Long day on the road, a bit wet and wild

It was a dry, cold and clear morning when I left at 4.45 a.m., and although dry over Harthill with the TV masts standing out bright with it was a different story a few miles west, when the rain started. It was very heavy and with poor visibility as I headed south and did not clear till I reached Locherbie. From there it was not too bad apart from a couple of small downpours en route to Runcorn. In the Carlisle area there was masses of water where the river had overflowed and turned areas into a vast lake, with the waters edging nearer and nearer to the big Tesco store by the M6.
My usual comments about white van men, and also the Range Rovers, with personalised plates trying to drive over slower vehicles - BUT - justice was done when one was stopped by a patrol car for speeding.
Despite a fairly quick turn round the rain had come on with avengence and things were a bit tricky, and while I managed to escape the worst by heading North things in that area got very bad for a couple of hours.

First time I have done this run on a Monday for a long time and by doing so I noticed a literal convoy of Shearing's coaches heading north with tourists, many of these coaches make for Glasgow on a Monday night, then to Ullapool on a Tuesday night before heading for the Outer Isles.

Heading into Glasgow things were a bit chaotic with warning signs flashing due to an oil spill on the Motorway, but it still did not deter many motorists who chose to ignore the warnings, and on the way out, making for Edinburgh I saw two council lorries under escort spreading sand on what was obviously a slippery surface.

Anyway, another day, another dollar - time to get the feet up.

I should congratulate Susan Boyle on the launch of her new album which sounds wonderful ; Andy Murray on his win at the tennis in the O'2 yesterday ; on the other hand "common sense" prevailed and Jedward made their exit from the X-Factor, and Katie Price@ Jordan decided that she had had enough of ITV's "I'm a celebrity Get me out of here", or is it all part of her publicity machine. I think they should stick in Ant or Dec, save money on one compere and see how the other got on with the Bushtucker trials - I doubt they would make it.