Rain, rain and more rain

In the last couple of weeks I have been up and down to Wales twice covering well over a thousand miles and I think its rained all that time. I may be wrong and it may just be a matter or perception but I do know it has rained a lot, an awful lot!

 

I do wonder, considering quite how prone this country is to a patch of wet stuff falling from the sky, why our roads are not designed to be better suited to it. the roads have  camber to take the water to the edge but then, so often, there is no where for it to go once it reaches the kerb. Maybe it's not the roads maybe it's the drainage system that isn't up to spec, but I know when I am gong through puddles 100 yards long and 6 inches deep that it's not doing my car or my safety much good and if that's a concern then something is wrong somewhere?

I like the M25

Most people don't like the M25, the folk I work with are forever whinging about being stuck for hours whilst trying to get too London or from London or going round London. personally, I don't think it's to bad.

 

Monday saw me driving from York to Brighton and included half of the London orbital route. I didn't get stuck at all!. Tuesday saw me do the journey in reverse and still no problems. In all honesty it was a pretty good journey from start to finish. Pity it was such a long way in total (roughly 560 miles), but the meeting in Brighton was fairly hassle free and the Crown Plaza at Gatwick airport that I stayed for the night at, was lovely and modern inside (though very grubby on the outside). I have noticed with Crown Plaza hotels that they now all have a club lounge. Not sure if they have always had a club lounge or if this is a recent think. Either way it means I can feel very posh and important and go and sit in the privileged location and have free munchies and drinks before dinner. Kind of makes up for all those nights away, though if I stayed in Crown Plazas every time I am fairly sure I would end up rather fat!

 

Other highlights of the journey were the QE2 bridge (always makes me smile, I don't know why) and the Dartford tunnel. Other than that it was just a lot of roads past a lot of fields.

On the road again

Christmas and New Year were wonderful. I think I did less than 100 miles in the space of 8 days. Strangely enough I did miss the driving a bit though so despite being half asleep and really not in the mood to deal with the working world, I was fairly cheerful when I set off yesterday morning and the fact that a lot of people were still on holiday made the roads so much nicer to drive on and the journey 15 minutes quicker. Unfortunately it is still winter and as a result their are many more accidents (especially straight after a holiday) and so the journey home was half an hour slower whilst I waited in a queue.

I wonder what this year will bring? A couple of good holiday are planned both of which will involve travelling to countries I have never been before. Hopefully a new car in April/May as this one has a few too many miles on it and probably many more miles covered as I trundle round the country some more.