No rest for the wicked... just two days after Kyle returned to the US (along with her unwelcome "gift" of an awful cold, sorry Kyle...) on Tuesday I went to London for the day to get my medical for the visa application. Given that the journey time by train from Warrington to Euston is now under 2 hours, it was a pretty easy trip down which gave me plenty of time to have my packed lunch and wander around beforehand - I decided to skip the "Identity" exhibition at the Wellcome Trust (maybe next time) and headed off to the big Waterstones near Birkbeck College in order to do some Christmas book shopping instead.
The medical exam was booked for 1:30pm, and after a brisk walk I got there about 10 minutes early and feeling quite nervous as I didn't really know what to expect. In fact it turned out to be pretty straightforward - a chest X-ray, blood test, measurements of height, weight and blood pressure, and a few other basic checks - and most of the time was actually spent just waiting. I watched other people coming and going who I guess were also there for visa application medicals.
I felt pretty good afterwards - I guess it was the relief of having gotten over it - and after chatting with Kyle on the phone for a while I decided that I would head to the Oasis Sports Centre for a swim. The Oasis was one of the outdoor pools that I missed on my London Lidothon in July, but this one is heated and is open all year around - and it was nice and toasty in spite of the frosty London air (and the lifeguards completely wrapped in their coats). The staff there were also really nice, and after my dip I had a tasty pasta bake in the cafe while watching people continuing to swim outside. I'd definitely like to go back sometime and swim there again.
After that I still had some time to kill - the off-peak rail ticket that I had wasn't valid before 7:30pm - so I went back to Waterstones to get my books for Christmas ... plus a couple as a treat for myself: "Swimming Games and Activities", which looked interesting even though it's really aimed at children, and "The Man Who Swam the Amazon" (about this crazy German guy who swam along the Amazon river and somehow survived). I'm looking forward to reading both of them sometime soon.
So all in all it was a pretty good day. I think it might have been fun if Kyle had been there too (although we probably would have done something different) and it was good to have completed another piece of the visa application jigsaw. As ever - onwards and upwards!
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