Wales and back
... well just about!
It was that weekend of the year I dread, i.e. Son-of-Furtheron (the now semi-professional photographer and physics/space science student) was due to return to university. Well he has a week or so before lectures but wanted to get there and set up his new flat with his flat mate and supposedly do some reading up on the modules he is doing this semester.
So Friday night we packed off Daughter-of-Furtheron to stay with her "other family" - some friends of ours whose daughter is the same age and they have been best friends since mother and toddler days. It was the friends 15th birthday weekend so they were more than happy to have their adopted daughter there and there were shopping trips and lunches etc. all planned.
Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn my belief being an early start would avoid traffic issues... oh how wrong! Car loaded to near maximum capacity with cameras, clothes, X-boxes, guitars, amps... you get the picture - thank goodness we'd done one run to see the new flat before hand else we'd never have got the three of us and all that lot in the car!
M2, Dartford, M25 including the roadworks - all going fine :-) Then "Accident after next junction", so first A road excursion to cut across to the M1. M1 was a nightmare in the roadworks - I picked (twice!!!) the one lane in the contraflow and both times a couple of hundred yards into the 5 miles of it all stop. Engine off and wait - 5 mins later all moving again and never a reason as to why we stopped - mind boggling if we had to stop that long there must be something stuck somewhere... surely?
Anyway then M1 closed J16!!! Damn! Cross country again onto the M40 and then the M42 the motorway I hate the most in the UK all that "active management" - chaos more like. Use Hard Shoulder - Use Hard Shoulder only for this junction ... don't use it... For crying out loud how's it help?!
The rest of the journey via Shrewsbury and Welshpool was ok and we arrived at sunny Aberystwyth (ok I lie it was damp and drizzly as ever) before nightfall.
The new flat is just brilliant - so much better than the dump he was in last year. He water board was already threatening legal action over unpaid bills so student life begins again with him having to make a payment over the phone urgently to stop the water being shut off :-) We bought him a toaster as a flat warming present and he had the internet up and running in double quick time - priorities!
The journey back was better - one A road excursion to avoid another crash on the M1 - why are there so many crashes on the M1? We'd only been in a few mins and he's been in Aber less than 25 hours and he calls to introduce a new girlfriend! Oh to be 20 eh... can anyone remember 20?
It was that weekend of the year I dread, i.e. Son-of-Furtheron (the now semi-professional photographer and physics/space science student) was due to return to university. Well he has a week or so before lectures but wanted to get there and set up his new flat with his flat mate and supposedly do some reading up on the modules he is doing this semester.
So Friday night we packed off Daughter-of-Furtheron to stay with her "other family" - some friends of ours whose daughter is the same age and they have been best friends since mother and toddler days. It was the friends 15th birthday weekend so they were more than happy to have their adopted daughter there and there were shopping trips and lunches etc. all planned.
Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn my belief being an early start would avoid traffic issues... oh how wrong! Car loaded to near maximum capacity with cameras, clothes, X-boxes, guitars, amps... you get the picture - thank goodness we'd done one run to see the new flat before hand else we'd never have got the three of us and all that lot in the car!
M2, Dartford, M25 including the roadworks - all going fine :-) Then "Accident after next junction", so first A road excursion to cut across to the M1. M1 was a nightmare in the roadworks - I picked (twice!!!) the one lane in the contraflow and both times a couple of hundred yards into the 5 miles of it all stop. Engine off and wait - 5 mins later all moving again and never a reason as to why we stopped - mind boggling if we had to stop that long there must be something stuck somewhere... surely?
Anyway then M1 closed J16!!! Damn! Cross country again onto the M40 and then the M42 the motorway I hate the most in the UK all that "active management" - chaos more like. Use Hard Shoulder - Use Hard Shoulder only for this junction ... don't use it... For crying out loud how's it help?!
The rest of the journey via Shrewsbury and Welshpool was ok and we arrived at sunny Aberystwyth (ok I lie it was damp and drizzly as ever) before nightfall.
The new flat is just brilliant - so much better than the dump he was in last year. He water board was already threatening legal action over unpaid bills so student life begins again with him having to make a payment over the phone urgently to stop the water being shut off :-) We bought him a toaster as a flat warming present and he had the internet up and running in double quick time - priorities!
The journey back was better - one A road excursion to avoid another crash on the M1 - why are there so many crashes on the M1? We'd only been in a few mins and he's been in Aber less than 25 hours and he calls to introduce a new girlfriend! Oh to be 20 eh... can anyone remember 20?
I got tired just from reading that.
ReplyDeleteWow, sounds like a lot of work, but it is nice to spending the last hours together.
ReplyDeletewow! busy! I remember 20, just, but it was all so much easier back then... and still no real gadgets (mobiles, net etc) to talk of, bar a Commodore 64 or something!
ReplyDelete