A long hot day, only 570 miles

Home in one piece , but suffered a bit today - possibly the fact that I had a bed night before i even got started.

Headed off at 4.50 a.m. and onto the M8 for Glasgow, not disappointed as it was not long before the white van man tore past me at a mega rate of knots - an event to be repeated several times during my day , despite the fact that I was "not wasting time" either. There was even a young lady in an ancient Peugeot bounced by me, clinging to the steering wheel doing around "a ton".

However, Mr. Dunk was up and awake and had everything ready so it was off at the toot south on the M 74 - M 6. Weather was warming up, although I did go through a couple of heavy showers before reaching Carlisle, after that as the day warmed up so did the car - with temperatures eventually peaking at 30.5 C.

Traffic was not too bad, but on the northbound side of the M6 at the Thelmwell Viaduct there was a bad accident with ambulances, fire engines, police ,etc, with a silver car having crashed into the rear of a pick up truck - knock on effect was a queue about five miles long trying to get past the scene, (and the road is four lanes wide there).

Reached Runcorn , met up with my pal Jill at reception, ( she is off golfing again next week) , no Lorraine as she was on holiday, so it was only Kelly to see and then over to get my breakfast from Sue and Christine ( Dick Turpin's sisters.) They were in excellent fettle !!! enough said - then off and back onto the road.

Knowing about the chaos on the M6 with the accident, and the BBC 2 said that the queues were even longer , I headed north over the Widnes Bridge and up towards St Helens before joining the M62 and then the M6 missing out on the congestion.

On the way south I had noted that parts of the inside lane were badly damaged by heavy loads which had formed the tram line ( had to get it into the story !!) effect on the road as they sunk through the top surface, and lo and behold, I ran into heavy slow moving traffic. Fifteen miles of lunatic behaviour by drivers as everything was held up by this large low loader with a massive shovel on it - even the lorries were having to get out into the outside lane, and as it was travelling at about 50 mph it took ages to get by it.

Years ago, when in the police I was escorting a really heavy load in the Dalkeith area, it was just crawling along at walking pace and every time it stopped there was a team of men who jammed large batons under it to stop it sinking through the road surface !!

Eventually made it back to Glasgow where Mr Dunk and his new colleague , another Jill, was still in the office, then it was home.

On the radio there was a big fuss being made about the two Police dogs , German Shepherds, which had died in a car outside the Nottingham Police HQ on Tuesday in the extreme heat. There was certainly no way that this was other than a tragic accident as these Police Dog handlers generally worship their dogs as their lives depend on them - but from what the experts are saying it could be as quick as twenty minutes in these extreme conditions. years ago, when I was working at the royal Highland Show, I ngliston, Edinburgh , we had a similar heatwave and there were dogs left in cars there. Not being able to trace the owners, (in the days before the Police national Computer) I used my baton to break two car windows, and with another car where the window was open I poured buckets of water through the window over the dog - and the back seat.

I hear that several other dogs have died during the past days in similar circumstances - BUT - BUT - what about the parents who still leave children sleeping in kiddy seats in cars in this weather !!!!

It is bad enough here at home, when we see our hanging baskets burning up !!!!!

A very fair and proper comment made, was that there was more fuss being made about the two dogs dying than the two soldiers who were killed yesterday in Afghanistan !!! Here we are a nation of animal lovers, and according to the latest poll the most violent country in Europe - no way should Ronnie Briggs, the so called Great Train Robber, a thief, braggart, con man, with no respect for society be freed, let him rot in his cell . Had he remained in prison he would have been freed a long time ago. When they robbed the train, the proceeds at today's prices would have been worth £38.5 million.

I had been listening to the tennis on the radio so when I got home, rather than go for a much needed sleep I watched Serena Williams in an epic tennis match against Elena Dementieva, probably the best ladies game in Wimbledon this year - then sadly, Venus Williams v Dinara Safrin in one of the most boring - so we have yet another ( the Fourth) Williams final - just more money in the bank.

BUt Friday - we will have Andy Murray back on court again , his home town of Dunblane is getting all set up for the game and hopefully the final .

The lovely Molly Sugden, of "have You Been Served" fame died yesterday - there was a tribute to her on the radio, and I was amused to hear that when she had gave birth (at the age of 41 yrs) to identical twins she had to label them as she could not tell them apart - she regularly used to bath the same one twice !!

And finally, young PC Phil Cronin, one of my team mates, is retiring after thirty years with the Lothian and Borders Police, his doo is on 17th July, at Penicuik Bowling Club, and he will start his new job at the National Library of Scotland on 12th August - well done Phil, we wish you well.