I try to plan as far ahead as possible but in spite of that I always forget one thing, in this case it was a portable Digital clock which would have been nice to refer to during a waiting period at night. Much more environmentally friendly than having my mobile phone switched on next to my ear.

Our journey will involve a visit to Much Wenlock in Shropshire for three nights, a rendezvous with a friend in Buxton, Derbyshire going on to Ashton under Lyme East of Manchester where we are going to stay for two nights with an old friend.  This is also an opportunity to test my new Volvo, well, new to me anyway, to see what its performance is like on long journeys. Our first stop was a comparatively new service station near Gloucester, such a relief from the traditional rather dated motorway service stations that we have become used to. The vicinity included a large farm shop full of very good quality food, a small lake and a woodland area to run around in. The designers rightly worked on the assumption that people traveling would be people who need to stock up with food.

On entry, it was disheartening as ever to see everyone masked up. We of course did not mask. If anyone wonders why, visit my website www.mask-covid.info and click the buttons on the left. People seem to have this respect for authority which is completely uncalled for because the government is run by a temporary emergency committee called SAGE who has very little if any connection with Members of Parliament. They are paid for by commercial global interests. We cannot expect these people to show an interest in our welfare so really we are on our own.

Anyway, hopefully, for a few days  I will be able to defocus from this. In the restaurant of the service station I did meet a wonderful chap who it turned out  was  on his way to a funeral. He had a lovely silk tie and most importantly no mask. I complimented him on his all-purpose psychedelic tie.  We had a lovely chat, one of these spontaneous chats with strangers, and left on good terms.

Much Wenlock is a very small town with its own monastery long disused, which consists mainly of two streets running at right angles. It has many preserved medieval buildings and it is clear that the villagers take great pride in their town through decorating their properties with flowers.

We were welcomed in the Wenlock Pottery by Shelagh, who after showing us our room offered a very generous gin and tonic which I was happy to accept. It must be the first drink of this nature I’ve had for a couple years as I normally stick to wine, champagne and sometimes beer. Oh, I nearly forgot, a double whiskey and a half of Guinness does wonders. As it was still early in the day, we wandered around the town which took all of 15 minutes, and returned to the property for an early night.