The Tropic of Watford Gap

From Birmingham yesterday lunchtime we headed down the M40 to Chislehurst in freezing fog, unable to see the car bonnet let alone any road signs or markings.Worse was to follow. Arriving at Chislehurst we realised the address and postcode of the WWF Christmas get-together location remained at home in Anstey. All the usual landmarks were lost in the fog and we passed the war memorial and christmas lighted houses from several directions before finally being blocked by a farm gate at the end of a very slim track where we sat for several minutes considering our options, one of which was to return home. As I was attempting a 17 point turn my mobile rang. It was the frantic owner of the lost venue who provided her postcode, quickly put into our sat-nav. Within minutes we arrived at our destination very late, exhausted to the point of collapse,in need of food and drink. Having spent a very pleasant evening updating news and putting the world to rights we again headed off into the even thicker fog hoping to locate our son's flat in Chessington where we intended spending the night before our return home this afternoon. The fog had gone and been replaced by a spectacular white frost, making cars, trees and lawns resemble a traditional christmas card. The temperature when we left was 0*Centigrade but slowly climbed as we headed north reaching 4*C at Watford Gap. Before we moved everyone down south warned of arctic conditions in "the north". Either we have been lucky or they were being less than honest as we have enjoyed warmer temperatures, lots more sunshine and no snow to date. Immediately we returned to Anstey we stripped off our thermals and put on our designer sunshades again !