A Trip To Bristol.

I finally decided to have laser surgery on my eyes and today I went up to Bristol for the preliminary consultation which involves 2 hours of eye drops, eye tests and all sorts of machinery. It's still very expensive but some time ago I had a legacy from an aunt which will pay for one eye and if you spread the balance over the 30 years that I haven't been to the hairdresser it works out to £40 per year (1 visit?), at least that's the way I'm justifying it. I feel I've worked hard working full time for almost last 2 years and this is my reward to myself. Now it's a matter of co-ordinating dates as you have to be accompanied for the treatment, return the next day and then a week later. They only do the surgery on Saturdays so its a matter of fitting it into all the events happening in the summer holidays, so it will probably be August. It was very hot today, high 20s, and I got to see a much more pleasant, leafier and grander side of Bristol. I only had 10 mins to wander around before heading back to the train station and my eyes were totally blurry so it's a wonder I got any photos at all.
I was up near the university and there were lots of young people around enjoying the sunshine.

I think this is part of Bristol Museum.

These are the very grandiose council offices on one side of College Green,

With the Cathedral on another side.

A sort of interesting fountain.

And back at the station I was amused by the numbers of bikes, commuters who cycle from the station to their work places ? or students catching the train home for the weekend ?

The Bristol train was 20 mins late so I missed my connection at Exeter by about 3 mins, you'd think it would wait, and so I had to hang around on the station for another hour. At least I had seats on the mainline trains because I had booked on line and got seat resrvations. Quite a few people had to stand on the return train. As I was sitting in my window seat I felt something nudging my leg, looked down and there was a hairy little dog, belonging to the lady in front of me. I think it was hoovering up the crumbs from my sandwich brought from home, (BR charges £5 for a sandwich on the train!). The dog then settled down leaning on my and my neighbour's feet for the rest of the journey. My neighbour didn't look very amused but I thought it was sweet.