Dear LPG, 

One-day last summer, I found myself in hospital although I was not the one who was ill.  My grandson needed to be in A & E and, although it was not too serious, we all know about the waiting times and the hospital in question that day was in Tonbridge Kent.    

Boredom had set in, and for want of something else for them to do, their mother (My daughter) phoned me and gave her other two children the phone so that they could talk to grandma.  It did not take me long to work out she needed my help and off I went.

It’s at times like that that I am really glad that I can still drive and I got there with the help of my sat nav about an hour later.   When I was young, I always remembered the second half of the school summer holidays being the time when I missed school the most and I don’t think that things have changed that much.  The novelty of not having the routine and missing your school friends got really bad and the added pressure of spending hours sitting in a hospital with nothing to do was making it really hard for the children and for mum (my daughter too).

That hospital is not particularly close to where they live so I did not know the area but I decided to take the children for a McDonalds to give them a change of scene and, Mum time to concentrate on the poorly one, and our adventure started.  

I had already paid the hospital car parking fees for the day so I left the car and decided that we should all use the bus.   I had my London Freedom pass with me and, even though I have never tried it that far away from home it worked beautifully.  But when it came to my eight-year-old and ten year-old grandchildren it was a completely different situation.  I paid £3.00 for a seven-minute trip for each of them which I suspect comes as no surprise to anyone who lives in that part of the world but I have to say that I was quite shocked because in London, children are allowed free on the bus until they are 16.   

McDonalds was fine but the cost of getting the kids on a bus could have paid for a 4th meal and the whole scenario opened my eyes to how lucky we are to have Freedom passes and children’s free bus travel in London.  I don’t really use mine that much but I was glad to have it that day.  I don’t actually know how much adult bus fares are in that part of Kent and I am glad that I did not have to find out!

Sometimes we older drivers forget that our older peoples’ Freedom Passes are the only ones that allow us on any local bus in England as long as you wait until 09:30 in the morning and, we all have a bit of a moan when it comes to those early hospital appointments.  Perhaps we drivers need to use them a bit more often.   By the way my other Grandson is fine…

CE, Ladywell