We were up at 5am this morning, made our way to Maidenhead, and caught the 6:05 train to London for the first part of the IVF cycle. It seems strange referring to it as “the first part” because W has been on a cocktail of hormone drugs for the last month already, and will be on far more drugs over the coming weeks.
We arrived at Paddington station in London at about 7am - probably the earliest I have ever arrived there. It was -2 when we left the car at Maidenhead station, and London seemed a little colder - uncomfortably cold.
We jumped straight in a taxi and headed off to the Lister Hospital, and quietly watched the city pass by. I’m always fascinated watching the various happenings in the early hours - the traders opening shops, papers being delivered, barrels being lowered into the basement of public houses…
The thing that sticks out in my mind from this morning were the numbers of horses out being exercised by the army and police in the early hours - there are a lot of horses in London - the police use them to patrol, and the army have hundreds - those of you outside of England will no doubt have heard of “Horse Guards” - the Queen’s Cavalry regiment that is based in central London. It just seemed really strange to see groups of 20 or so horses - some riderless (tethered to others) - standing at various road junctions, waiting for the light to change. I guess the golden dawn light made it look all the more strange.
The IVF part of the journey went well - although I’m guessing we’ll only really know “how well” tomorrow when the first results come back from the lab. I’m guessing that neither of us will be able to concentrate on much tomorrow.
Coming home from the hospital I drove back from Maidenhead. A novel experience, seeing that I haven’t driven anything for about 4 months. It took me a few minutes to become comfortable with driving again (remember - I ride a bike to work and back every day). By the time we got home I was just about starting to become smooth again. I wonder how long it will be until I drive again?
So here I sit - it’s nearly 5pm, and I’m pretty tired. W is fast asleep in the living room, and the cat is sitting on top of her. Off to surf the internet I suppose…