I was in the City and I’ll be in the City and West End of London every day this week. It is a tough week to get about but I have learned how to use bikes and busses and not to go underground. I have one friend , the Queen Elizabeth which (for me ) connects Reading and Slough with the West End, City and Canary Wharf. The QE is still running and was packed yesterday as it took up the strain of tube lines that couldn’t be trusted.

I was in the FT’s British HQ yesterday lunchtime, the building was empty. There was one person at reception , no queue at the canteen and we went onto the roof where we could walk alone.

Leaving the FT to visit University College Hospital, I walked the streets and the roads were thronged with busses and taxis getting those who had to get about – about. The urology unit of the hospital in Westmoreland Street was full of people, we do not get better because the RTI have gone on strike! I talked with the nurses about how they were getting home, they were doing what I was doing, making other plans.

I would like to thank First Bus, Arriva, Metroline, Stagecoach and Go Ahead, all of which helped me or could have. Like other regulars, I have apps that tell me where busses are and when they can get me to out of the way places where the tubes no longer went! I like getting on busses and finding myself talking to people I wouldn’t otherwise talk to. We seem to find a different and more social atmosphere being upstairs!

Thanks too to my legs and the increasing fitness that I am finding from swimming most days. It is part of my deal with my surgery that I will be below 100Kg and away from obesity. I walk and no longer run, but I walk with a purpose and notice that many people of my age are walking hard in London!

It is five years since I last owned a car and a year since seizures stopped me from driving one. I have neurological problems but I have turned them into challenges. My challenge now is to make myself fit for my last thirty years of life! I am not going to rely on taxis, I will go forward using public transport and if the tubes are not working , I will use buses and trains (the QE train especially).

I do not have it in for the RTI, though rail workers and underground workers seem to spend more time on strike than most.

I do not have it for businesses that ask their  workers to go to work nor people for wanting to stay at home and talk to me on Zoom or Teams.

But I am a firm believer that we are social animals and that there is no substitute for face to face interactions and if you know me, you will know that I like being about.

My mother packed in driving her car at 93, she was up to it but felt she could rely on those she loves and likes to get her about. One of my brothers has given up driving for ecological reasons and my partner rarely takes her car out of her garage. I feel very sorry that thousands of cars got stuck in a traffic lock-up, one brother never made it to his golf-match at Woking. I went to a website to discover what was the cause of his driving grief, this is what popped up

I felt smug but no that my brother walks with his dog and that he has no choice, living in the country but to drive In London we have a choice, we can, even when challenged, get by. I am looking forward to the rest of the week and have my phone at the ready to get relief using busses when my legs can take no more!