Wednesday and Thursday, 18/19-03-26 Long post alert!!

Morning, everyone!  Yesterday was quite eventful in a smallish-scale way but let's do Tuesday first.

Tuesday morning, Beth and I had a stroll around the main road through Thrapston and in the afternoon I strolled around Islip while Beth visited a friend.
A bit of info first:
Thrapston

Islip

The two villages are right next to each other, joined by a bridge across the Nene which separates the two.  There's a pub at either side of the bridge and we were staying in the Islip end one, the Woolpack Inn.
I took a few photos.

A pretty but ordinary (from the front) looking cottage on the Islip side . . .  

. . . but from the bridge - wow.
What a home - with a pool and mooring, complete with boats.  Two of them!

Such a lovely view.

 

St James's, Thrapston.  A pretty looking church but there seemed to be something on so we didn't go in.

The town sign.

And, to the side of a lovely little library, a mosaic - not in the best nick but very colourful.

On to Islip.

A horse . . .

. . . another church, St Nicholas' . . . 

(inside)

. . . and plenty of very attractive old houses.

On to yesterday, Wednesday.    Not the best day I have ever had.

After packing and loading the car and having breakfast, I waved goodbye to Beth who was spending the morning with a friend (who she saw Tuesday afternoon and with whom we both had dinner).

I started up the car: bells jingled and lights flashed.  Check your tyre pressure, they ordered, and reset the whotsit thingybobbydoo!

I had meant to check tyre pressure before driving on Monday but forgot so I got out my pressure gauge thing and - the lever that fastened the thingy to the tyre broke off.  Drat.
Fortunately, I have another one, not so swish but it does the job fine, so used that, found the tyres were perfectly OK, washed my hands and set off.
To be fair, apart from me feeling very tense and stressed (which is typical for me), the journey was fine and the Harlow junction was very, very much more manageable than the Stansted/Bishops Stortford one.

I was on the A414, heading happily for home, slowed and then stopped at a roundabout - and got hit by a car pulling a trolley with another car on it.
Ho hum!
(I may possibly have said something quite a bit ruder than ho hum)

Went round the roundabout and pulled in and a hugely embarrassed and apologetic young man got out.  He thought I would go, not stop (there was a car with right of way entering the roundabout, by the way), and by the time he clocked that I had stopped, with his towing load he couldn't brake in time.  100% his fault.

Now is the point at which I need to say that it really was just a 'gentle' bump, not a crash, even if it sounded pretty loud at the time.  I didn't even stall my car.  I was pretty shaken up and so was he but it was OK.  I have a light cover that needs replacing and he has a few scratches on his front but it could have been so, so much worse, the damage being more related to wear and tear on my nerves (and his).
We exchanged details, of course, although it's far from being something that will involve insurances, and made sure we were both OK.  I actually got a text from him later in the evening, checking that I was OK and apologising again. I think he was far more upset than I was.

Anyway, after that bit of unwanted excitement, I set off again and promptly hit (not literally) a long, long queue of traffic.
The 414 is narrow, just one lane each way and, usually, not that busy.  However, as luck would have it, there had been some sort of mishap on the M25, the motorway was closed for a while, and everything was diverting along the A414 instead.    I bet those workmen digging in the road wondered what was going on!  In fact, my bumper basher should have been on the M25, poor chap!
So that very last little bit that should have taken about fifteen minutes or so, actually took over an hour.

Not a journey I will remember with all that much pleasure really.

And just to cap it all, Matt arrived to deal with the dripping tap and found that he had been sent the wrong part!  I had to laugh - it was either laugh or cry by that point.

On the plus side, I got two loads of washing and a baking of bread done as a way of settling myself down.  And I had a message from Diane saying that the One Traveller Christmas trips were now online and she's booked the Christmas in London one that we said we'd like to go on.  I will book mine today!

I've not slept all that well so today is going to be 100% relaxation and general pottering.  I ordered a replacement tyre pressure machine which should come today and I want to make the component parts of a lasagne as Dave and Anna are coming to dinner tomorrow.

Phew . . .

Have a lovely Thursday, everyone!  Take care and enjoy the sunshine if you're getting it.  xx