With Lynette's camera being in a sad state, we went to breakfast near Nottingham Market Square and waited for the shops to open. We were the first customer of the day at Jessops and made their day by buying a Canon SX700HS. We tried to buy a extra battery but they never had any in stock. It wasn't an easy deal and took half an hour. It was complicated with such things as Lynette's Visa card not being authorised for overseas transactions and the fact that the shop staff had to use an old Zip Zip machine to take a copy of the card. In the end we had a working camera again.

We then drove over to Solihull to meet Dave Higgins, a UK cousin of mine. Lynette had met him in 2000, but this was a first time for me. We got on great and the beautiful fine weather made things even better. We do have quite a bit in common. After Dave had fed us a light lunch, we got instructions for a camera shop that stocked Canon, so that we could get a battery. Currys is a major PC shop that has lots and lots of stuff. However they don't stock that many batteries of any sort. The salesman suggested that we buy one off the internet. An nice piece of advice that will be followed, but not a good way to keep customers. We will just have to keep a tight control on the battery.

The next stop was the Day's Inn at the motorway service area north of Tewksbury. Getting there was a challenge. All the roads seem to be under construction as they take a two lane road and turn it into a four lane one. We must have travelled 25 miles at 40 – 50 mph, in long strings of vehicles.

The hotel is very pleasant and the lady on the front desk is an escapee from Moscow, which makes life interesting. We wandered out for a drive around the country and got lost a few time. We had dinner at a pub, and it was an excellent meal of pork at UKP10 total for the pair of us. Probably the cheapest dinner we have had.

I had marked the Day's Inn on the GPS and thought we would be smart by getting to it through the back roads. Wrong! We certainly did go through the back roads, but we never found an easy way to the service area. Many of the roads were barely a tractor width wide and we had a couple exciting times when we met traffic coming towards us. In the end, we popped out on the motorway and found the hotel that way.

The weather was up to 20 C and spotted with a little rain as we came west.

The APRS tracking has been working most of the day, so I'm sure it's only a lack of receiving stations that has kept me out of contact previously. As we head south, I think we should be picked up more.

We had coffee at the little cafe in the centre of the picture.  It was a little too windy to sit outside though.

Trams run regularly in Nottingham.  Only one circuit at present but another is due shortly.
Just what Auckland needs instead of an underground rail system.

One of several roading projects

Power is generated from coal, around Nottinghm. 

The local magpie is quite a bit different to the NZ magpie.

Dave and Collette's home 

Dave and Jim

Dave's lawn and garden looks great.  No Pukekos, ducks or cats to wreck it and no long dry summers to kill it off, make a difference. 

A nice little cottage near Upton on Severn

Check out the date on this old pub.  It's been modernised with an Indian curry shop.

Lynette just playing with her new camera.