Delivered my car to Tesla Solihull to have the fan module replaced. No point waiting on site because Tesla don't want actually start work the moment you deliver the car but just when they get around to it. Estimated time of completion is always 17:00.
So I looked up cafés on Osmand~ found several within easy walking distance. So now I'm in the Stables having a just about ok mocha and a very good piece of carrot cake.
The background music is slightly more up to date: Human by The Killers, 2008.
No sign of Tesla working on my car yet. The app shows that it hasn't moved from where I parked it. After the Stables café I asked Osmand~ for a route to the nearest charity shop. It found one in Shirley about 4 km away. So I followed that, with a detour through the fields so I'd be able to take some naughty pictures for Fabguys. Got to Shirley and found that the centre is a long strip with a low speed dual carriageway down the middle, and that there are nearly half a dozen charity shops. Picked up a nice hardback book about Avebury in one and then a skirt I couldn't resist in another.
The skirt is a lady's kilt, at least that's what it says on the label.
As it will take me at least an hour to walk back to Tesla I've stopped at the local Spoons, The Pump House, for a pint of Silhill Try Star IPA and a small bowl of chips.
I like Wetherspoon's pubs more and more. They are sometimes a little noisy but it's the noise made by large numbers of ordinary people having quiet conversations in a large echoey space, there are no giant screens pumping out inane football commentaries. There is a 40" screen in a corner by the bar but the sound is off, at least I can't hear it and there's a couple of fruit machines in the same area.
And there are good beers available for not much money (mine was1.99 GBP) as well as very cheap tea and coffee; 1.72 GBP with free refills, you pay and they give you a mug that you fill at the machine as often as you like.
The walk from Tesla to the Stables is about 2 km and is surprisingly interesting and varied.
First the walk is through the modern Blyth industrial estate which is actually very pleasant and has good wide footpaths, grass verges, trees. The buildings are all very new looking. Then you enter a new housing estate which, for a change, is not pretending to be something from pre-Victorian times.
The path runs along the edge of the estate past a pond complete with moorhens and rushes then it heads on to a public footpath across a rather poor field and on to a narrow country road. Less than a hundred metres along the road is the entrance to a riding centre and in the yard is the café.
@skimpyboy It's just a new build housing estate. If you went looking for an interesting place you probably wouldn't notice it. Or to put it another way: everywhere is interesting but we usually don't notice because we see them all the time. Except that we mostly don't see things, we just drive past them.
I often feel that there is more of interest in a city street than in the grand vistas that the producers and consumers of tourist brochures are obsessed with.
The entrance to Shirley Park; created in 1929 as a memorial to the fallen.
In connection with war memorials: when did poppies become a year round thing? I'm pretty sure that when I was a child that paper poppies were seen only in a relatively short period surrounding Armistice Day.
@Jokersswild 4 km is no distance. According to the Google Fit app on my mobile I've walked just over 19 000 steps so far today, 14.5 km. That's all barefoot. I've walked nearly 44 000 steps in the last four days. The only shoes I have worn since April are 10 cm (4") heels for pride events and parades.
@Lostpoet The Cybertruck is just a Musk vanity project. And the semi has been out-competed by Scania, Volvo, and others who already have thousands of electric semis on the road. I think Tesla has lost their way a bit in recent years. Instead of the hideous and globally unsellable Cybertruck they should have concentrated on a vehicle to serve the market for EVs smaller than the Model 3.
I'm very fond of my Model S. Tesla loaned me a Model 3 while they replaced the battery (under warranty) and I have to say that I didn't like it as much even though because it was so much newer it had much better Autosteer, automatic stop at traffic lights, etc.
