Richmond town again
Trip Start
Mar 29, 2006
1
10
232
Trip End
Feb 28, 2007
Richmond (London),
United Kingdom
Friday, April 7, 2006
My turn to go into town on my own. I went by the Sheen Road with a first stop at the chiropractor which I had noticed on a previous day. I really only wanted to find out how much it cost but was given a bit of a preamble to the sort of treatment to expect until eventually I was given the figure of £30 for initial consultation plus maybe £20 for an x-ray. I think not. Although as pound for dollar it matches perfectly but not on our exchange rate. Damn! I promised not to mention the exchange rate again. [However I would like to report that a Big Mac cost £1.80 which is equivalent to about $4.50 and is therefore CHEAPER. . .I think]
I went into the HMV store...most of the towns have one. It appears to be the only outlet for music these days. Mostly DVD's though. [What is it about DVDs? You see a movie. You move on! Why would you want to spend £10 on one when you may never watch it again. Unlike a CD of music which you could play to death on any media...in your car, while you are walking or at a work station. A DVD you have to watch and listen which means total concentration which turns you into a zombie. And has not anyone told them that you can rent a movie!!} I found some cheap CD-R in a throwaway bin which will do to copy some of my host's CD's and whatever I can find in the library. Dixon's was my next stop but nothing of interest there. I still had thoughts of buying a digital note taker but that might have to wait until we go into London. I did find a some PDAs in a phone shop across the road which appeared cheap at £129 but were tied up with their phone network...T-net or some such...a long term rental deal or whatever they are called.
Checked out the fares at the railway station for traveling in to the city of London. There were no concessions. The best buy is an all day, go anywhere ticket for £5. I followed the road around to the A315 and found Sainsbury's and discovered that access was available to Sheen road but via a level crossing whose bar always seemed to be down. Just beyond the crossing was a wine warehouse which was advertising a fine sauvignon blanc from New Zealand called Oyster Bay...£4.99. [That little piece of useless information was for the benefit of our rellies in the Bay of Islands]. Anyway, I walked it back to the flat from there and arrived back shrubbed...I mean bushed. I had a few words with a parking officer who was patrolling outside the flat to establish the rules about parking not that we had any problem. There is a private car park for the residents of our apartments in the grounds. It really is strictly residential parking along most of these roads and the fines start at £40. He told me in his strange north country dialect, although he was obviously of West Indian origin, that they were fairly easy on infringements and often let people off or ignored short stays.
