The Joys of Spring.

May continues to fail in its duty to be merry. Today has given us another succession of cold winds, glowering skies and rain.

I had to go to one of the nearby city centres today and encountered far more traffic congestion than is usual for a Thursday morning. It was everywhere – on the main highway, in the suburbs, and in the centre itself. I had the impression that the latest of the staged releases from lockdown has resulted in everybody with a vehicle taking it onto the roads just because they can. At one point I turned the car around and took a detour, but that was nothing compared with getting back out again later.

I’d decided to take a different route home because of the congestion on the highway, only to find that everything is changing. Roads where there didn’t used to be roads, more new roads under construction, roundabouts where there didn’t used to be roundabouts, new layouts, diversions… This is the city in which I grew up, but at times I hardly knew where I was or how to get onto the route that I wanted to get onto.

Eventually I did, and began to drive through a large suburban area in which I lived for four years during my teens. It should have been a single, straight road for about two miles, but no. More new roads, more new layouts, more new buildings. I confess to feeling surprisingly depressed by the changes, and I don’t suppose the inclement weather helped very much.

… neither did the fact that I’d gone without lunch.

… neither did the fact that the car seems to have developed an issue.

… neither did the fact that I’d had to get up two hours earlier than usual and that always makes me tetchy.

… and neither did the fact that the job I gave myself to do when I got back just wouldn’t play ball, and what should have taken twenty minutes took over an hour.

And the rain kept falling, and the wind kept whistling, and the sky sulked incessantly, and the house continued to get colder. It was that kind of day.

But at least I got to have coffee with my daughter for the first time in over a year, which has to be said to have been adequate compensation for an otherwise awful day. I’m still hoping for another lockdown in June, though. A warm, peaceful summer would be welcome.