Sophie was a little annoyed late last night when the friend she was going to London with called her and asked if they could delay their departure until 1pm as she wanted to go for lunch with her boyfriend. I'd forgotten it was Valentine's Day, to be honest. This year the celebration didn't seem to be so much "in your face" as it's been in previous years. I just think it's a whole commercial rip-off!
Sophie reluctantly agreed to go later even though she was looking forward to having lunch in London and then going shopping before their concert at the O2. It meant we could have a bit of a lie-in and a more leisurely morning before setting off.
Mike went off to Brixworth at 11am and at 12.30pm Sophie and I set off to pick up Laura. I'd heard there was a bad accident on the M1 northbound carriageway and that traffic was slow on the southbound section as well (no doubt people looking at what was happening).
As we drove onto the M1, the signs were warning us of the hold-ups but nothing could have prepared us for the sight of the empty motorway and then seeing the coach and car involved being towed away. The accident had happened at about 7am when a coach carrying some students had hit a stationary car on the hard-shoulder, killing three people inside. Everything on our side of the motorway slowed down as the procession went past and there was literally nothing left of the car. We later found out that a fourth passenger survived but was badly injured and the coach driver had been arrested.
We continued on our way and saw the huge queues that had built up while they shut the motorway. I decided not to go home this way! We made the O2 by 3pm and I dropped Sophie and Laura off at a bus-stop near the Underground station. They were going to see two bands in the evening - You Me At Six and All Time Low but before they went they were going to leave their luggage at Laura's University flat.
I headed home via the Blackwall Tunnel again and stayed on the M11 rather than go back onto the M25. I spent a very pleasant couple of hours listening to the Womens' Hour on Radio 4...I'm certainly getting to that sort of age now where I appreciate interesting articles to listen to!
I arrived home just after Keith who had been to one of his football matches and we waited to hear from Mike. Unfortunately the mobile phone that Keith had lent him was switched off so we were unable to get in touch with him! By 6.30pm I was getting worried as normally he asks to be picked up at about 5pm. We drove over to Brixworth and waited by the library but there was no sign of him. I sent him text messages and we kept on trying to call him but it was still switched off.
In the end we went home to see if he'd called us on the home phone but there were no messages. I decided to try and get hold of him via Facebook and luckily he was online. I sent a very curt message telling him to meet us and we drove back over to Brixworth. I was angry because by now I'd had enough of driving and just wanted to relax!
Mike was apologetic when we picked him up and we delivered him back home and went off to the pub for a very welcome drink! Sue and Paul followed us into the pub as they were having a Valentine's meal. We sat at the bar and had a good chat and it was great to relax and have a laugh after my extremely busy day!
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