Observations from an early morning drive

• For various reasons I had to get up at 5 am yesterday to drive to Birmingham. It was an odd experience. The first thing I noticed was how very busy the village my dad lives in - Lambourn - is at that time of the morning. You'd have thought it would be dead, but it was teeming with people; walking to walk, cycling, driving. The corner shop was open already and there was a steady little number of people popping in and out.
  
  I mentioned this to my stepmother and she nodded understandingly. "It's the stables," she said. "You'll find people about everywhere at 5 am when they all go to work and noon when they get out from work."
  
  Outside of Lambourn, the world was dead quiet. But inside, it was filled with life.



• While driving, I went past a sign for the Webbs of Wychbold. I think, having googled them, they are a garden centre, but for a moment I could only think I'd stumbled into the Harry Potter world. Maybe I had. Maybe the gardening centre is just a cover, or perhaps it's a magical gardening centre, selling mandrake and rowan seeds. That would make a lot of sense.



• Another sign I went past was for a crematorium and garden centre. On the same sign. Not the same place. I hope not the same place, although that would also make a weird kind of practical sense. Garden centres were a theme for me.



• I went to bed at midnight last night and slept blissfully until 8 am. It was lovely. I did, however, think before I went to sleep about the world I was missing. But then, they are all missing the strange late nights when you sit up until 3 am or 4 am and see the world sleeping when you go outside. It's odd how the world changes around the clock.