London – 12th April

Saturday 12th April was full of surprises and so much laughter. Captain Caveman brought me tea and toast for breakfast in bed then I did a little bit of work. There was a promotion on the Mitsis hotels with Classic Collection which I’d previously attended a training session on so I got busy with that. I’ve often been in countries with a Mitsis but not had the good fortune to stay in one, they looked great and the food choices looked fab.
Uncle Paul arrived as he was having a brief visit for a birthday celebration and Captain Caveman was so excited that he had brought fresh eggs from home.
Captain Caveman suggested we get the train in to London and we were just wondering what we might do there when I spotted a Facebook status update of a good friend. Becca and Steve were in the rooftop swimming pool of their rather swish hotel near Battersea Power Station. Captain Caveman had worked out we could be there with them within the hour (37 minutes to be precise) so I messaged Becca. Of course, she invited us over and to bring our swimmers. I hadn’t brought any back from Turkey and it wasn’t that warm so we decided to meet up in that area after they had eaten lunch.
I wanted to go to the Barnes Farmers market this morning to see if we could get some nice food for tomorrow.
We bought a ham hock, black pudding, a sausage roll and a  piece of cooked belly pork with crackling, for around £10-£15. The vegetables looked fantastic but were so expensive at £6.50 for a cauliflower (we didn’t buy it). We also resisted all the lovely cakes, cheeses and chocolate which looked amazing, too.
I thought we were going back home to eat our sausage roll and belly pork but Captain Caveman had other ideas and wanted us to walk down the street with it to get the train. I had a bite of the sausage roll and realised it might be prudent to avoid so that I didn’t get a poorly tum. Instead, I was trying to break off bits of pork from the crispy crackling in the brown paper bag without being wrist deep in grease! By the time I got on the train we’d managed to eat our very unhealthy lunch and I needed hosing down. I then had to walk past Battersea dog shelter and not go in, which was hard.

Becca and Steve were with her brother, Leon, too so we headed through the amazing shopping precinct at Battersea Power Station. Captain Caveman found them straight away and the 5 of us had hugs all round. I got something in my eye as I’d not seen Becca for some time and there was so much to catch up on. She was in the process of waiting for a kidney transplant and I learned so much in our short walk. The process for not only going through the ordeal of getting a new kidney, but getting people to be tested has its obstacles. It’s not just as simple as shouting out to all and sundry to please give me your kidney – there are rules in place to prevent coercion in to doing that. A couple of her friends had put ourselves up for getting tested but I was not aware of the process particularly. I just knew that it would be good to know if there was even a possibility of helping my friend have a better (longer) life, I couldn’t not at least get the test. We laughed and joked about what is actually such a serious subject but we’ve always been the type of friends who can laugh at anything. As we learned Steve was a match and was going to give a kidney – it was the first time I’d heard of a real life miracle. I’m not good with anything to do with blood so I had to really concentrate on not fainting when Becca got me to put my hand on her dialysis fistula (Google that – it is very interesting). It vibrates and made me feel a bit funny, while Captain Caveman loved it and was now getting in to finding out more.
We said our farewells to Leon and decided to take a walk along the river, through the very lovely park. It was a beautiful day and so good to see Becca and Steve.

Of course we had to call for a drink in a couple of pubs  where I took no notice of the name of them or how much the rounds cost! I was too busy catching up and enjoying my day off. In one place it was so crowded that we found it difficult to find anywhere to sit. This did not put Captain Caveman off vetting which reserved guests were already 20 minutes late. Sarah at 2pm was still not there so Captain Caveman had turned in to a member of the Punctuality Police and insisted we take the table – we did.
It was a brilliant day and I was sad to say goodbye at the end of it. We decided that on our way back up North we would go visit Becca and Steve and they invited us to stay with them, which was lovely.

Back home, Uncle Paul had left a note to say he’d already driven home and wouldn’t be staying after all. Captain Caveman knocked up a sausage casserole for dinner and I fell asleep on the sofa as soon as he put the TV on.

Gratitude List
1. Barnes Farmers market
2. A fantastic and impromptu day with friends in Battersea
3. Knowing that Becca and Steve were a match for the kidney transplant.

Photo credit – Some photos by Captain Caveman and Becca