Very Busy

The rest of our holiday just flew by!

I drove all the way to Birmingham on my own to meet Ollie after his course for work. Having heard the end of a news report of an overturned lorry on the M25 southbound, I went North and got caught up in a huge queue of people trying to get onto the M1. I had already decided I would not face the M1 road works and would go on the M40. I was very glad I did as Ollie called me when I'd got to Warwick to say that the M6 was closed between the M1 and Birmingham so goodness knows where I would have gone! The sat nav was very useful and managed to find Ollie ok. Unfortunately I had only written down the postcode of the Travelodge we were staying in as the full instuctions page and map wouldn't load on their website. The satnav was locked in the car at the time and so I didn't check it was ok before I left and our 3 year old map couldn't find the postcode.

Luckily with some nifty phone internet searching Ollie got the address and we found it ok. What we hadn't realised when we booked that it was right underneath the flight path for Birmingham airpost (and I mean see the bottom of the plane wheels out and everything right underneath!)

Still the windows were double glazed and when shut you couldn't really hear the planes. That night we went to Solihull for Nandos and the cinema to see the Happening (it was rubbish!). We did have a walk around Solihull which was quite nice and had some upmarket shops (and ridiculous house prices). By the time we got back to the hotel I had a really bad headache from all the driving and fell straight into bed!

The next day we stopped off for a Sainsbury's breakfast (which sat nav found with no problems!) and Cadbury world. We had got the tickets with our Tesco vouchers but when you take into consideration the petrol to get there and back and a Travelodge I don't think it was worth the £156! We got a free Curly Wirly, a pack of buttons, a dairy milk and a pot of molten chocolate and that was pretty much it. The only interesting part was seeing the dairy milk being wrapped and boxed.

So Monday I started my new job. Everyone is really nice and it seems to be quite laid back and relaxed here. I do think I'm going to like it! Tonight is their summer party which I am going to so I should get to meet some more people. This morning we went outside to see the unveiling of the new Lloyd's memorial for the 2 World Wars which was good and quite moving, but my view was blocked by a gang of Beefeaters which silly fuzzy hats!