Managed to fit in a visit to Coventry this week, travelling out late on Tuesday and staying the night at the Premier Inn at the junction of Leamington Road and Kenpas Highway, where I had stayed before. Very welcoming place, the only downside being the lack of a bathroom. As last time, I bought sandwiches from the M&S shop in the petrol station opposite for the evening, but enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the hotel, where I was the only diner just after 9am.
Arrived at Andrew’s not long after 10am, and we walked through Coventry to the Transport Museum. It was warm and quite crowded in the city, though the museum was fairly empty. Not the most exciting museum I’ve been in, but as it was free you couldn’t complain. Andrew bought a book about old buses in the shop afterwards, and we got him some handkerchiefs in Primark (formerly Owen Owen).
Back at the car, Andrew decided he wanted the toilet, so we popped back into the house before heading for Brandon Marsh nature reserve, which I had discovered online. Not easy to get to past the still ongoing mega-roadworks at Baginton, but appealing in a kind of amateurish way. It has clearly not been around too long and is growing into something that may be exceptional in due course.
We had sandwiches and a drink in the cafe before venturing on to the paths that meandered through young woodland and past a number of lakes, taking in some reedbeds, hides and the edge of a golf course. It was very warm, and Andrew was too tired to take the whole place in, but we had a very pleasant walk, with frequent stops to try out the benches. Got some quite nice photographs.
After driving back to Minster Lodge, Andrew decided he’s quite like to see our old homes, and so we drove to Beanfield Avenue and The Chesils. Back at Minster Lodge, we had a cup of tea and coffee in the lounge before I left for home at 4.30pm. Getting out of Coventry and thought the junction of the A14 and M6 took a lot of time, but from there the journey was fairly straightforward. I stopped at Cambridge Services for some fruit and chocolate and got home around 8.15pm. Dot was at orchestra practice.
The previous day (Monday) I had been out in North Norfolk again, attending a meeting of the Paston Trustees at Mundesley and then dropping in on Jessie, where Dot had spent the whole afternoon. Before that the two of us had had a lovely lunch at the Knees’.
Thursday and yesterday were fairly quiet days. The warmth had been successfully quashed by a chilly wind, but I did venture out to the Rosary on my father’s birthday, leaving some bluebells from our garden on his grave. I eventually got into contact with the right guy at the Bicycle Shop cafe and established that Phil’s amplifier would be OK, and 5-6pm would be good for rehearsal on May 4. Feeling rather less worried about it now.
Norwich City ended their winning run in front of 27,000 at Carrow Road last night – a number that included Dot. We had walked down together. Their 0-1 defeat to fellow aspirants Middlesbrough means that automatic promotion becomes much less likely, but there are still the play-offs!
Wrote a couple of poems in Coventry and another one on my return; so my rather barren period seems to have ended.