Butterfield wrote:

Fangirl Three wrote:

They're doubtless provided so that the burly workmen and women driving those vehicles with huge flashing orange lights along the hard shoulder, know when it's time to slow down for the gate.

This will probably get me into trouble somewhere but in 25 years of driving I don't think I've ever seen a woman doing that job.

Equality for all, apart from women doing bin collections and driving those vehicles with huge flashing orange lights along the hard shoulder.

While driving down to Essex a week ago I stopped at Coneygarth Truck Stop for petrol and travel sweets (best selection I've seen so far) and one of those black and yellow Traffic Officer SUVs drove up to the one of the other pumps. I expected a grizzled old bloke to get out, but the driver turned out to be an elegant young woman in an orange hi-vis.

My car service cost £670 yesterday. Plus they detected a 'slightly' buckled wheel which will cost another £550 to replace if it gets any more buckled.

I've got Glasgow City Council highways dept and their potholes to thank for that, I think.

I'm driving south again today. The long climb into the Southern Uplands, the summit bit with the wind turbines, then Beattock and its fir trees, then coming out into the lowlands around Lockerbie. Crossing the border, then the River Eden, Penrith, the A66 unless it's blocked, then the long, long stretches of the upper A1(M) relieved only by a stop at Coneygarth truck stop.

Out into Lincolnshire to avoid the Wentbridge viaduct roadworks which are still going on, back to the A1(M). Burger at Blyth or Markham Moor (TBA), then across the Trent, Grantham, Stamford, then the busy, bad-tempered bit of the A1 round Peterborough.

Furtively check the M11 traffic situation on tablet on passenger seat, then accordingly M11 and then through Dunmow, or more A1 down to Welwyn and across on the A414 through Harlow.

By which time I'll be thinking 'Whatever did I come back here for? I should be moving on.' But it will be nice to see the family again.

My cars going in for an MOT next month, not looking forward to the rusty suspension report.

Fangirl Three wrote:

to avoid the Wentbridge viaduct roadworks which are still going on

I come past those roadworks each time, but in a late evening when there's much less traffic and one might only come to a brief standstill as the cars file into the one lane, then it's 40mph all the way through.

There are SO MANY 50mph areas on the M1 around Sheffield and Leeds at the moment, including the incredibly long 20ish mile stretch from Lee Anderson-field to Sheffield. Mind you, my car's little underpowered 1.2 engine prefers those constant 50mph speeds and I was getting 60mpg the other day on the motorway rather than the usual 53ish, which results in more than 500 miles on a tank of fuel and less money used up.

The A1 was blocked at Grantham so I had to turn off at Newark and go round via Melton Mowbray. And I got stuck behind a huge lorry, ironically taking materials to the Melton Mowbray bypass project.

Earlier I'd tried out that Morrisons that's really close to junction 48 of the A1(M). There's even a sign at the junction:



Never seen the petrol-toilet-cafe pictograms on a Superstore sign before.

I think a lot of other travellers had the same idea, cos the store was really busy and full of bad-tempered people who didn't have Yorkshire accents

I’d that the pies or the hearses? There’s one of these Leicestershire towns where the main industry is making pies, and another where converting cars into hearses is the business of the town.

Melton Mowbray is famous for pork pies.

Also for being namechecked in the Adrian Mole diaries, it's somewhere he goes on his racing bike.

Driving north again today. And this time next week I'll be getting ready to go to Ireland.

Fangirl Three wrote:

My car service cost £670 yesterday. Plus they detected a 'slightly' buckled wheel which will cost another £550 to replace if it gets any more buckled.

Mines going in for a service/MOT on Monday.

I'm going to be skint.

I need to check my paperwork, but I think the spark-plugs need to be changed last year, not sure they were.

The eternal choice of A66 or A69 once again faces me.

The last complaint on fixmystreet.com about the Penrith traffic lights was 3 months ago, so I'm going to gamble on them having been fixed.

They were fine today.

On the M74 I saw someone's car break down in real time. They swerved onto the hard shoulder and faltered to a stop.

On the M8 in Glasgow I once saw a crash in the opposite direction in real time. They came round the bend and you could see it was out of control. As we both were in the nearest lanes on our respective side I could see them screaming. Then, almost as if in slow motion, all three occupants were flung around like rag dolls as their car bounced off the crash barrier and disintegrated around them. I could then see the pieces flying around in my rear view mirror, which was almost cinematic in effect.

Nearly spoiled my mood for the party I was on my way to.

You definitely can’t be going round with an ‘bush excessively worn’.