Purple pom-poms

I bought these alliums earlier this week. What’s not to like about flowers that look like big purple pom-poms?!

We went to vote this morning. Our constituency has changed due to the recent boundary changes. It makes more sense to be in this one than the old one. It also means that whatever happens, my MP will change.

After spending most of yesterday in Ely, I went back today to meet a writing friend.

I got there eventually.

They’d closed the whole bridge junction at Queen Adelaide, which meant that instead of continuing down the road for a short distance and getting to Ely in time to nab a space in the car park despite the farmers’ market, I had to make a massive detour through Prickwillow, getting stuck behind a tractor on one of the worst of the fen roads, which are bad at the best of times.

There was a lot of signs at the Ely end of the road closure, but there’d been nothing at my end. If I’d known, I’d have gone a different way, and might’ve got to Ely early enough to get a parking space in a long-stay car park.

As it was, the only space I could find was wedge-shaped because of lazy/selfish drivers/parkers; my car is small, so it fitted into the space available anyway. The space was only for two hours, so I had to go and move the car in the middle of seeing my friend (she’d had much better luck, having got there earlier); I found a space in Ship Lane, a long-stay car park, removing worries about parking tickets.

We met in Prosper, where we talked about writing, and helped each other with problems that we’d each been having. We might not have done much writing, but it felt very productive. Writing is about more than increasing word counts.

It was my friend’s first time in Cambridge, so I showed her the sights: the cathedral and Toppings.

We had a lovely time, but I was intellectually drained when I got home!

Now I’m watching the election results. Houghton and Sunderland South won the competition to declare first. I was amused by the discussion between Clive Myrie, Peter Mandelson and Chris Mason about how to pronounce Houghton.

Clive Myrie pronounced it Hoo-ton, which made me laugh. Peter Mandelson ‘corrected’ him to How-ton.

Chris Mason said he’d begun his career in the north east, so was taught how to say it early on: Hoe-ton.

The correct pronunciation is Hoe-ton.


What will we wake up to tomorrow?