Drove Me Crazy

Tuesday 14 October, 2008

Spent the whole day behind the wheel of a new Volkswagen Jetta today. Trying to drive out of London was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do; pushing Alex out of my womb was marginally easier. I had to get from Stamford Hill in the north Greater London area, to the south and out of London to Surrey. I had intended to visit Box Hill, where Emma insulted Miss Bates, and Jane walked for exercise.

First, though, we had to leave London. It should have taken me, according to my google trip map and description, about 50 minutes to get from London to Box Hill. Four hours later, we decided it was would be getting dark soon, and we’d better give up the idea of a picnic looking down at the view. We had to find our way into Hampshire and the Travelodge in Four Marks before before dark.

Just getting out of London took a couple of hours. And we wante

Image via Wikipedia

d to avoid the “congestion zone” because to wander about in there would cost 8 pounds. This was a tricky one. Trying to ascertain one’s presence in “the zone”, was not easy. No flashing lights, road signs, or anything that I could see. Even with the benefit of hindsight and the congestion zone website I am not any the wiser. Look at the map and see if you could have cracked it.

However, we did finally leave London, and then we went back again, and then we departed once more, but no, we hadn’t. Why were we following the bus towards Elephant and Castle when we’d passed it going in the opposite direction half an hour ago? We continued for nearly half a day leaving London and wandering the narrow, busy streets of Kent, when we desperately wanted to be in Surrey, sitting on a hill and chewing a bap. Kent was beautiful, though, the trees raining showers of red, yellow, russet leaves in the wind.

Eventually we gave the Box Hill picnic up as a bad job and concentrated on getting into Four Marks, Hampshire, where our Travelodge room was booked. We had to find our way to the M25. What joy when we bumbled upon it: hit, miss, ask, return, etc. Now this was the kind of road I was used to. Lots of lanes, fast, with road signs, even painted road surfaces to tell us where we were and where we were headed. Not as beautiful as the innards of Kent, but far more comprehensible.