Planes on the M4 motorway

It was a pretty crap day. Against my wiser judgement I stayed at a Travel Lodge place last night. The lodges themselves aren't that bad. (A comparison between the budget ho/motels I stay in all the time in the UK will certainly be the subject of a future blog!)

The thing that makes Travel Lodge so bad is the lack of facilities - namely no pub and only crap food available via Little Chef/Thief restaurant next door.

Little chef places are notoriously crap. They combine the worst aspects of all fast food into a one-stop-shit-stop. They have long waits, bad service, inedible food, unhealthy options, extortionate prices, horrible diner-style seating, all at one hard-to-swallow outlet.

Anyone that drives much in the UK will already know this about Little Chef (and motorway services in general) and think that I'm metaphorically attempting to teach my granny to suck eggs. But listen mate, anyone outside the UK needs that kind of detail to realise just how bad the place is...

Anyway, for some reason that I'm still not sure about, I decided to have breakfast at Little Chef this morning. I don't need to tell you how the experience was. I did feel a little sorry for the one and only waitress on duty though. She was getting all the shit and none of the problems were her fault.

I always complain when I'm pissed off, but never to someone that obviously hasn't caused the problem or can't solve it. Whats the point?

Once I was done with my wholesome and nutritious cold greasy stuff, sorry, "olympic breakfast" (Please don't let Little Chef sponsor anything to do with the 2012 olympics - imagine our national debt after the legal / medical bill....), I went to see my first customer.

The job was some software training. It went fine. The last time I was with that client I was with tt though. So as I left their office and walked to my car I had a strange feeling of deja vu. The last time I was there, almost a year ago, I left the office with a sense of exhilaration - I was about to drive back to my girl! This time I was just going to the next appointment. That made me a bit sad.

I'm going on too much. The points I wanted to mention: (!)

Who knows the M4 well? What about aircraft over it? A few months ago tt and I were driving along it and we saw a plane ahead. And I know this sounds silly, but we couldn't decide whether it was a real plane or a model one! I'm sure it was a real one, but because the part of the M4 is so bland and has no features there was nothing to compare it against in terms of size. I think it was between swansea and reading, that stretch.

tt was sure it was a model because it was doing stunts, corkscrews, loops, etc. But I'm sure real planes can do that too! Today I saw a couple of fighter jet type planes in the same area and I'm sure there must be some sort of RAF base or similar in the area. If that's the case I'm sure the first planes we saw must have been real and not remote control.

I also want to tell you that Barlcays, the UK bank, are officially SHIT in my humble opinion. I've got a meeting with a big manager next week so I'll give you more info then.

Saw another customer near Cardiff which was also fine. That customer is a lovely lady who's about as old as my mum and she also treats me as such. She made me drink lots of tea and eat lots of cake. Could have worse customers I s'pose.

I'm in Wales now. It's lovely here (the written word can lose all sarcasm can't it? Just commenting...). Got lots to tell y'all but I've gone on so much I don't want to bore you with random thoughts on Welsh language, english road signs, etc. We can save that for another day - wont that be fun?!

Woke up: Southampton, south english coast
Went bed: Bridgend, south wales
Done: 150 miles


Double take at life...