WE WERE IN SAFE HANDS!

What a journey home!  After a lovely Christmas and Birthday, we or rather, Mr. HCB packed the car up this morning in high winds and torrential rain and poor chap, he looked like drowned rat, although I must admit, I have never seen one!

We set off at about 9.15 and poor Amanda, once again, was surrounded by stuff, but you can see how much of her crocket she had done by about 11.30 - she's hiding behind it.  I had started my 5th glove and got on well with that too - thank goodness we both had something to do - so we crocheted, knitted and chatted, leaving Mr. HCB to concentrate on the driving.

We thought we were making good time, but then got stuck in a queue of traffic that had us crawling along for over 3 hours - you can imagine how unimpressed Mr. HCB was by this time.  The old Severn Bridge is nearer to where Amanda lives but we heard that this was closed because of high winds, so had to make our way to the newer Prince of Wales Bridge.  However, on the Traffic News, we then heard that there had been an accident and traffic was queuing.  They were not kidding!  We crawled along but Mr. HCB had to keep is wits about him, watching the car in front and the other drivers in the outside and then the inside lanes, who often decided to come into our lane without indicating.  It's a good job that Mr. HCB doesn't use bad language, and that he is so patient, otherwise I guess some may have been heard today.  We did have a couple of rude gestures from other drivers - which was totally unnecessary.

We really didn't need to be told that the driving conditions were  poor and then, to add insult to injury, another sign told us to slow down!  I think the buggy back at Bluestone went faster than we were travelling for about 2 hours.

The new Severn Bridge is a magnificent feat of engineering and once we got to this, thankfully, Amanda doesn't live too far from that.  However, she suggested we stop at The Ship - a Premier Inn - to have a meal and so that Mr. HCB could have a rest and it was a great idea.

Although Amanda said we could have stayed the night, I think all Mr. HCB wanted to do was get back home to his own bed, so we off-loaded her and her various bags and cases and started back home.  However, we then heard that the Almondsbury interchange on the M4 was "backing up" so decided to come home via Wotton-under-Edge, Tetbury and Cirencester.  We were blessed to see a beautiful sunset and after all the stormy weather - thanks Storm Gerrit - and high winds, it was a beautiful sight.  

We arrived just before 5.30 and must admit, it was good to be back home.  The bags were soon brought in and have been piled in the hall - the washing can wait until tomorrow - and as I write, Mr. HCB is nodding, which is quite understandable! 

We knew we were in safe hands, so thank you, Mr. HCB - you are a star and of course you can watch football on TV this evening - you deserve it!  I will make sure I wake him up!