First "incident" with the car

This morning the weather was even better than yesterday.  Before we left we met a man at the hotel who was born in Bermondsey and we enjoyed exchanging views about what a great place it is.  I also chatted with two chaps from Northern Ireland who were travelling around England on their motorbikes.  They were the complete opposite of us as they had absolutely no plan and no places booked to stay.  When I asked where they were headed that day they both shrugged, looked at each other and said "don't know really".  And this was as they were standing by their bikes ready to set off!  Hopefully they had a good day wherever they ended up.

On my way I decided to visit Slimbridge Wetlands Centre.  I was tempted by Wookey Hole and Cheddar Gorge which are also close by, but the promise of otters at Slimbridge swung it for me.  It was a relatively easy drive and once we got there Romeo and I settled down for a picnic lunch in the car park.

It felt like such a treat to eat al fresco in the shade of a tree.

After that I headed into the centre itself.  Gentle reader, it was a bit rubbish.  There were only two otters in the whole place and they were asleep inside.  I wandered around a bit trying not to be bored by it but quickly concluded that it had been a nice place to stop for lunch, stretch my legs and have a break from the M5.  And I got a nice picture of a flamingo.

As I headed towards the M5 though, horrors!  The dashboard beeped and a yellow warning light came on, informing me that the oil was getting low.  A hundred thoughts raced through my mind.  What happens to a car when the oil gets low - does it explode?  Does the engine spontaneously stop?  How long after the yellow warning light do these things happen?  Is there a red warning light at some point?  How the f*** do you top up the oil?  In fact, how do you even open the bonnet??  I remained calm and decided that the only thing I could do was stop at the first services and use my feminine wiles to get help.

So do you think there was a service station before the exit I required?  No, there was not.  So there was nothing for it but to drive to my destination, do some Pilates and have a nice lie down.  I decided I can sort out the oil thing tomorrow, perhaps with the help of YouTube.

I was quite pleased with myself when I reached our B&B as it's extremely picturesque.  When Sean arrived

we sat outside catching up on our day and in the afternoon sun it was just idyllic.

I also managed to squeeze in some qi gong before he arrived, as I was practicing indoors today (and therefore without an audience) I decided to use the opportunity to try a new set, the coiling set we learned recently at the workshop.  It was a good experience and I'm sure it will become more enjoyable as I get to know it better and can run through it without peeking at my notes.

Off downstairs for dinner now, perhaps it will be my second outdoors meal of the day.