I awoke at sometime before nine in the morning, no alarm or nothing just the urge to wake up, I gazed around the room as my eyes began to open and function properly, the others were still asleep and the house silent.

My mouth had that nasty morning taste and my bladder had decided to erupt, so I killed two birds with one stone, tho not at the sametime cos well I havent tried brushing and watering the flowers simultaneoulsy before.

I trotted downstairs feeling much better, teeth clean, face clean, I was feelin rather alert and back in the lounge there were some signs of life, tho it took a while for the guys to emerge from their sleeping bags, it was crucial we get our ourselves in gear and out on the road as soon as possible since Glasgow is a long way from Manchester.

It didnt take too long for us to be all ready to leave, back in the van we got with the addition of Dave in the van, I just learnt he would be coming with us for the remaining days up north which was pretty cool and man he proved real useful on the way out of Manchester, he got us to some places where we get some decent food, the band opting for the not so greasy spoon whilst Tony & I opted for the newsagents and the delights on offer, real good vegan food onsale as well as the usual papers splattered with the news that Jeffrey Archer had just been sentenced to four years in prison.

Food in us all we setabout leaving once again though not before a quick stop off to pick up some instrument related items, but that didnt take long and t was my turn upfront today to do the mapwork, well the guys need to relax, they are the ones doing the hard work, everything was well sign posted and it didnt take long until we hit the motorway, my cue to get some sleep and give in to my body.

The next time I opened my eyes we were halfway there and at the service station in Carlisle which was also the Scottish border, we were making good progress and time was on our side so our stop off at this place wasnt brief, Graham & Dave got the skateboards out and began practicing little tricks over and over until they got it right though not without injury, I closed my eyes and crossed everything when Graham was flipping his board, fortunately the only thing that happened was a scrape on his arm.

In the meantime Leo & Alex got the frisbee out and had some fun with the beloved blue piece of plastic, a harmless activity you may think but in a service station the arrival of 16 wheelers meant  once again I was looking out for incoming vehicles though after a while they all decided to head in and grab some food.

The first thing I saw when we got in was a se of arcade machines and fruit machines, I started praying Leo had no money for the fruit machines because otherwise we wouldnt have got of the place for quite a while, that said I am a sucker for arcade machines and went straight in there but not before having some fun on the £1 lucky dip machines. On offer today, Pokemon figurines and Peanut keyrings, after three attempts I got a little Pikachu to keep Squirtle company, Ben ended up with some obscure Pokemon whilst afer just one go I got a Charlie Brown keyring.

Ben & I then decided to save the human race from giant Earth invading ant type Alien creatures, sadly we didnt sae the planet and well if the security of the state was in our hands we would all be ant food by now, I think we will stick to our day jobs, its for the best honest.

We headed back to the van, Leo & Alex had one last fling, thats to say they were playing frisbee whilst Graham & Dave tried their luck once more on the skateboards and even acquired an audicence, well the family in the car parked opposite gazing at us but not for long since with everyone back the doors closed, the engine started and we were back on the road again driving towards Glasgow.

All was good, the roads empty, the weather good & the humour of Blackadder on video making the journey fly by, we made one last stop on the outskirts of Glasgow at, you guessed it a petrol station, Ben bought a toy gun for a £1 but no ordinary toy gun, this one shaped like a one of those 1950s sci fi ray guns that made noise and lit up when triggered.

Glasgow is beautiful were the first few words that came into my head as we hit the city centre, a cleaner version of the West End, no tacky shops, no backpackers and no hot dog sellers, if only London were the same, a man can dream.