On the Beat

I drove from Edinburgh to Bristol. The roads in Edinburgh are in a state of chaos, in part due to tram works, which made it particularly difficult to leave the city: both my favourite and second favourite routes out of town were inaccessible, and what with the Mound being closed and most of Haymarket too, I have to weave my way around the roadworks (heading west and then back east) before I could head south down the A701, through Broughton, past the Devil’s Beef Tub, onto the M74 and then down the M6.

It was a long drive, made longer by an accident that brought the M6 to a standstill – it was on the northbound carriageway, but they closed the southbound route too to allow the air ambulance to land and police and fire engines to get to the site.

It was, though, a great drive, despite the guilt that I was actually driving rather than in the train. (I couldn’t get to all the places I wanted to by train: I made full use of having a car.)

Six or seven hours later I was heading east along the A4 into Bristol, thinking fond, amorous thoughts brought on by Leigh Woods, ducking beneath the suspension bridge and heading straight to my hotel.

I checked in, dumped my bags in the room, and headed back down the stairs to move my car.

And I fell over.
( Humpty Dumpty... )

I have been thinking about a stream of comments to an earlier post – http://www.livejournal.com/users/rhythmaning/6532.html – which kind of struck a maudlin note. It made me feel – well, old.

So here are signs that you are getting older… or maybe growing up? ( Read more... )