I wonder what has happened to us. Covid has changed everything. Not for the good. It is Monday and the start of week 21. Week 33 of 2020. Day 223 of the year. A year that feels wasted . My head is sore . An arguement with the corner of a window frame . I wont rise up so quickly from my knees in future. I looked like the mad axeman had attacked me with blood running down my face . I know I am clumsy . How many times have I fallen over and grazed my hands and knees . Well to the pain in my head today. A trip to the local A & E. Now that is a novelty and I guess made a change from sitting at home . So what did A & E look like under Covid? The car park was free . wanted to collect money . The reception was fairly empty . 3 people in front of me . I stood with my bag of frozen chips on my head looking around . Surveying the scene . on reception . Just a big red sign that said Stop here.
Dont ask me to explain this one - Perhaps the french with their rond points would understand the significance
I could see a few people waiting for attention . All and looking bored . The driver who had brought me in had to leave . No one else allowed in but the patient . Everyone masked up. After a few minutes I was triaged . Blood = urgent attention . Head wound = even quicker attention . I was sent to book in and before long had my BP checked . Fine - well they thought it was fine but I knew otherwise . I said nothing . My pulse checked . Everything OK . Temperature fine . No sign of Covid high temperature . Wound glued and off I went . Headache will follow tomorrow .
Wednesday - Painful - probably bruised but it wont stop me working nor will it stop us going away for a few days . It was humid and hot and the first of a few thunderstorms hit North Wales and Shropshire . The sky lit up brighter than daylight .
a sore head I enthused about anything I could think of. They needed to move and wanted to stay in our village . They needed to clear their mortgage .
Friday - swim and breakfast before we set off. We left it later until after the early morning rush hour . It was supposed to be a four hour trip to Exeter
. Four hours - that is a long time for me to sit in Gabby . I wonder if I have enough food ? 6 packets of Cheese and Onion Crisps , four Tiffin chocolate cakes , some custard creams - might just last me all the way to Exeter Listening to our you would think we were going on an expedition . At least eating would stop him asking if we were there yet ?
The M1 was not too busy. Fairly average sort of day and drive . The M5 on the other hand was awful . Stop and go for mile after mile . We were amazed at how many motorhomes and caravans were heading our way. Where were they from ?
friend Sion chirped up Scones - Jam first or cream first ? You can tell he is getting bored when up with something like this . Jam of course I replied .But why ? Well it is easier to spread the jam first and then dob the cream on top . Perhaps you can try it out in Devon when we get there . At this rate we would not get there in a month of Sundays . Crawl past Bristol . Crawl through Somerset . It was always bad. But never like this . Whose idea was it to travel to the south west in high summer when all the kids are on holiday .?
With a lot of are we there yet we did arrive in the end . And a what a spaghetti junction of a place it is . Even with Sally Sat Nag it Roads here and roads going there . Traffic lights . We lost count of them . All that stopping at them and then crawling a few inches . We did arrive at our destination only to find that the shop that boasted it had all this
All that was left was to try to find our stop for the night - a pub which I had booked a few days ago . Free overnight stop in exchange for a pub meal . Now we have fallen for this one before . A night in a campsite would have been cheaper after we had the most expensive food on the menu and a bottle of wine. Not this time we were going to be careful .
