We left home (Harlech) on Tuesday the 3rd of May at approximately 9:30 am and headed to Porthmadog to drop the fur babies off at the kennels.  After dropping them off we headed for London via the A5 which took us through places like Bala, Shrewsbury, Nuneaton, Towcester, Milton Keynes and into Kings Langley.  We arrived at the hotel at about 4:30 pm and after getting checked in called Jo and Steve to let them know we had arrived. The room was okay but there were several things that did not make it handicap accessible like we were told.  The bed was so low to the floor that when you sat on the side your knees were in your chest.  The bathroom did have several hand rails on the walls but Roland could not reach the sink, which was low but the taps were to far away for him to turn on.  It had a shower over a bathtub which he can’t use so he had to take a sponge bath with hand towels as the hotel does not have washclothes or flannels as they call them over here.  It had two emergency pull ropes, one in the bath and one next to the bed but no telephone so if you needed anything you had to walk to the reception desk.  There was also a big heavy sliding door on the bathroom and no room to turn the wheelchair around.  We then took a nap and waited for Jo and Steve to arrive.  After they arrived we went next door to the Toby’s Carvery and had a nice meal with them.  They then went home in London and we agreed upon a time for them to pick us up the next day, Wednesday the 4th, to take us to London for Roland’s medical for his immigrant visa.

Wednesday Jo and Steve came at noon to get us as due to traffic we had to start early.  His appointment was for 2:30 pm.  We were going to use their car but the wheelchair would not fit in the boot so we had to have Steve drive us in our car.  The traffic was really bad in London, but Steve did take us down Baker Street…..love that song!!!  We had reserved a parking spot in a car park but due to circumstances we didn’t get there.  Steve dropped us off and they left to find a place to wait for us.  I left Roland on the sidewalk and rang the bell to get into the building.  Once inside I told reception he was in a wheelchair and they bolted to action.  They got the ramps and headed out to help him inside the building.  There were 5 of them, including the guy who did the xrays who got Roland and the wheelchair up the stairs and into the office.  Once inside we were told to wait in the waiting room as we were a bit early.  When it was 5 minutes before his appointment I went to reception and got the paper to fill out and once that was done went back to the waiting area with Roland.  The waiting room was packed!!!!  They finally called him back for the chest xray aobut 30 minutes after we got there, then we waited for the doctor to call us back.  We waited another 30 minutes then went back to her office where she did a physical, took blood etc.  She asked loads of questions about the MS and was a bit concerned about his feet looking purple, but they always look like that and has never caused concern with the GP or any other doctors.  That part of the appointment took almost an hour.  When we were done with the doctor we were sent back to the waiting area and told that if he needed any jabs (shots) the nurse would talk to him…..but about 10 minutes later they called us to reception to pay and we were finally done…..he passed the medical!!!!

The staff jumped into action again and got the ramps and took him down to the sidewalk…..I called Jo and Steve and told them we were ready to go.  I think by this time it was close to 5:00 pm and rush hour traffic was in full force…..they came and picked us up, took us back to the hotel then left to go back to Norfolk as her mum had passed the day before and they needed to be with the family.  Even though they were going through a trying time they still took the time to help Roland and I …..now that is what I call true friends!!!!

We left Kings Langley this morning, Thursday the 5th to head back home to Harlech at 7:30am…..this time we took a different route and came through Welshpool…much better roads than when we went down for sure……Had a few wobblies along the way, like the arse who tried to run into me on the roundabout coming out of Kings Langley, then I had to get petrol for the car and was still upset over that guy and grabbed the wrong pumphose and pumped unleaded regular into a diesel only car…….only got 8 liters in before I realized what I did and stopped pumping, went into the pay station and paid for the wrong petrol then went out and pumped over 18 liters of diesel…….there was still 1/4 tank left in the tank anyway……it didn’t seem to do anything to the car, it still had power and ran well the rest of the way home, but I will have the garage take a look at it when I call them to fix the passenger side mirror again.  When we went to get the dogs the bushes at the side of their drive brushed the mirror and pushed it hard into the window, again and it fell out of the frame…..happened before so not to worried about it….if not I think duct tape will work well!!!! After we got home we were knackered so we went to bed and took a nap and it was so nice to have my fur babies with me…..I sure did miss the little critters, maybe I bit to much.

So we jumped this hurdle and did well, so one more to go and then it will be smooth sailing!!!! That is the end of our adventure so till next time take care!!!  From the Duskweald