I hadn't really intended on posting a blog this evening. I just looked in to see what a couple of other people had written, if anything. One is just back to University after an exciting year away, and seems still to be finding things a bit disorienting following her return home; and the other has a cold, but is cheerful, and concerned about an allegedly innocent prisoner in the US who faces execution later today. It all seems so 'real' compared to the way I'm feeling just now, and in the guilt of that comparison I decided to put finger to keyboard myself.
This driving life is driving me mad at the moment (excuse the pun!) Last Friday I was up at 2.0 am, in order to make a delivery almost at the far end of the country (that's England, not UK!) by 7.30, and then did other work once I'd returned, a total working day of over 16 hours, with a few domestic matters to attend do afterwards. The knock-on effect of this - despite a relaxing Saturday, the focus of which was watching a football match played at the end of a pleasant journey by public transport, during the course of which I encountered a variety of interesting people - was that I still felt a little dazed on Sunday morning as I told friends at church about it all.
Yesterday fell into something of the same mould, subject only to a few hours' delay. I left home at around 5.0 am for two deliveries in the Peak District, and then after an acceptable local 'errand' in the afternoon, I found myself saying 'yes' to the offer of another job in the evening, collecting from a fairly local hospital, and delivering to a private house near Lincoln. After an essential, accident-preventing, body-chilling snooze in a lay-by, I finally got home at 1.20 am. Then - despite switching off the alarm clock, shutting the bedroom door and silencing the phone - I was up in time to be at work by just after 8.0 this morning! So ... convince me if you can that body clocks are as wonderful as people make out!
I know I'm my own worst enemy. I'd rather be on the road, adventuring, meeting people and 'doing things' than sitting at my desk completing tasks that have lain half-done for weeks ... and in one case several years! And when it comes to housework - I almost awarded myself a medal when last I caught myself wielding a duster in anger!
Today I had a relaxing day. Two nice easy deliveries in the morning, after which I took time out to make a phone call on behalf of a friend who is on holiday, and had left me a couple of bits of business - important to both of us - that needed resolving before she gets back. Soon it was time to attack a couple of those local jobs that fill the cracks of every day, and then I collected something to deliver (at a civilised hour) tomorrow morning, and was home a little earlier than normal.
Even so, I haven't been able to settle to anything. I've let the evening slip through my fingers as I flitted from one thing to another, passing over some things that are essential by the end of the week, and others of which I've forgotten the detail that I was going to look up, and now as bedtime approaches I'm feeling confused, unfulfilled, wasteful and dissatisfied.
But even as I write this, I tell myself, there are good aspects to life: I've signed the lease on my flat for another year; the landlord hasn't increased the rent; I finished today's crossword; and I didn't get a flea in my ear when I made a grovelling phone call to the surgery to apologise for missing an appointment last week. As I asked to make a new one - and promised to keep it this time - the receptionist said calmly, "don't worry - these things happen." So I'm happy to offer a silent, "yes, they do," and slope off to bed.
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Sunday 4 September 2011
Cindrella Road
The other day I drove along the A5; not all of it by any means, but the bit I most often use, between Rugby and the M6. It occurred to me that making this journey is, to some extent, making a journey into the past.
The A5 begins in the centre of London, crossing the North Circular Road by an impressive flyover with great determination, as if it's really going Somewhere! It makes its way up through Edgware and past Colindale, and then as it struggles to cross the M1 near Elstree ... hey! where did it go? For reasons best known to minds greater than mine, the A5 evaporates there, and reappears almost twenty miles further on, near Redbourn. It's as if the motorway has swallowed it between junctions 4 and 9. In between there is the enigmatic A5183 that escorts you through St Albans, threatening as it does so to chuck you onto another 'artificial' road, the A1081 (which bears a similar relationship to the A6 - but that's another story!)
As it passes through the splendour of Milton Keynes, the A5 becomes a majestic dual carriageway, with proper sliproads on and off, up to roundabouts and down again; the only thing that's missing - some would say a good miss - is the traffic. After the final roundabout, just past Stony Stratford, the road enters a peaceful stretch through the pretty towns and villages of Northamptonshire, flanked by stone houses, as it seems to rise gently to the hilly spine of our land. This is where it is most familiar to me, for by taking only a short diversion from the motorway I can get a welcome meal at a truckstop. Just south of Towcester is Jack's Hill Cafe, which appears to be a favourite haunt of motorcyclists, although I rarely see any there.
Further on, sandwiched, as it were, between junctions 18 and 20 (although easily accessible from 19 via the village of Catthorpe that has given its name to this busy interchange) of the M1, is the popular Rugby Truckstop, managed by a firm called Nightowl. Then comes a long stretch with delightful vistas as it follows the gradients of the land up and down, sometimes one carriageway, sometimes two, but always reflecting its Roman origins by maintaining as far as it can a perfectly straight course. After Hinckley and Atherstone we find ourselves in contention with the M6 Toll, the brand new motorway opened a few years ago, that took over part of the A5's route, and provided in exchange a length of magnificent dual carriageway that is up to virtually motorway standard - true luxury!
Between this 'new' bit of the A5 and the M6 at junction 12 lies the section of the road that prompted this blog. It is part of the original road, comparatively narrow, dead straight as often as not, and most of the buildings by the side of it are not only old, but showing their age. Many of the various hostelries amongst them are closed and boarded up, unable to pay their way in the present depressed economy. Despite the boardings, they often show signs of an attractive character, which makes me even more sad that they are now inactive.
Beyond the M6, this marvelous road is no longer shown as a trunk road on the current road atlas, which to me makes it even more enticing as it heads towards Wales, and eventually Anglesey and the ferry terminal for Dublin. Yes, it does take an hour or more longer than the 'recognised' route round the coast through Conwy but, travelled in daylight, the scenery and the towns and villages on the way render the extra time well-spent.
Given the difficulty which my SatNav seems to experience in keeping track of me when I use the A5, I wondered to what extent this technological advance is responsible for taking traffic away from these now defunct businesses along its route. A colleague explained that SatNav's first step in formulating a route is to determine 'key points' between source and target, and then to fill in the gaps between these key points. If these key points are on the motorways, as seems likely, there's little wonder that traffic on such roads as the A5 is at a low ebb, and their commerce has suffered.
All the more room for nostalgia!
The A5 begins in the centre of London, crossing the North Circular Road by an impressive flyover with great determination, as if it's really going Somewhere! It makes its way up through Edgware and past Colindale, and then as it struggles to cross the M1 near Elstree ... hey! where did it go? For reasons best known to minds greater than mine, the A5 evaporates there, and reappears almost twenty miles further on, near Redbourn. It's as if the motorway has swallowed it between junctions 4 and 9. In between there is the enigmatic A5183 that escorts you through St Albans, threatening as it does so to chuck you onto another 'artificial' road, the A1081 (which bears a similar relationship to the A6 - but that's another story!)
As it passes through the splendour of Milton Keynes, the A5 becomes a majestic dual carriageway, with proper sliproads on and off, up to roundabouts and down again; the only thing that's missing - some would say a good miss - is the traffic. After the final roundabout, just past Stony Stratford, the road enters a peaceful stretch through the pretty towns and villages of Northamptonshire, flanked by stone houses, as it seems to rise gently to the hilly spine of our land. This is where it is most familiar to me, for by taking only a short diversion from the motorway I can get a welcome meal at a truckstop. Just south of Towcester is Jack's Hill Cafe, which appears to be a favourite haunt of motorcyclists, although I rarely see any there.
Further on, sandwiched, as it were, between junctions 18 and 20 (although easily accessible from 19 via the village of Catthorpe that has given its name to this busy interchange) of the M1, is the popular Rugby Truckstop, managed by a firm called Nightowl. Then comes a long stretch with delightful vistas as it follows the gradients of the land up and down, sometimes one carriageway, sometimes two, but always reflecting its Roman origins by maintaining as far as it can a perfectly straight course. After Hinckley and Atherstone we find ourselves in contention with the M6 Toll, the brand new motorway opened a few years ago, that took over part of the A5's route, and provided in exchange a length of magnificent dual carriageway that is up to virtually motorway standard - true luxury!
Between this 'new' bit of the A5 and the M6 at junction 12 lies the section of the road that prompted this blog. It is part of the original road, comparatively narrow, dead straight as often as not, and most of the buildings by the side of it are not only old, but showing their age. Many of the various hostelries amongst them are closed and boarded up, unable to pay their way in the present depressed economy. Despite the boardings, they often show signs of an attractive character, which makes me even more sad that they are now inactive.
Beyond the M6, this marvelous road is no longer shown as a trunk road on the current road atlas, which to me makes it even more enticing as it heads towards Wales, and eventually Anglesey and the ferry terminal for Dublin. Yes, it does take an hour or more longer than the 'recognised' route round the coast through Conwy but, travelled in daylight, the scenery and the towns and villages on the way render the extra time well-spent.
Given the difficulty which my SatNav seems to experience in keeping track of me when I use the A5, I wondered to what extent this technological advance is responsible for taking traffic away from these now defunct businesses along its route. A colleague explained that SatNav's first step in formulating a route is to determine 'key points' between source and target, and then to fill in the gaps between these key points. If these key points are on the motorways, as seems likely, there's little wonder that traffic on such roads as the A5 is at a low ebb, and their commerce has suffered.
All the more room for nostalgia!
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