Saturday in Bath and Heswall

I am including this picture of Judy and me taken this morning before I left.

One thing that I keep forgetting to mention is that it is still light here at 9.30pm and is light again by 4.30am. Consequently, I have been sleeping in the eye-shades provided by Emirates. They are certainly achieving the desired effect as the first night without them I awoke ridiculously early before realising that I needed help with darkness.

Another fact that I must include here is a report on the weather. It has been bright sunny and very warm (24 degrees) since I arrived in London. One could really be persuaded that England has an excellent climate if my recent experiences are anything to go by. I do still have a week to go though and anything could happen.

Because of the late night last night, I didn't set an alarm this morning. As I was also wearing eye-shades and it was unbelievably quiet, I didn't wake until after 8.00am. Luckily, I felt fine and all the various flu-like symptoms from yesterday had seemingly vanished. I went out for a walk, getting a bit lost but finally finding my way back to the main road through the village which I recognised. It was about an hour's walk which is usual for a Saturday. As I would be in the car for most of today, I was pleased that I actually deviated from the planned half-hour round trip walk that Ian had suggested. When I got home, Judy had already ironed my 3 pairs of trousers and all the other washing was dry from the dryer, so I now had a case full of completely clean clothes again. It was a very good feeling.

I left Judy and Ian's at 12.15pm and started north. Once again, I made an error in the early stages of the journey. I managed to get onto the M4 with no problem and was looking out for the M5. They alternated between referring to it as M5 north (as opposed to M5 south) and M5 Midlands (as opposed to M5 South Wales). However, I was clear about what I wanted and thought that I was in the correct lane. It was one of those situations where I needed a centre lane and somehow, I was too far to the right and set off on some other motorway which looked like it was going over the Severn Bridge (with a toll). Luckily about 5 miles down the road (and before the bridge) were some services which were off the road, and there is always a roundabout on these occasions so that both carriageways can use them. I used the roundabout to turn myself around and was soon on the correct M5. The rest of the journey was completely uneventful. Judy and Ian had predicted bad traffic because of the end of half term, but the roads were completely clear. I stopped at a motorway services area once I had negotiated the M5/M6 interchange at Birmingham, and then was in Heswall by 5.00pm.

The Premier Inn (Heswall) is very good. The place is in the same grounds as a pub which serves food (that is where Uncle Jack and I ate this evening) and the pub has a lovely garden area with tables and chairs. Also, as a result of the lovely summer weather, the garden was full of people. My room overlooks this garden, so it was very pleasant. The wireless Internet system works fine as well.

I must say though that for the first time, I feel that Uncle Jack is ageing. I guess he has to eventually as he is 85 now. Nevertheless, he is still fun to be with and I intend to see him on both tomorrow and Monday evenings before I venture south to Joy's.