One of those days.

Today Mum and I had arranged to visit my Auntie. I should have know it was going to be one of those days when just as we were getting ready to leave Mum realised that she couldn't find her glasses and thought they were probably still in Dad's car, which was in Morecambe with Dad. So, I said I'd drive. How wise this was I wasn't sure as since November the furthest I've driven has been to the Doctors (about 4 miles away) and to get to my Auntie's it's a good hour down the motorway.

So off we went, negotiated the slip road onto the M6 no problem, nice light traffic that was easy to drive in, then we saw the flashing 50 sign. No traffic about, no one slowing down. Another 50 sign, same situation. Then just as we went past the first junction the traffic ground to a halt. After 5 minutes or so of going absoultely nowhere, Mum got out of the car and went for a wander. She came back after talking to a lorry driver who told her that a coach full of school children had overturned just after the next junction(we found out afterwards that fortunately no one was seriously injured).

So everyone got out of their cars and chatted and was entertained by the mad people trying to reverse back up the slip road and then the people who drove up it the wrong way off the motorway. It was especially entertaining when the police arrived and told them off.

The police motorcyclists were out in force - one came round and told us we would be there for about two hours and a little later they were back stopping at every stationary vehicle and checking that people were okay and handing out bottled water. Trust us to pick the hottest day of the year so far to get stuck on the M6!

Fortunately as we had our mobile phones with us we were able to let people know that we were stuck there and so when the traffic finally got moving we came off at the next exit and headed home. The one benefit of being stuck there in the height of the midday sun was that the house felt cool when we got home!