In which I sort out the oil and fill up the car

Over dinner last night we decided the best option for sorting out the oil was to find a local garage and pay somebody who knows what they're doing, to top it up.  So first thing in the morning I called the nearest garage and arranged to pop down there on my way to Shrewsbury.  Massive shout out to John, an absolutely lovely chap who managed not to patronise me at all, even when I didn't know how to open the bonnet.  I'm SO glad I didn't attempt to top it up myself, because as he explained, the car needs a special type of synthetic long life oil, and I'd never have known that so the whole thing was bound to have ended in tears.

Once that was all sorted I set off down the M5 in the knowledge that I'd have to fill up before I got to my destination.  This was bothering me a bit as I had yet to fill the car up unsupervised.  However I breezed through it without a care in the world and I'm sure nobody would have guessed it was my first time.

When I got to Shrewsbury I stopped at Morrisons to restock on my lunchtime veg.  I found this surprisingly soothing, I guess because it was much more in my comfort zone than driving or any type of car maintenance!

I had started the day enthused to go into Shrewsbury for a wander around the medieval town, but by the time I got to the hotel I didn't have enough time left, so I contented myself with relaxing in the room, which was huge and had a big bay window with lovely views over the fields.  It was just as well I didn't have time for sightseeing as the efforts of the last few days really caught up with me, I had a banging headache and realised I was worn out.  I guess I hadn't appreciated how tiring the driving would be, and I haven't been sleeping particularly well as it's been hard to relax properly.

After a rest I opted to meditate instead of doing qi gong, which was particularly challenging today as my mind was full of thoughts about the journey so far and whatever might lie ahead.  This caused me to reflect that it's probably the times when it's most challenging that it's also most valuable.