This fabulous free magazine dropped through my letterbox this morning – Totally Telford (The great outdoors edition).

It is the first issue of a magazine produced by Telford and Wrekin Council.It has lovely ideas for places to walk, cycle and generally enjoy the outdoors. There are features on local towns, local shopping opportunities and a couple of local celebrities.

The ‘your photos section’ features photos from Shropshire 1000 milers.

It has given me inspiration for some of my next local adventures.

Before we set off on our travels to Northumberland I decided to update the SatNav to the latest map version. I was soon reminded why I gave up trying to upgrade the map on my previous attempt.

I logged on and was informed by the website that the device was full so I removed the old map and tried to install the new map. I was then informed that there was still not enough room on the device for the new map. Unfortunately I did not have a suitable memory card to allow me to expand the data. I elected to install only the GB part of the map and sort out the rest of the map in slow time when I had acquired a memory card. Recently Mr C had made some tweaks to our internet settings to fix a problem which meant that unfortunately the file took hours to download and then stalled part way through.

I stopped the download and checked the device; it looked like the old map was still there but the voice instructions seemed not to be working. I gave up, logged out of the update programme and plugged the SatNav into a USB port so that it would be fully charged for the coming holiday; even though I wasn’t sure that the map was working properly anymore. A little while later I checked the progress and found that the charge was almost complete. The SatNav was also displaying a message that stated that there were no maps available and that it was updating. A short while later the update was complete and a new complete European map was installed!! I know it is a new update because the SatNav gives an announcement of the destination and journey arrival time after it is programmed which it had not done before…

This afternoon we nipped into Birmingham to obtain a few essentials prior to the next episode of ‘Cherry on her Travels’.  We had a surprisingly successful afternoon, our purchase list was all ticked off apart from a Birthday Card. I normally make birthday cards rather than buy them and on looking at the selection available I think that is a wise choice.  The selection of ’special’ birthday cards was limited and the supposed humour section was ermm… not funny! I suppose humour is a personal thing and the selection just wasn’t working for me (or Mr C).  Back to the drawing board on that elusive card

All shopped out we made our way back to the car park and paid at the machine that stamps your card allowing you to exit the car park. We then got in our car and made our way to the exit. We joined one of the two exit lanes and observed that the car in the other lane wasn’t moving even though the barrier was up.

We then noticed the lady in the car in front of us put her ticket in the machine. She then got out of her car, bent down and picked the ticket up of the floor. She then ended up putting the ticket in the waste bin behind the barrier rather than in the ticket machine.  After a moment of confusion she turned round and mouthed sorry and made her way to the nearby booth where the car park staff were situated. A couple of minutes later a male passenger got out of the passenger seat of the car. He smiled at us, raised his eyes and his arms skyward and followed her into the booth.

The car behind us reversed and exited through the other lane, giving us the opportunity to do likewise. The barrier on the other lane was up and did not require the input of a ticket to exit. This left us wondering why the original car in that lane waited and paused there for so long…

PS: The photo has nothing to do with today’s adventures. It is one that I inadvertently captured whilst sitting on my patio last weekend.