...he must have been on the M6.
Earlier this year (in September), we travelled north from deepest Hants to watch the only league club in Manchester (a status to be lost if Oldham Athletic’s plans to move to a new stadium come to fruition) play Liverpool. Although the pleasing outcome to the game did much to lift our flagging spirits, I shuddered at the memory of the trip, and still do. I’m not good travelling at the best of times.
We left home at 11.15am on a journey which normally takes between 4 and 4½ hours and fondly imagined ourselves checking in at the Oldham Premier Inn (on Broadway, about 15 minutes from Eastlands) at around half-past three, then relaxing for an hour or so before setting off to savour at our leisure (insofar as you can relax with a stoma and a walking stick!) the new delights of City Square (around the outside of the stadium) with its selection of covered bars and cafés, live music and big screens. Instead of which, we didn’t have time to go to the hotel and had to go straight to the game, eventually (having been turned away from four full car parks and leaving the car on the pavement outside one of them) taking our seats ten minutes after kick-off; 9 hours door-to-door – hello, is that Mr Guinness?
Obviously, I hope no-one was badly injured in the accident that precipitated our misfortune (so far as I can ascertain from the Crewe Chronicle, no-one in any of the seven vehicles was) but, surprise, surprise, an HGV was involved; just do a Google search for accidents on the M6 and see how many HGVs play a part in the frightening statistics. Several incidents during the trips there and back certainly didn’t do anything to dispel the notion that the majority of HGV drivers are no longer the ‘knights of the road’ they once were; blights of the road, more like. If I wasn’t in mixed company, I’d say they were, by and large, the biggest knobheads on the roads today. Anyway, it took us 3½ hours to travel the 20 miles between Junctions 14 and 16 but I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Highways Agency for its helpful messages on the information boards as we approached our doom: “J14 - J16 Long Delays” (when we were stuck in it, I phoned my son and asked him to check the Highways Agency website; he reported that they were warning of a 1½-hour delay – blatant lie – not on my son’s part, naturally, he was brung up proper) “Caution – Spray, Slow Down” (actually it had been quite difficult to see this message because of the spray – when we were travelling fast enough to be affected by it, obviously), and as we progressed (‘progressed’ doesn’t sound quite right, somehow) through the queue: 40 – just their little joke, of course; although I did manage the 4 part once or twice.
On the day we returned home, we left Oldham at 9.15am and got home at 1.30pm.
I still hate the M6.
Hello, is that Cross Country Trains – or Virgin – or National Express - or Flybe?
Earlier this year (in September), we travelled north from deepest Hants to watch the only league club in Manchester (a status to be lost if Oldham Athletic’s plans to move to a new stadium come to fruition) play Liverpool. Although the pleasing outcome to the game did much to lift our flagging spirits, I shuddered at the memory of the trip, and still do. I’m not good travelling at the best of times.
We left home at 11.15am on a journey which normally takes between 4 and 4½ hours and fondly imagined ourselves checking in at the Oldham Premier Inn (on Broadway, about 15 minutes from Eastlands) at around half-past three, then relaxing for an hour or so before setting off to savour at our leisure (insofar as you can relax with a stoma and a walking stick!) the new delights of City Square (around the outside of the stadium) with its selection of covered bars and cafés, live music and big screens. Instead of which, we didn’t have time to go to the hotel and had to go straight to the game, eventually (having been turned away from four full car parks and leaving the car on the pavement outside one of them) taking our seats ten minutes after kick-off; 9 hours door-to-door – hello, is that Mr Guinness?
Obviously, I hope no-one was badly injured in the accident that precipitated our misfortune (so far as I can ascertain from the Crewe Chronicle, no-one in any of the seven vehicles was) but, surprise, surprise, an HGV was involved; just do a Google search for accidents on the M6 and see how many HGVs play a part in the frightening statistics. Several incidents during the trips there and back certainly didn’t do anything to dispel the notion that the majority of HGV drivers are no longer the ‘knights of the road’ they once were; blights of the road, more like. If I wasn’t in mixed company, I’d say they were, by and large, the biggest knobheads on the roads today. Anyway, it took us 3½ hours to travel the 20 miles between Junctions 14 and 16 but I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Highways Agency for its helpful messages on the information boards as we approached our doom: “J14 - J16 Long Delays” (when we were stuck in it, I phoned my son and asked him to check the Highways Agency website; he reported that they were warning of a 1½-hour delay – blatant lie – not on my son’s part, naturally, he was brung up proper) “Caution – Spray, Slow Down” (actually it had been quite difficult to see this message because of the spray – when we were travelling fast enough to be affected by it, obviously), and as we progressed (‘progressed’ doesn’t sound quite right, somehow) through the queue: 40 – just their little joke, of course; although I did manage the 4 part once or twice.
On the day we returned home, we left Oldham at 9.15am and got home at 1.30pm.
I still hate the M6.
Hello, is that Cross Country Trains – or Virgin – or National Express - or Flybe?
