Circle D 2nd Anniversary and Forum London Meet

Well, it finally happened on Saturday, April 24th - thirty members of Circle D and Diabetes Support Forum got together in London to celebrate Circle D's 2nd birthday! Weather was gloriously sunny, and actually warm - hot even! I met up with Tom, Tez and Shiv at Victoria and, once Tom had recovered from the hypo he was having (!) we set off, map in hand, to make our way over to Leicester Square. Thankfully, the route was fairly straightforward, or so we thought: up Buckingham Palace Road, onto The Mall, round Trafalgar Square and up Charing Cross Road. Well, it mostly went to plan, except that The Mall and in particular the area in front of Buckingham Palace was packed with crowds of tourists watching the changing of the guard. We decided to walk through St James Park, very pleasant and peaceful and a far better option to travelling underground on such a lovely day!

After a little unplanned detour we finally emerged onto Leicester Square where I managed to spot Yates down in the bottom corner, my brain still just about functioning as the jelly babies kicked in after my en route hypo. Shelley was waving like a woman possesed and difficult to miss! And so the day was set for the next six hours for me, and much, much longer for a few of the others who partied on into the night. Shelley was the perfect hostess, making sure that everyone was welcomed and introduced. There was a real mix, in part due to the fact that Circle D is a group for 18-30 year old diabetics and who therefore provided much of the 'youth', plus one or two old timers (erm, like me!). Becky had travelled furthest on the day, from York at some ungodly hour, and Steff had travelled furthest overall having come all the way from Geordieland.

It was great to renew acquaintances and to put faces to names of the people I hadn't met before. Everyone had a great time, except maybe the poor barman who served Becky a non-diet coke when she'd ordered a diet one - diastix were being used in abundance to test the presence of sugar in 'diet' drinks, a frequent problem for diabetics. Bar staff don't realise the possible impact of a full-sugar drink on a diabetic person's blood sugar levels which can become unexpectedly, and sometimes dangerously, high. I finally got back home at around 9:30 pm after a good coach journey and a fortuitous encounter with a Number 3 bus as I was just passing the bus stop! Well, pictures speak louder than words, especially when they move, so here is Becky's wonderful video of the day's shenanigans:

And a selection of photos - mostly by Shelley, but a few of mine too!

Megatrain!

As reported in yesterday’s blog post, I went to London yesterday. Astonishingly, the return rail fare was £2 plus 50p booking fee! When I booked it, I couldn’t believe it, and as I said to Katie at Southampton Central, I won’t really believe it until I get back! Well, I’m back and I’m still finding it hard to believe. I booked well in advance, which is important to get the lowest fare. The guard simply checked the reference number I had printed out, let me through the barrier and off we went. The train arrived on time, and contrary to what I was expecting, there weren’t hordes of people fighting to get on – just five other passengers – so we got a seat quite easily. Moreover, we weren’t assigned to a particular carriage – I’d envisaged maybe some kind of rail container vehicle with soiled straw on the floor and no windows, but it was just an ordinary carriage.

As the train departed, the guard informed us that, should we so wish, we could upgrade to First Class for an extra £5. This would be £6 paid for a journey that, if booked on the day, would have cost £58.20. As the train began to fill up, the value became even better, as the guard announced that he was opening First Class to all passengers at no extra cost, so that would have meant a £55.20 journey for £1! We didn’t bother, as by the time we had reached the FC carriage, all seats were likely to have been taken, but this doesn’t detract from the amazing price.

The journey was smooth and comfortable and arrived in London Waterloo on time. Our return journey was equally trouble free, although we had cut it a bit fine and made the train with only a couple of minutes to spare – I hadn’t taken account of Katie’s desire to hug everyone before she left the pub when calculating when we would have to leave!

I will certainly travel on this again. It’s almost worth booking a journey even if you’re unsure whether you can make it, as £2.50 is hardly going to break the bank if it turns out you can’t go. And we got to spend seven hours in London for the price of a pint of JD Wetherspoons beer!