Ah, that's better

I thought it might do me - and my mood - good to get out of the house; since I've been reading P&P and didn't want to go far, Lacock was the answer. I took the car, because Dad reckons it needs using every few days (probably true), but I really must do some cycling - I'd rather wait for slightly cooler weather, though, especially as I can't/won't wear shorts and can't think what would be cooler than a T-shirt. The chauffeur very amiably moved both his chair and car for me, and one can't really blame him for wanting to sit in the shade.

The roads were surprisingly busy, with a lot of traffic heading up from Lacock towards Sandy Lane for some reason, but I managed to get away from people, mostly. I stood for a while at Reybridge, which really was quite idyllic; almost everything one could want from a rural scene. Description thereof should be a major point of this post, but I don't want to cheapen it with clunky adjectives so I'll take a short intermission...















Intriguingly, I saw a Chinook flying very low - in fact as it cleared the top of the hills I fancied it had flown through a gap between trees, rather than over them.

Back in the car, I finally understood why one might want air conditioning in a cabriolet - but I only allowed myself to switch it on for a couple of minutes. The daftness of air conditioning in a cabriolet is of course part of the reason why they're so much more popular here than in genuinely hot countries. I was glad I had kept my speed down to 25mph when I rounded a corner of the lane to find a large Defender coming the other way; all was well though and at the next bend I was glad I'd decided not to bother sounding the horn when my next companion on the road turned out to be a horse. On the open road, I was glad for the sake of my hat that the speed limit is 60mph.

Back home, it's all still busy busy busy but I managed to get the car in without any trouble. To my surprise, the nurse - a nursely, middle-aged woman whose job seems to consist mostly in rubbing sunscreen on everyone, and who somewhat bizarrely joins the majority of the crew in being a smoker (I think, many apologies if I'm wrong) - followed me into the garage to inspect the car: "Oh, it's a good four-seater" / Yes, we can all fit in, but we are rather small. / "What is it, a one-point-?" / Two litre, the earlier version with more power. / "Cool. I have the Audi A4 myself. This has the automatic roof like the Audi? Cool".

So someone with an Audi A4 (the classy cabriolet, and not something we could hope to afford) thinks our aging Mégane is cool. Cool.

Now I guess I need to find food and/or drink. Was thinking of doing scrambled eggs earlier, but the reality would never live up to the expectation. I need to learn to cook but a month-long residential course doesn't really appeal; anyone got a better idea?