Alas, poor York
Sunday, 31. August 2008, 09:45:39
For a few weeks now I’ve been greatly looking forward to a trip to York; you may have noticed the countdown recently appear on the right-hand sidebar. Some friends of mine were married last year, but wanted to hold a reception in York this year for all the people they know down in England who weren’t able to attend the wedding in Aberdeen.
I was delighted to receive my invitation. York is one of those places I’d always wanted to visit, ever since watching Blue Peter as a lad during the restoration of York Minster’s South Transept after it was devastated by fire in 1984. So it was with a keen enthusiasm I set about organising the details of my trip.
In a recent trip she’d made to York, where she’d posted some lovely pictures of the beautiful old town buildings and shops, Cookery and Blogging superstar Kirsten had mentioned travelling down from Edinburgh by rail for the tiny sum of £10 per ticket – as both a canny Scot and a man with a keen eye for a bargain, this appealed to me on many levels, and with some direction from Kirsten I managed to set myself up with similar arrangements very shortly afterwards.
Booking accommodation proved to be more complicated, especially when I decided to ask my GF to accompany me (my ‘plus one’ as per the invitation). Debbie is a travel agent for American Express and she could get vouchers from her personal bonus scheme to cover the cost of three night’s stay in York’s Park Hilton hotel. However, arranging the vouchers has proven to be a lengthy process, what with them coming from an office in Belgium, apparently, and as I write we have still not received them. Frustratingly, we can’t make the booking until we get the vouchers. I won’t be happy until everything is booked and organised and I freely admit I’ve been a bit of a nuisance about it, bugging her about the vouchers practically every time I see her; I’m doing my best to be patient, really I am, but I don’t like leaving details like this to the last minute. By contrast, I’ve had the train tickets sitting comfortably on my mantle at home for about three weeks now.
Sadly, this weekend past has seen some bad news regarding the entire event. Sandra*, one of the two lovely girls who were married last year, who was doing amazingly well recovering from Leukaemia since the start of the year, suffered a relapse and will be starting chemotherapy as soon as a donor is found for a bone marrow transplant. As can be expected the chemo is going to play merry hell with her health and the chances of her being well enough to attend her own reception are now looking slim, slimmer if she suffers an infection while her immune system is ravaged by the therapy.
Her partner, Emma*, has emailed a very practical letter to all involved suggesting certain options for the event to continue in some form (such a brave letter in the face of her obvious heartbreak) but obviously this very much depends on Sandra’s progress.
So, mixed amidst all the natural and very real concern for Sandra’s health is the disappointment that I may not get to see York after all; slightly selfish, but then I was really looking forward to the trip, particularly as I have not taken a proper holiday since the start of the year. If the event itself is cancelled Debbie and I could still go down for a long weekend as originally planned, but I’m not sure how bittersweet that would be under the circumstances.
So today I’m going to check the rail tickets I’ve booked and how easy it would be to cancel or rearrange them. Also, it might actually work to our advantage that the hotel vouchers haven’t arrived yet. And...I might just look into getting myself tested to be a Bone Marrow donor. The chances I might be enough of a genetic match for Sandra’s bone tissues are probably tiny, but I’ll never know until I try.
Current Mood: Sad
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*Name changed
I was delighted to receive my invitation. York is one of those places I’d always wanted to visit, ever since watching Blue Peter as a lad during the restoration of York Minster’s South Transept after it was devastated by fire in 1984. So it was with a keen enthusiasm I set about organising the details of my trip.
In a recent trip she’d made to York, where she’d posted some lovely pictures of the beautiful old town buildings and shops, Cookery and Blogging superstar Kirsten had mentioned travelling down from Edinburgh by rail for the tiny sum of £10 per ticket – as both a canny Scot and a man with a keen eye for a bargain, this appealed to me on many levels, and with some direction from Kirsten I managed to set myself up with similar arrangements very shortly afterwards.
Booking accommodation proved to be more complicated, especially when I decided to ask my GF to accompany me (my ‘plus one’ as per the invitation). Debbie is a travel agent for American Express and she could get vouchers from her personal bonus scheme to cover the cost of three night’s stay in York’s Park Hilton hotel. However, arranging the vouchers has proven to be a lengthy process, what with them coming from an office in Belgium, apparently, and as I write we have still not received them. Frustratingly, we can’t make the booking until we get the vouchers. I won’t be happy until everything is booked and organised and I freely admit I’ve been a bit of a nuisance about it, bugging her about the vouchers practically every time I see her; I’m doing my best to be patient, really I am, but I don’t like leaving details like this to the last minute. By contrast, I’ve had the train tickets sitting comfortably on my mantle at home for about three weeks now.
Sadly, this weekend past has seen some bad news regarding the entire event. Sandra*, one of the two lovely girls who were married last year, who was doing amazingly well recovering from Leukaemia since the start of the year, suffered a relapse and will be starting chemotherapy as soon as a donor is found for a bone marrow transplant. As can be expected the chemo is going to play merry hell with her health and the chances of her being well enough to attend her own reception are now looking slim, slimmer if she suffers an infection while her immune system is ravaged by the therapy.
Her partner, Emma*, has emailed a very practical letter to all involved suggesting certain options for the event to continue in some form (such a brave letter in the face of her obvious heartbreak) but obviously this very much depends on Sandra’s progress.
So, mixed amidst all the natural and very real concern for Sandra’s health is the disappointment that I may not get to see York after all; slightly selfish, but then I was really looking forward to the trip, particularly as I have not taken a proper holiday since the start of the year. If the event itself is cancelled Debbie and I could still go down for a long weekend as originally planned, but I’m not sure how bittersweet that would be under the circumstances.
So today I’m going to check the rail tickets I’ve booked and how easy it would be to cancel or rearrange them. Also, it might actually work to our advantage that the hotel vouchers haven’t arrived yet. And...I might just look into getting myself tested to be a Bone Marrow donor. The chances I might be enough of a genetic match for Sandra’s bone tissues are probably tiny, but I’ll never know until I try.
Current Mood: Sad
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*Name changed
WIDGETIZE
kirsten # 1. September 2008, 09:55
I hope her treatment works fast and she gets better soon...
Do you think you'll still go down there this month to visit them?
Is that where they live?
GrantTLC # 1. September 2008, 10:20
I'll try visit her later this week.
Odessa # 1. September 2008, 13:02