Talking About Roundabouts

Bless - I think you should absolutely do things for the joy of it, like roundabouts. When bear was tiny, I remember taking him up an escalator and then straight down the other one because we didn't want to go up, he just liked the escalator. And when I see strange translations I remind myself that really I only speak English, so I have no room to complain about anyone else's language skills. I also enjoy the wonderful strangeness that can come out. It adds colour to the world. And Magic Braised Burning Pot is now definitely its name!

Eileen - We saw it, and it was good, but the scenes with French characters were in French with subtitles, not just the scene with Katherine and her maid. This didn't help. Bear, with no background, managed to follow most of it, which was good. I think it was worth seeing. I think I will always prefer the Kenneth Brannagh production, though, with Brian Blessed being awesomely stalwart.

Cherie - I agree about things growing in strange places. This is next to our kitchen door, which is a cellar kitchen, and at the bottom of the steps. Please excuse the mess. 

I haven't the heart to get rid of them. In fact, I think they look a little Victorian and I like that.

As for roundabouts...

On Friday, it was ironic that I got stuck at Chain Bar Roundabout. You see, earlier that afternoon, when I was whizzing home for bear to get changed before going to Bradford, there were road works which meant that we used that roundabout. It's huge, and it's where the M62, the M606, the A58 and the A650 meet, and they are all quite busy. I told bear that while it looked quite scary, it was actually not too bad, as all the lanes were clearly marked, the field of vision was great and it was traffic light controlled. I said that it was far harder than the small roundabout near the Fire Service headquarters, which wasn't nearly so clear and was horrendous when busy. I was less than impressed when I was stuck on that lovely, clearly marked roundabout for half an hour, inching across lanes and squeezing in. 

Yesterday I had a sick headache. I have eaten something that hates me, and I didn't even get to watch the Great British Sewing Bee. I crawled off to bed really early and suffered. I was feeling a little better this morning when I dragged myself out of bed, dropped bear off at school, called in at Tesco and then headed home as I knew there was a loooong list of things that I needed to do once I'd taken some painkillers. 

As luck would have it, I was stationary at the roundabout near the Fire Service headquarters - where the A58 meets the A651, if you're interested, when someone going around two miles per hour went into the back of my car. It was incredibly minor, but the bang was scary. I made my way across the roundabout, pulled over and the driver behind also pulled over. They were lovely, and, to be honest, I was worried about them as they looked shocked. Mind you, I was shaky as well. There isn't a scratch on my car, and I think that they had a tiny chip on their bumper. I feel stupid, but still a little shaky. I'm not sure if I am feeling any after effects, or it's the same headache from yesterday, or even if I'm imagining myself into a state - I have an awesome imagination! DH has checked the car (after fussing over me) and there isn't a scratch, and he took the car along the road, and it drove fine. 

So that is me and roundabouts. Apparently they are statistically the safest form of junction. I plan to follow that same route as often as possible for the next few days and I'm going to start a new knitting project which will cheer me up. 

And I'm typing this at 1.30pm and I don't know if I'm picking bear up at 3.30 or 5.30. This is partly the excuse for a new knitting project. Once that is done, DH has something already set up for dinner, bear rarely wants anything and I can't be bothered so I will have a nice hot shower and an early night

Hugs and good health to all.