Because of the
difficulty with parking in the hospital car park I tried using taxis to and
from the hospital. However, after three days I gave up and drove there in my
own car. It is fine for the odd visit but using a cab more than once is very
expensive. It was an eye opener though. £12 for one person from home to
hospital, and £12 on the return journey, which made £24 per day. Admittedly
there was no parking fee but I still considered it to be on the high side. So I
went back to driving there in my own car. I couldn’t have used much fuel
(diesel driving being quite economical) and the charge for parking was just
under £5. I have worked out the best place to park as well…. right at the back,
yet nearer to the actual hospital building, there are always a few spaces.
One thing I noticed whilst
taking the cab was that all drivers are foreign,
Asian mostly. Quite a few had
to rely on satnavs to get to my destination, which I found quite irritating.
Who wants to listen to someone telling you which road you’re on, or when to
turn right or left whilst reposing in the comfort of a taxi cab. To be fare
though, I can understand the satnav whereas I often couldn’t decipher the
driver’s pigeon English.
All the cabs had
what appeared to be mobile phones on the dashboard. Of course they were not
phones as such, just a way of recording fares etc, and which needed constant attention
whilst driving. I saw one man happily pressing buttons with one hand while the
other hand was operating the steering wheel. Dangerous or what? We have laws
here that ban the use of phones in cars … not that many take any notice … but there
doesn’t seem to be a law about taxi drivers feeding information into their
gadgets whilst driving.
I was quite happy to
get back to driving my own car. Lesson learned… only use a cab in an emergency.
I have a several
days break from hospital visits. Joe is home until the end of the month when a ‘procedure’
will take place. At this stage we’re not sure what the consultant intends to do
but I guess we’ll soon find out. I still think he deserves a medal especially
after the last rather testing experience.
