Banbury April 20 to 29 - our itinerary shot to pieces

Well, all good plans go astray, and ours WAS a good plan. We just didn't allow for a) having to leapfrog over John's wheelchair in the motor home (and you know how good I - Margaret - am at that! b) John not being able to turn over in bed independently - too narrow, nothing much to hang onto. And c) John getting ill two days into the trip, with an infection that wouldn't go away and a pressure area, and a hospital visit, and recuperation.

So we spent nine days in Banbury, including John spending time experiencing the National Health Service - 99% good, he has to say. They actually listened to him! Westmead Hospital could do with some of that.

However, enough of that. We've met some fabulous people, and reacquainted ourselves with old friends (Carole from 1972 in Sydney) and Ray, Marg's second cousin in Banbury. We met Linda Tucker, Marg's second cousin for the first time, and a 4th cousin - do they count? - Ange in Southampton, as well as people from the Moxon Society, including John Moxon Hill, whose driveway we stayed in in Coventry.

Linda and her husband Peter met us in London on April 19, and put us on the train to Derby at St Pancras. We tried to get on the Tube at Hammersmith, but the train was 12 inches below the platform, and no ramps. So much for accessible underground. Plan 2 worked though. Number 10 bus to Kings Cross. We made the train with 30 minutes to spare.

The British Midlands train couldn't be faulted. Excellent customer service, ramps and friendly helpful staff. We are collecting photos of accessibility features and will put them on a Google Album.

So to Derby where we collected the motor home - just huge - and Marg had to learn how to depress a clutch (after 25 years not using one), and after two weeks, she's nearly got the hang of it. Hate reversing in tight spaces though. Bit of a coward. Meanwhile John sits behind, strapped down (takes 10 minutes to strap him in) and reminds Marg to change gears. What a laugh. But we make a good team. John is so used to driving when we go travelling, we'd both much prefer it if he were driving.

After a night at Shardlow Marina near Derby, we set off for Coventry, where we had a really great time with two men from the Moxon Society and their wives. Very hospitable. Did John tell you his DNA matches other men's from the Moxon Society in his same line? So no kidding, he really is a Moxon.

On Monday 20th, we left the van at the Moxon Hill's place, and caught a taxi into Coventry, where we met Carole and her husband at the Coventry Cathedrals. Stunning ruins. There is now a reconciliation process going on, between Coventry and Dresden, which is nice. It was bitterly cold, as it was on the previous Saturday in London. Carole and I had 34 years to catch up. We'd lost touch, and I'd last seen her when I was over on a working holiday to the UK in 73-75.

Banbury was next, and that's where John started to feel really ill again with an infection which came back despite treatment in London. And to complicate matters, his good trousers (worn to impress his family connections ins Coventry) didn't agree with him, and he developed a pressure area. So he ended up in Banbury's Horton Hospital under the NHS. After two days (and with John's encouragement) they discharged him - too soon in retrospect. Isn't it always the way with hospitals? No one wants to stay in. It has been difficult to deal with sickness in the motor home - despite its size, it is difficult to move around and especially to move equipment.

But back to Banbury. Whilst John was in hospital, Marg stayed two nights with Ray and Trish, her cousins, who had been on the doorstep almost as soon as we'd arrived. Ray gave John a lot of help by building a platform to make it easier for John to get into bed. (The bed was too high). Did I mention top bunks - just the thing for a 60 year old wife - NOT. But there you go, one of us has to climb the ladder. Meanwhile Trish lent and gave us things to get us out of strife, and they drove me around town shopping etc.

Banbury is a lovely place - it is where the peasants were advised to Ride a Cock Horse. The town is a mixture of new and old. Lovely shopping centre in between all these streets of old houses, pubs and other businesses. And the Oxford Canal with its locks and longboats (for tourists) meanders through the town. We have loaded up some photos onto a public album. We were there nine days altogether. Not much fun for John though. He didn't see anything of Banbury.

And so to Hampshire where we are staying at Sherfield English, midway between Romsey and Salisbury, and a very well appointed caravan park. Lots of kids having the time of their lives over the Bank Holiday weekend. Enough for now.