Going nowhere

Can you guess what this is?

Sad day today as the boys were back to school and nursery and after I had seen them into their classrooms I was to start my journey home. Young Lewis was at home when his brothers had left so it was a good time to be able to spend the last couple of hours with him on his own - he had started to take his first steps during my wee holiday, so that was very special. Before leaving I gave the dogs a quick walk and Bruce was delighted as it was his first walk since he injured his paw. I was relieved that he did not limp following the exercise.

As it turned out it was a good thing I had taken the time to walk the dogs as a journey of 4 1/2 hours ended up by taking 7 1/2 hours. There had been a fuel spillage on the M6 just before Preston and 3 junctions of the road were closed all day as it had to be cleared up and the road re-surfaced. Unfortunately the accident was at the junction of the M6 and M61 from Manchester so that road was closed too! I stopped at a service station and using my map, 2 paper serviettes courtesy of Costa Coffee and a red marker luckily lurking in my bag I planned my new route and wrote the key points on the serviettes so I could hold them in front of me as I drove. So, without the aid of Tom Tom or a navigator I made a detour for the last 60 miles of my journey. Luckily I was to be staying with my sister again in Lancashire so on paper it didn't seem too bad. In practice, however, it was awful as everybody else was doing the same thing and I spent three hours almost stationary with the two patient dogs crossing their legs in the back of the car. It was late and I was exhausted when I arrived so no comments tonight.

So, no prizes for guessing what the blip is!