Wednesday 29 April 2009

My Trip to Lynn's house

After setting off on the road to Scotland, I was buzzing with excitement but at the same time feeling very anxious about driving so far from home. I tried not to think about the drive as a whole and started thinking about the places along the way. The first city was going to be Bristol which is over an hour from home. Sometimes thinking this way helps a great deal and I became very settled in myself. Other times I had visions of me just screaming and having a panic attack that would never end and being taken into a mental hospital...not exactly a pleasant thought.

Through most of the journey I was able to kick these negative thoughts aside and started to concentrate on why I was making this trip, The reason was to meet my friend Lynn that I met on the internet over two years ago. Most of the time this thought made me smile and I couldn't wait until I was going to meet Lynn face to face and give her a hug.

The negative side of me was thinking, what if she doesn't like me? What if we don't get on?
etc. etc.. So my heart started to pound with all these thoughts buzzing round my head.

Apart from my anxious thoughts about being away from home I also had to deal with driving on the motorway. I hadn't really done this before, apart from 5 minutes here and there on occasional journeys with Robert. Robert nearly always does the driving everywhere we go.

The things I hate about motorways are-

  1. lots of cars going fast

  2. sometimes no hard shoulder

  3. a very wide road - sometimes 4 or 5 lanes

  4. If you don't want to get stuck behind big lorries you have to overtake them.

  5. You cant just drive off the moterway straight away

You can see that I had to deal with quite a bit from my anxious thoughts telling me that things are not safe. Even so, I kept on driving and the negative thoughts became less and less and I started to actually enjoy driving on the motorway overtaking large lorries and anything else that I had to overtake on the way. With my music playing lo

ud and Robert in the passenger seat with his swollen foot on the dashboard. passing me sweets and drinks when I needed them, it was like being treated like the queen – well, apart from she has her own chauffeur.

The journey from home to Lynn's house near Glasgow was about 9 hours as we stopped at a few service stations on the motorway. In total it was 430 miles give or take. So I was looking at the mileometer quite a bit. It was like watching paint dry, ha-ha. When th

e mileometer said 300 miles, I got rather excited as it was only 130 miles to go and didn't seem long after driving 300 miles beforehand.

When we had 70 miles left to do, Robert offered to take over driving as he said I looked tired and we already driven over the Scottish border. I was so pleased to let him drive

and sit and relax in the passenger side. I was ringing Lynn up every 5 minutes, screaming down the phone, telling her about every landmark etc. on the way. Poor girl, she must have thought she had a nutter coming to stay with her!

When we finally got to Lynn's town, it was 11:30pm and the sat nav in the car showed the little flag on the map to show we would be at Lynn's road in like less than 300

yards or so. At this time I felt like I was going to be sick with anxiety and excitement all in the same tummy with butterflies added. With a quick sip of my juice to make me feel less anxious, I grabbed my bag, ready to jump out of the car for when we reached Lynn's

house.

We pulled into Lynn's road and I recognised it from all the pics and videos sh

e sends me. It seemed familiar already, which was quite nice, but also rather strange.

Stood by the house which we pulled up to was a very tall lady with

a big smile on her face. It was Lynn! I nearly screamed with delight when I saw her! Instead I ran up to her and gave her a hug. It was great to actually meet her fa

ce to face. I was shaking like mad but tried not to show it. We grabbed my suitcase and Robert and I went inside her house. I was still shaking like mad and when Lynn made us a cup of tea I had to put it down on the table

as I would have dropped it!

Lynn, Robert and myself

After a little while I settled down and we all chatted for ages. Then we went to bed. ;-)

The next morning at 5am Robert left and went to the Lake district to do his business course at a posh manor hotel. So for the next few days I was without Robert.

Lynn drove me around lots of the places in her town. We went shopping in the little Boots where I bought hair dye as Lynn said she would dye my grey hairs for me (lol). I haven't got lots but I do have some and hate the fact!!

Normally I wouldn't let anyone dye my hair as I can't deal with washing my h

air properly and the fact that the dye would change my hair colour. The thought that I couldn't change it back would normally freak me right out. But I managed to sit whilst Lynn dyed it all and washed it out for me over the bath.. Now I have no grey hairs - whoo hoo :-)

Lynn and I seemed to make a great team together. She was learning to drive and I have had my driving licence for over 3 years so I could go out

in the car with her as she drove me around. Actually she was a very good driver. All the time I was at Lynn's I didn't have much anxiety at all apart from when she tried

to get me to walk from her house one day. I think we walked 27 steps -

not sure – lol.

Lynn and I oustside in her back garden

I think I helped Lynn a little. I went with her to her doctor's surgery. She hadn't been able to go there for 5 years! I stayed in the car and as I saw her go into the building, I was so pleased for her that I cried.

This is Lynn and I playing silly buggers!! haha class x

Lynn lives with her Parents. I didn't get to meet her Dad as he was wor

king away, but I met her mum and she is really nice. I met a few of Lynn's friends and family members - which was great, as I heard a lot about them from her. I met three of Lynn's cousins which

was great fun and a few of her friends. One called Angela has a medium-sized dog called Taz which actually snogged me when he met me (lol). It was yuck!!!

This picture is of Taz just after he snogged me!!!

After a few days at Lynn's, Graham came back. We all had Indian take away at her house before we left. That was a great meal. It was time to leave which I wasn't looking forward to... So we said our goodbyes and I walked down the path to the car. Then I started to cry

. Lynn ran out and hugged me - awww - and said a few sweet words to make me feel better. Then off we went and I was crying for about 10 minutes after as I didn't want to be so far from my new Best Friend.

Our yummy takeaway




2 comments:

ADDY said...

I am still amazed and so pleased you were able to do that long drive and be away from home for so long. I have never driven on a motorway as I hate the speed, fast traffic filtering in from the left and having to overtake lorries. It stems from an accident I witnessed on a motorway as a passenger which had happened minutes before I got there and left a decapitated horse on the verge. Since then I cannot abide motorways. You are therefore brave to be able to do all that driving. I am also pleased to read Robert's account of your visit to Orla's nursery. Well done. You are making great progress. You must feel so pleased.

Unknown said...

You have beautiful hair!! Just had to comment. :)