Saturday 28 May 2005

Britain has a wonderful Motorway system. We drove from Ivybridge to Exeter to Birmingham, 200 miles, in three and a half hours. If we had been going the other way it would probably have taken seven hours as every man and his dog (and caravan) was heading to the South Coast for the long weekend holiday.

We turned off at Birmingham and went to Bourneville, home of Cadbury's. We did the tour and learnt the history of Cadbury's and how they built a factory in the country and a village for the employees as the Victorian Pollution disagreed with them. Birmingham has now grown so much that they are no longer in the country. My colleagues at BNZ will be pleased to know that I got some chocolates for them (however they are not Chocolate Macadamia Nuts).

I'm also having trouble with British road signs. At one point I thought the sign was to turn right to get to Bournville but I ended up in the car park for Sainsbury. Then after the stopover in Bournville I headed back to the M5 and misread the signs and went south instead of north. If it's any consolation I know I am not the first person to get lost in a foreign country.

We did make it to Manchester without serious incident and the semi-helpful staff at the information centre sent me the wrong way to find Mischa's flat but Chaucey saved the day and we safely arrived. For dinner we all went to an Asian Restaurant and had a variety of Japanese, Chinese and South-east asian dishes.

We headed back in the twilight (9.30pm) stopping to see the area the IRA bombed in the 90s which sticks out as it is the only modern building in the city centre before heading back to the flat for a good nights sleep.