You know sometimes when you see something you don’t want to see and you go “Oh No”, not “Oh No” just like its written but sort of a “oooo noooo” with a kind of growl to emphasise the “oooo noooo” bit. Well that didn’t happen, only kidding it did happen Monday morning when I looked out of the window at 04:00 to see Centenary Road covered with snow. It had been sleeting a little when I went to bed but to see a good covering was worrying, even more so as my cautious drive led me to the motorway, only to be greeted by one lane OK, the second a bit dodgy and the third covered in snow. It was really quite bad until just after Leeds when the snow cleared and the grass at the sides of the motorway looked like they hadn’t seen snow for years. I didn’t mind and didn’t begrudge the people of Manchester for missing out this time, especially as it gave me a clear run in very light traffic
Another journey to Dunkirk beckoned and was duly undertaken, the only thing that troubled me this week was the car I got from the hire company. I like the smallest I can get as I like to take up as little room on the road, therefore a smaller target to hit. This week they seem to have saved me the widest thing they could find and the longest. It took me 10 minutes to figure out how to start it as it has a key fob and not a key and you have to put it in somewhere. It took me a full five minutes to get it out of the CD player. That undertaken, I sussed it out and was on my way.
I arrived at work at 15:30 and it was completed at 18:30 without me seeing another soul. Then a trip to the supermarket ensued to get some water and milk, water for my cup of tea as I am still not sure about the taste of the local tap water and the milk for my breakfast. I have packed up four portions of crunchy nut cornflakes as I need a breakfast but I’ll be damned if I am going to pay eleven euros for the same from the hotel restaurant.
My journey home was made more exciting by the torrential rain that is still bouncing down as I write this before I go to bed. It is the rain that put a stop to me going back out for a walk around the town. Maybe tomorrow.
The final news is that I will be here for three more weeks before needing to go to a different site. On the plus side I seem to be getting used to the area and driving around it was a bit easier today.
Now for an observation from the Mals Travels book of Observations. I have noticed that when is all going well in public places then people just go about their business and keep themselves to themselves, but throw in a bit of adversity and it all changes. I will give an example, last Friday when we arrived back into Manchester, we left the plane and walked toward the border control to show our passports. When we arrived something must have been wrong as there was a huge queue, probably around two or three hundred people in it, so we all joined the back of the queue and waited. I noticed how quickly people turned to the person at the side and started chatting, it also happened to me, the guy in front of me turned and with a few seconds we were talking and did so for the next thirty minutes or so as we got through the queue.
Then as I came out of the airport and the bus to the airport parking arrived I got on but the people behind as they boarded asked if this was going to a certain car park and the driver said no, so they got off and again straight away two complete strangers started talking as they stood at the side of the bus. Prior to the bus arriving we had all stood there in perfect silence. Since then I have noticed on a few occasions as soon as something goes that little bit awry then it gives permission for people to interact. So in the future it may be an inconvenience when something goes wrong but based on the conversations I have had during these times it shows me that there is some fortune to be had even when things are going wrong.
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