Day four of the roadtrip, and this becomes the new normal: waking up, pout the room TV onto 6 Music, have shower, get dressed and go down for breakfast, and unable to resist the lure of the sausage, bacon and hash browns.
Just one night in Warrington, so I pack and check out then put the case in the car, but I can leave the car at the hotel and walk to the office.
It is a business park, and is full of identical steel and glass office blocks, but inbetween there is nature; copices and woodland, I see a squirrel looking for food, and among the trees there is the green shoots of spring already showing.
I have to wait for someone to let me as I have no pass to get in.Time passes.
Someone lets me in, I have no need to show my ID as I wearing company branded clothing. So, I book in and find my old boss' desk and set up, ready for a meeting at eight. I then have my weekly meeting with my new boss; all is good there.
So I tie up some loose ends, do some more investigating until midday when I tell myself I have done a good week, and why not have an early stack? I thank myself and pack my things up, say goodbye to a couple of colleagues I know, walk back to the car park.
After programming the postcode of the hotel in Sheffield in, I set off, driving back to the motorway and joining the early weekend rush out of Manchester.
The motorway takes me to the foot of the Pennines, then up a long steady hill the road takes over the roof of England, into the low cloud, thus reducing visibility to a hundred yards. Views over Saddleworth Moor was limited too.
But halfway over, as the road began to drop into Yorkshire, the clouds lifted and parted a little. The fog melted away too, and I could see for miles.
The road dropped all the while as I went past Huddersfield, Bradford and Leeds before turning south onto the M1. Only half an hour to go now, and it was barely one in the afternoon. Best find something to do....
As the road took me past Barnsley, I saw a sign to Wentworth Castle Gardens: why not?
I turned off, thus annoying the sat nav which kept trying to tell me to turn round. The ligns lead me through the town, past Oakwell, then down into a deep valley, under the motorway, up the other side and into a different world. I was now in what looked like The Dales, small villages, farmland and stunning vistas.
Past a country pub and up the long drive to the castle. It is National Trust, so pricey, but a walk is never wasted.I paid the eight quid, then took the path up and up, past the Georgian House, past the small formal gardens, a haha, overlooking parkland with herds of sheep and deer.
The path kept leading up, back into the woods, signs pointed to another castle, not sure if it was a genuine medieval castle or a folly, but it sat in ruins at the highest point of the estate. I take a shot without getting nearer.
Then turn round to walk back down, along a long double line of trees, making a narrow avenue leading back to the Georgian House. As I walked down, the clouds cleared more and the garden was filled with golden light crossed with dark, long shadows.
Well worth the stop off and the walk causing a bad back.
Lovely.Daylight quickly fades, so I walk back to the car and continue my trip, and I find I have little more than ten miles to go. Back to the motorway, down to Sheffield, turn off at Meadowhall, a huge shopping centre set in a valley, and the hotel is between that and the trams tracks.
Trams!I check in and go to my room, I have about three hours before my friends from Norwich were due to arrive, so after posting some shots, I go to lay in bed to listen to the radio, snoozing for an hour or so.
At half six I go down for dinner, finishing my tandori chicken burger just as Ian and Ali arrive.
Shall we have a drink?
Yes, yes we shall.
So, we talk, drink, talk, get more drinks, talk more until half eleven. I switched from beer to gin early on. Possibly wise, possibly not.
But with the full moon high above the hotel, I climb the wooden stairs to bed.
Big day on the morrow.
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