Going round and round

Reading through my one of my old London journals, I came across a moment which made me laugh:

[Heading off to a dermatologist appointment, after a two-month wait to procure a visit to this particular specialist.]

Had I taken three minutes before rushing out the door to look at my A-Z*, I would have noticed that the Hammershmith Hospital is just a three-minute walk from East Acton, and a 15-minute walk from my door. Instead, I ran out and caught the first bus heading to Hammersmith Hospital and sat for a watch-checking, toe-tapping agonizing half an hour of stopping, starting, crawling forward before I had enough, got off the bus at the next stop and phoned London Transport for directions. I was told that the bus I should be on – a now 20-minute extension ride from where I currently stood - would make me nearly 20 minutes late. Hence, I hastily caught a cab. The £10 cab fare brought me back to where I started – in East Acton, five blocks from home.

*A-Z (London street map guide)