When 2 hours take 5
We left a distant client site in searing temperatures at 5pm last night, and set out on the journey homea journey that should have taken 2 hours only it didn't. It took 5 hours.
We saw the warning signs just a little too late to change our route, and ended up parked in the middle of the biggest traffic jam I can remember, on the hottest night of the year. When we turned the engine off to save fuel, the air conditioning also stopped, and the temperature inexorably rose towards perhaps 100 Fahrenheit. Not fun.
People were standing outside of their cars taking photos of the shimmering snake of rooftops stretching out into the distance. We sat in our car listening to the Absolute FM having all kinds of fun ramping up speculation about the impending birth of William and Katherine's baby.
We eventually escaped the traffic jam after travelling one mile in three hours, and wound our way through the smaller roads of London, eventually staggering from the far side of the city after another hour or so of nose following.
Finally at 9:30 last nightfive hours after leaving the client sitewe arrived home. I wandered into the house and discovered most of the household sitting around the television set, watching the breaking news from Buckingham Palacethe arrival of a son for Katherine and William.
I snuck upstairs to find our younger children who had already gone to bed, and whispered the news to them.“I KNEW IT!”, stage whispered Miss Nine.“I KNEW IT WAS GOING TO BE A BOY!“And so I left them, smiles on their faces, and avoided the television for the rest of the evening. Quite how all the channels managed to fill hour upon hour with random strangers looking at a printed page on an easel in the forecourt of Buckingham Palace is anybody's guess.