Super-human

At some point this week, Dan's front number plate dropped off his car. However, we only noticed this, yesterday. The Minx, always well-informed, promptly told us that it's illegal to drive without a front plate and a quick Google - not that I was doubting her - proved that to be the case.

The exception to this law is if you are going to get a new plate fitted and so this afternoon Dan and I drove across to Halfords on the far side of Kendal to get that done. I can report that if you have the right documentation, which we did, the process is fairly painless especially as they fit the new plate on for you.

We could, of course, have headed home at this point, but the retail park upon which Halfords is situated is right next to the A6 - my favourite road - and at the foot of the beautiful stretch that runs from Kendal to Shap. It seemed like a great opportunity to introduce Dan to this tarmac'd gem.

Like me, he is both a town and a country mouse, and, as I'd hoped, he enjoyed the drive enormously. And he's a capable enough driver now that I could relax and look out of the window, and some way south of Shap this quarry caught my eye.

There's a part in John Wyndham's 'The Chrysalids', where the narrator refers to the pre-apocalypse society - our society - and how they had raised an enormous bank of earth (perhaps for a train line) "in their super-human fashion". Seeing how we've taken such huge bites out of these hills reminded me of that.

****
Reading: 'Mayflies' Andrew O'Hagan