This weekend we hit the road to see my Ma and ended up with a few bonus events thrown in for good measure. We went out for a meal and I bumped into an old school friend I haven't seen since the day we left. Should you recognise somebody in a split second when you haven't seen them for 25 years? I'm not sure you should, but that's the way it went all the same. I particularly like that she said I looked like Guy of Gisborne from Robin Hood, which I don't but all the same, it's better than "Shit, you've aged badly."

We also went out for the best picnic ever by the river here - well, a little bit along from there, but you get the picture - which was absolutely the highlight of the weekend - unlike discovering that junction 8 of the M6 was closed and being diverted through Birmingham on the way home, which wasn't.

I've seriously begun to love going away for the weekend, so much so that 'the road' has become something of a friend - lousy motorway coffee and all. It seems to create a whole ruck of fully formed ideas and a time for putting previously random thoughts in some kind of order.

Speaking of random, on a hit n run tour of the web, I found this unopened Marathon Bar for sale. Nice. If I had won it, I would have had to open it and see what it tasted like. Does chocolate go off?

...and for those of you sitting around waiting to blast me a cannonball for not posting The Smoking Gun over at The Wasteland when I said I would, it's on its way! Just a few last minute carve-ups and we should be there.

Oh ye of little faith.