Back on THE road again

Someone's roused me from my literary slumbers and I've been giving the blog a bit of a short back and sides and checking some notes. The following should have appeared a couple of months ago, just before we went to see City's game against Reading at Eastlands. Prior to that, I had spent about 10 days in Manchester, taking the air in great frigid trouserfuls, and watching four football matches. I won’t bore you with too much of the detail but I will summarise the team’s performances – v. Aris Thessaloniki: brilliant, v. Fulham: dreadful (2 points chucked away), v. Aston Villa: excellent, v. Wigan: mediocre (but 3 points). The Reading game (FA Cup, sponsored, don’t forget, by E.ON), on Sunday 13^th March, 4.45pm. Which would bring me to that road again.

I have previously documented (not here) some quite negative thoughts and views on the M6, but on the various journeys undertaken both north-westward and southward between Thursday 24^th February and Sunday 6^th March, I began to feel that I had been cruelly unfair in my criticisms and – to my surprise – realised that I could compile quite a significant list of positive features. So, here is my *List Of Things I Like About The M6:

1. The eerie emptiness of the stretch between junctions 14 and 16; it almost makes you hanker for the always incredibly congested M6 Toll.
2. The inexplicable but comforting friendliness of your fellow road-users which causes them to stay very close (as if they are somehow guarding or protecting you), usually by parking immediately in front of/behind/next to you, but obviously everywhere on the motorway except the section mentioned above.
3. The disarmingly amusing and always entertaining messages from our friends at the Highways Agency: ‘Queue Ahead’ (I always obey); ‘M6 Toll Clear’ (liars); ‘End’ (when there appears to have been no ‘Beginning’); ‘40’ (when you are stationary).
4. The population of the road between about 7pm and 9pm on a Sunday night by hordes of dedicated motorists, deliberately and selflessly foregoing their normal end‑of‑weekend home comforts just to experience once more the pleasure of sharing the delights of highway congestion with one additional exciting ingredient – darkness. Being a non-working day does not seem to prevent the endearing jams that prevail for about 2 miles before you are due to exit. Marvellous companionship, wouldn’t you agree?

 *may include irony