A motorway journey around here is seldom dull.
We set out in glorious sunshine and with what seemed like most of the county’s population, we headed north on the M5. With two of us in the car and a couple of interesting programmes on the radio, a slight jam wasn’t too difficult to bear.
But further north, on the M6 now, the clouds had come in (as forecast) and the traffic had slowed to a stop-start creep. We resorted to an old favourite – the Flight Radar 24 app – having spotted that white plane high above us.
Clicking on the plane icon there to our right, we found it was an Emirates flight heading for Dubai; an Airbus 380 no less. Sure enough, peering up there, we could see that really clearly now.
A little further north, the sun was breaking through the clouds in some places and the sight of a rainbow delighted us for a few minutes around the Manchester ship canal bridge. Time to get the “real” camera out.
Creeping forwards a few feet at a time, there was plenty of opportunity to have a good look over there at the Autumn colours and to appreciate the show Mother Nature was putting on for us.
Because whilst we were looking over there at the rainbow, she was having a little joke with us over here. We’d managed to avoid the hailstorm ourselves, so were completely surprised to suddenly find the road ahead white over.
Well, I assume my hero and chauffeur had probably been noticing all of this all along, driving the car. But for me, the distracted passenger, it came as a surprise!
It seemed as good a time as ever to fiddle with my phone and to try the quiz that a few of my friends had done. Who’d have thought that accepting the offer of a side order of chips with the pie in the pub last Tuesday lunchtime would have been so influential in determining the outcome?!