Saturday, September 6, 2014

Ancient Relic Tour Day 2

Despite a nerve racking take off thru severe thunderstorms out of Toronto, and a whole 7 hour flight of turbulence..we landed safe and sound ay Heathrow.
Is it just me,  or have I got a bulls eye painted on me when it comes to seniors and their antics?  First day of travel and already the nightmares are starting.
Throughout Heathrow are  mass transit lines of moving walkways..like escalators but flat. I’m being extra careful with Dear Mom as it was a long flight, she’s tired and at the best times these walkways are tricky to manoeuvre.  We are behind a group of elderly travellers who have their carry-ons in tow. They are in line, along with Dear Mom and I to get onto the moving floor. All of a sudden an elderly gentleman gets caught up on the moving belt (really, these units are simple physics people! ) down he goes, his baggage falling after him and while I am watching him, legs and arms flailing in the air, he’s on his back  being transported along the belt, relatives screaming.  I envision the domino effect starting……with everyone who is in line after him….piling on top.  The issue with seniors is  they have lost the ability to forward think. Plus, they instinctively form cues behind each other shuffling aimlessly along in groups. When they see this happen, they don’t stop or back up…..they just keep on going as if there is safety in numbers. The whole fiasco was like watching that I Love Lucy episode where she can’t keep up with the chocolates on the conveyer belt and they start backing up and she has to start eating them to keep up.  The problem with this picture is that Dear mom is third in line to be added to the terror. I envision the morning headline……
Canadian Senior Hospitalized in Conveyor Belt Tragedy at Heathrow.
As my life flashed before my eyes I hit the emergency button on the damn thing and ended what was sure to be a disaster in the making .
May I remind you….we are only on day 2 of the trip!
So it’s on to the hotel…by Hotel Hoppa Bus….I had very good instructions how to get from point A to point B and had sent Dear Uncle a gentle reminder as well. Our planes were suppose to arrive within a half hour of each other. We arrived at the hotel first….no Dear Uncle….now I’m starting to get worried….what if he had the wrong directions, or got the hotel wrong…how would we eventually connect?
Dear Mom is adamant that he won’t come by bus, it’s too much for him she says….I say sure he will, it was so easy and I gave him exact instructions.
“No he won’t”.
Dear mom and I opted to get a nice hot cup of tea and wait in the lobby till he came. Within 5 minutes, he arrives….but not by bus….taxi.  God she knows her brother well. So then he tries to backpedal …making some excuse as he couldn't find the number stop 26…he could only find 20 and 21… he went to ask this taxi cab fellow for help….then the taxi cab fellow just happened to say…  “get in, I’ll drive you.”  I just bet that unless we had not caught him in the act…he would have said the bus ride was delightful.
SAM_0739SAM_0741SAM_0737
You can see they loved their shirts….it was so wonderful to hear them laugh.  I hope the whole trip is filled with such hysteria…truly I do.
I feel bad that I spent money on the shirts, when it was really socks that Dear Uncle needed.
It just wouldn’t be London without the famous double decker buses.
SAM_0743
Looking forward to another day tomorrow with the fossils seniors….no honest I am!

No comments:

Post a Comment