Traffic mayhem!

My shorter shift passed quickly today and Keith collected me at 2pm. Mum had an appointment for her nails at 3pm, so I dropped Keith off at home and drove over to Kettering to pick her up.

We set off on the A43 and as we neared the turn-off for Mawsley, a police car came screaming past, its sirens blaring. A bit further on, near Walgrave, we came to a halt and nothing was moving. I decided to turn off and drive through Walgrave and Holcot to get back onto the A43.

As we neared the roundabout on the A43 I could see that the traffic was held up going towards Kettering and idiot drivers were blocking our way back onto the road! There was nowhere for them to go so why didn't they leave a gap for us on the roundabout? Utter thoughtlessness!

We made it to Natalia's house a few minutes after 3pm which was a lot better than I'd expected! I kept looking at Google Maps and dreading the journey back to Kettering! Things hadn't improved at all!

I had to go home to pick up a birthday card from Dad to my Mum, so I called Keith and asked him if he'd come with us to Kettering as company for me when I returned Mum. He readily agreed and we set out in the gloom for the journey back.

Amazingly, there was no traffic on the A43 to the Holcot roundabout, which was a huge bonus as I thought we'd be held up there. As we approached Holcot, I could see a line of stationary cars... this was where the hold-up was! It took us ages to get into the village and the constant stream of traffic coming the other way was extremely annoying! I managed to eventually turn into "cut-throat alley" and met several cars coming the other way. It was obvious that the problems on the A43 hadn't been resolved while Mum was having her nails done!

But the worst was yet to come... as we neared Walgrave we ground to a halt again. I couldn't believe it! As we slowly crawled into the village I could see a bus well and truly stuck at the narrow crossroads. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! I just wanted to drop Mum back and go home!

It took us a fair while to get through Walgrave as the traffic sorted itself out. We picked up Keith and headed back to Kettering where the traffic on the A43 was still heavy. I later found out that there'd been an accident at the Walgrave turn involving three cars shortly after we'd passed through this afternoon.

We dropped Mum off and returned home where Keith made me a stiff drink! I made the porridge for tomorrow morning and then sat and relaxed in the living room with my drink. Phew! What a day!