Better late than never (Sun, 18 June)
Posted on June 25, 2006
Filed Under Outside Dublin, Summer, Cornwall, holiday, music | Leave a Comment
isadub’s ‘little’ adventure begins!
Dublin is pretty grim at 7.30 in the morning but then, so are most places. It was pretty overcast as I set out for the ferry terminal but I knew that the weather was better in the UK so I didn’t mind so much. The crossing was pretty much as I expected – bearly tolerable. Due to the length of the drive and an early start this morning, I thought it prudent to break the journey to Cornwall so I’m staying in Birmingham tonight. A Travelodge to rest my head and a Little Chef to fill my belly! Still, mustn’t grumble – if I’m going to experience the UK, I’ll have to endure these indignities (haha).
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Tomorrow, breakfast will be an Little Chef ‘Omelette Breakfast’ for a not so little stg£6.49. Its robbery: ‘served with hash browns, mushrooms, and baked beans and a generous sprinkling of grated Cheddar cheese’. Yeah right, I don’t think generous and sprinkling belong in the same sentence. I might cheat and get something made by Cadbury since I’m in that part of the world. Something like a Galaxy bar should provide all the vitamins I need! That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it!
Driving from Holyhead to Birmingham was a joy, a pure joy. For a start, the further I got from Ireland, the more the weather improved. It’s very well signposted so you couldn’t really go wrong (A55, A49, A51, A500, M6, M5, ‘travelodge’ – simplicity). Ireland could learn a lot from the UK’s road network. They do have the same predisposition as us to putting up way too many traffic signs. On one stretch, there were far too signs warning that badgers may try to kill themselves by crossing the road! The Samaritans have one on the Britannia bridge (near Bangor?) with a freephone number for the suicidal! It felt like the police had signs every 100 metres warning that the national speed limit applied. I guess the logic is you’d have no excuse if you were caught speeding.
Not that there was any chance of that! It’s not often that cars overtake me. Wow, people were driving very enthusiastically today. In Ireland, a Sunday driver is typically an old man/woman out for an hour’s Sunday drive and they go really, really slow and drive everyone (behind them) mad. There were no Irish Sunday drivers today, hehe. I don’t know if the Welsh are speed freaks or whether it was the English getting out before sundown? But it was good.
The section through Staffordshire was the nicest. It looked pretty rural but I don’t reckon anyone does farming here. I reckon most of the people who lived around there were commuters into the nearby large towns. There were lots of pretty villages with quaint pubs but, oddly, not many shops. These were small villages with lovely houses, fancy cars, fancy gardens but no (dirty) 4×4′s, tractors or, god forbid, combine harvestors.
I was tempted to stop at ‘The Headless Woman’ pub in Clotton, Staffordshire. isadub is genetically disposed to stop at pubs anyway but with a name like ‘The Headless Woman’, it was practically irresistable. Unfortunately, I suspected there was an unmarked police car behind me so jamming on the brakes and swerving in a pub carpark would not have been sensible right then! I thought it might be a police car because it was a Vauxhall with two people in it. They maintained a steady speed behind me for ages, and just far enough behind that I couldn’t see their faces or clothing. They didn’t appear to be talking and they appeared not to look at each other. Eventually, they got close behind me at a roundabout and I could see they were a middle-aged married couple!! As the saying goes, I’m not being paranoid but, sometimes they really are out to get you.
My biggest mistake was visiting Newcastle-under-Lyme (?). I saw it signposted before I got to the M6 and for some reason, I had to visit. Whether I read about it somewhere before or whether I mistook it for somewhere similar (with a 3-barreled name) like Stratford-upon-Avon, I just don’t know. i guess the ‘under’ should have warned me but what a dump. I didn’t even stop. The developers had obviously been through the place in the ’60′s so it was full of concrete multi-story carparks and the like.
I’m not sure whether I’d like to live in Clotton with no shops or N-u-L with loads of shops called ‘Bargain Booze’. Hmmm.
Finally, and I’m looking for some help here. BBC Radio 3 made my car journey a distinct pleasure this afternoon. We can’t get BBC3 in Ireland (we have lyricfm.com) but, at 3p.m., the ‘Sunday Gala’ had the violinist, Leonidas Kavakos, as their main guest/musician. The first 40mins were hypnotic and, at times, I thought I’d better turn it off because it was affecting my driving. Anyway, if anyone listened, or could post the playlist for the first 40 minutes, I’d be grateful. I’d do it myself but I’m not sure how reliable or fast my internet connection is, or will be, during the next week.
Tomorrow is Newquay. Oh Sugar, I sound very American when I write that! It’s Sunday, so it must be Birmingham. Monday is Newquay, Thursday is the Eden project. Friday is Torquay (don’t laugh – I’m experiencing ‘English’ culture)/(don’t laugh – I’m experiencing English ‘culture’). Not sure if I should put the inverted commas around the word English or culture – what do you think?. During my 3 days in Newquay, I’m ‘residing’ at the Hotel Bristol and, no, I’ve no idea why a Newquay hotel is called the Hotel Bristol. It looks quite posh on the Internet and, since the Rough Guide to Devon and Cornwall says you get what you pay for, it had better be because I’ve paid a lot more for this hotel than the travelodge. If I find more about the Hotel Bristol, I’ll let you know.
The 5 day weather forecast from the Met Office is looking good so surfing and cliff walking are definite things to do, so are Lands End and Lizard Point – don’t know if I’ll read any books! Even if the weather’s bad, there’s always the Tate St Ives. One can go surfing in the rain as well!
I wrote this on Sunday, 18 June 2006, but I couldn’t post it until today.
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