Hi everyone! Graham, one of Bullocks' longstanding coach drivers, here to talk about when I took a party of NHS Staff to London for an Award Winners Cruise and lunch on the River Thames.
We set off early from Manchester Central Hospitals and headed south, down the M6, to London. The passengers were all from various hospitals around Greater Manchester and had been nominated by their Managers for the trip as a reward for doing excellent work during the pandemic. They were all very excited at travelling down to London together, on a luxury Bullocks Coach.
Some of them recognised me from when I had driven them before on the Hospital Shuttle Service that we do each day between Trafford General, the MRI and Wythenshaw Hospitals.
I made a comfort stop at Watford Gap Services, before continuing down the M1 into central London. We arrived at Westminster Pier in good time to be greeted with prosecco and canapes on the top deck of the luxury river boat. I waved my passengers off as they sailed away down river to Grenwich and promised to meet them here later, when the boat returned. I managed to park nearby, on Victoria Embankment, just opposite the London Eye and close to Big Ben.
It was a beautiful day in London, a lot warmer than in Manchester, so it was great soaking up the warm southern atmosphere in the big city. After about 3 hours the riverboat returned to Westminster Pier, music playing and happy NHS staff soaking up the sunshine.
They had enjoyed lunch and drinks aboard and met up with some other hospital staff groups from several London and Birmingham Hospitals. They were all given special cupcakes to take home and one passenger kindly gave me hers, as a thank you, for driving her and her colleagues safely to and from London. It was a lovely treat that I brought home and savoured, with a cup of tea. We took a different route back home, via the A40 and M40 and arrived back in Manchester early evening.
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