Ireland day 1443. Wednesday 10 September 2025- Southampton Scan

Today’s summary	Travelled down from London to Southampton by train to have my hip looked at by my surgeon in the hospital. The whole process including scan and consultation took about four hours and went relatively straightforwardly. Took an Uber from Southampton station to the hospital and then again at the end from the hospital to Southampton airport for my 8pm flight to Dublin
Today’s weather	Sunny, interspersed with short sharp showers. Moderate south westerly wind. Appx 17c

Today’s overview location (The blue mark shows the location of my route)		Close-up location (The blue mark shows where I was) (No GPX today)

Commentary

Two and a half years ago, in March 2023, I had my left hip resurfaced, in an operation at a hospital in Southampton. Because of the type of operation I had, I need to have regular check-ups to make sure it is settling in well. So today I had to come back to Southampton for the latest of these check ups.

After a reasonable night’s sleep, I got a light breakfast then walked over Waterloo Bridge – battling the oncoming tide of tube-strike afflicted commuters all heading in the opposite direction – to get to Waterloo station. My train to Southampton left at 9:05 and was quiet and punctual. On arrival at Southampton, I had intended to walk to the hospital but by this stage it was pouring with rain and as I didn’t want to get soaked, I took an Uber instead. Again, very efficient and quite cheap.

I arrived at the hospital just before 11am and all in all I was there for about four hours. But most of that was hanging about – a long wait for my “MARS-MRI” scan (which was an interesting experience in itself – 40 minutes in a 1.5T Siemens scanner with lots of clanking and banging) then another wait to see the surgeon, who is also my consultant. The whole thing went relatively satisfactorily but I have to go back next June for a further follow up consultation.

To get back to Dublin this evening, today I tried a new route – a direct flight from Southampton Airport with Emerald Airlines (I’m sure there’s a song about that). The airport is actually relatively close to the hospital, so to make things easier I took another Uber to get there – again quite quick (20 minutes) and not too expensive (£10). The driver dropped me at Parkway station, which is about 3 minutes walk from the terminal building – which avoided the £7 drop off charge which I would otherwise have incurred if we had driven right to the front door.

My flight was scheduled to depart at 8pm which meant that I had an inordinately long wait in the rather un-glamorous surroundings of the departures hall. It’s really quite a tiny airport with not a lot to see or do. A small bar and café where I got a toasted sandwich and a cup of tea to keep me going (I didn’t have time for lunch at the hospital) and that was pretty much it. A handful of departures every day, to a limited number of mainly domestic destinations.

I eventually exhausted the limited possibilities of the airport buildings themselves, so once it stopped raining and before going through security, I took a short walk outside. Then I went back in and through security and waited some more before eventually boarding my flight and buzzing my way back to Dublin. Val is kindly picking me up from the airport and I can’t wait to get back and to see her. It was a good flight back – a bit slow because it had propellers(!) rather than being a jet – but it still arrived more or less on time and it was quite comfortable. So I’m not complaining!

So – a long and moderately tiring couple of days, but extremely worthwhile.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Iconic view upriver from Waterloo Bridge on my way to the eponymous station this morning	Hordes of commuters pouring out from Waterloo station – making their way to work on foot, as commuters cope with the impact of the latest tube strike

The glamorous hinterland of Southampton near the hospital	Southampton Airport main terminal building. In fact it’s the only terminal building

Ad-hoc airport work station with essential fuel on hand nearby	OMG my aeroplane has propellers! Get ready to pedal hard..

Sunshine and showers in Southampton this morning. It was pouring down by the time I had walked as far as the exit