Bus Trip to Uxbridge

No phone call as promised so we tried calling RCR late morning only to discover that our contact was away from her phone for the day. No-one else really knew what was the latest news.

We did manage, however, to obtain a key fob from the office - who, as usual were very sympathetic and as helpful as they could be - as well as ensuring that we are booked on the mooring at least until the week end and also acquiring another electricity card.

RCR did make contact later in the day to say that towage was now arranged for Friday but that we will need to wait for a call tomorrow for details on how that will take place and what we need to do. We are expecting that once the boat is with a repairer we will be able to return home whilst it is being fixed.

Mike found that there is a bus from just outside the moorings that runs into Uxbridge. (There is a pedestrian gate at the far end of the moorings, close to where we are, that leads out onto a main road from Langley) It is a half hourly service and we went for the one at 15:16, although it was a little delayed. Part of the route through Iver is quite narrow. Guess where we met another bus coming the other way!

The bus dropped us in the shopping centre and we headed first to The Body Shop where Christine was after a refill to one of her refillable containers. However, she was most disappointed that another item that she has been using for a long while is no longer in production and she was directed towards an alternative to try.

That was the main reason for the trip but afterwards Christine was given permission (!) to wander around the almost-next-door M and S whilst Mike people-watched. To her surprise she did find an item to buy and was able to use some discount vouchers with the purchase.

We did look around the rest of the town centre although we had no specific purchase in mind. We have not been back here in the 7 years since we left Packet Boat Marina and it was interesting to see how well the retail business was surviving here. Although most of the outlets are towards the budget end of the market (we have seen places that are more so) only a few vacant units seemed to be available to lease. It was mid week so perhaps they do not expect much footfall at this time but it was definitely not heaving with potential customers!

We found the start of the 3 bus service and it was only a few minutes before we were able to board - quite a queue was waiting. There was much less traffic on the way back and we only had a slight delay at one pinch point.