot. The walk to the Christmas market is mercifully short and wander about waiting to be struck by something of joy, but it does not happen. What does happen is a person in a long white robe with some really unfestive placards saying: ” Wake up! Satan’s brain-washed cattle” and “All enemies of Jesus Christ will burn forever” Now how Christmassy can you get! As I walk by him a man with a broad Yorkshire accent said to him “Do yourself a favour and go home lad.” The trip was worth it just for that.
By habit I went into the York Art Shop where I had bought the two Jay Nottingham paintings that are now in our lounge. There was only one painting that caught my eye but at £28,000 it was not a goer, I could get a new car for that, however his sculptors were a different matter, I liked them a lot immediately, I was very tempted but instead took photos and scuttled out of the gallery before I did something really silly.
There were the usual Christmas market scenes as well as God person, art and chocolate.
As a consolation prize I headed for the best chocolate shop I know and bought a truly indulgent box of chocolates as a Christmas treat for the family. With my precious cargo I headed back to the car and made my way back to the hotel feeling tired but happy I had made the effort.
Once at the hotel I get my laptop and go to the lounge and over a lemonade and lime I try to update the blog but run into a problem. I spend a lot of time finding my way into the web site in order to draft the blog so far. I finally get in but I am concerned there is going to be future problems. With a first draft done I retreat to my room to have a nap and prepare to be picked up and taken for a meal by another friend.
I am tired already, but I have cracked the website glitch. So I am going to publish the blog so far and update it later or tomorrow.
