Over night at Appelby Magna.

We arrived at David and Gill's, expecting to find him still trapped on a train somewhere, commuting back from the "Smoke". Happily though, he was home and, as is his wont, was deep in home maintenance. On this occasion he was repairing one of the many lavatories, using a BBQ lighting device..... ?? (Don't ask !)

The great thing about visiting my brother and sister in law is that no matter how long the interval since our last meeting, (Sue tends to see them more often due to her annual pilgrimage to Crufts at the NEC, which is only 30 mins down the road) we can pick up almost instantly where we left off months or, sometimes in my case, years before. David and I do communicate quite regularly via e mail which helps I suppose.

As our arrival time had been a bit on the vague side we had elected for a take away from the excellent Chinese restaurant they sometimes frequent. This also gave David the chance to show off his new green mode of transport, a Toyota hybrid electric/petrol car. I left Sue doing things on the computer and went along with Dave and Gill for an environment-saving trip to the restaurant.

The charming young Asian lady who was serving recognised David but did not believe his claim that I was his grandfather! The meal was going to take about 25 minutes but by purest chance (my bot!) there was a pub next door!

It was the strangest of sensations when we set off on the return journey - to pull away in almost total silence! The 15 minute trip to the take away had charged the Prius's battery packs and the petrol engine was not required for a while. David said that he had to be a lot more aware of dozy pedestrians with this car, especially when parking and pulling away on electric motor power!

Many hours later we prepared for bed in the conservatory, happily replete, food had been consumed along with a modest amount of beer and wine. Although tomorrow was a relatively short hop up the road to Yorkshire and an early start not essential, I didn't want a thick head to contend with.

We were awakened by the sound of torrential rain on the conservatory roof in the early hours, "Probably sounds worse than it is" I muttered to my sleepy navigator. We looked out a few hours later.............. it didn't ................Arggg!

To be continued.....