I know I should stop just bursting in, uninvited and unannounced, on people; it really is a bad habit.

I’m currently test-driving a new wheelchair, called a quantum. Yesterday I invited my friend lee Mayer over from Crewe, since he knows a bit about chairs. He arrived around eleven – the plan was to go somewhere together – me in the quantum, him in defiant. When lee suggested we both go to Chester, I thought it a wonderful idea – it’s a fascinating city, great for Christmas shopping, and perhaps I could pop in on Charlie and the joneses.

Getting there was easier than I thought. I instantly fell in love with the quantum’s mid-wheel-drive manoeuvrability, especially when getting on and off busses. It is much easier than the f55. plus, in terms of speed, although the f55 accelerates faster than the quantum, their top speed is like-for-like. In short, I was extremely impressed.

We got to Chester later than I hoped, given the busses tendency to stop every few meters. Lee muttered something about public transport. Anyway, we took a tour of the city centre, at one stage encountering a bunch of vicious looking school kids, who I think were very curious about us: ”Look, that one’s smoking a cigar”. (cigar smoking, by the way, seems to suit Mayer) I must say though, I did overhear a disproportionate amount of comments about us yesterday (”don’t laugh” etc) and felt very got at.

When I got bored of the city centre, which, admittedly, didn’t take too long, I decided that it would be nice to introduce lee to charlotte. I remembered that the joneses don’t live too far from the city centre, but had forgotten precisely where. So we asked for directions, and thus began a wild goose chase which, about an hour and a half later, saw us both turning up at the joneses door.

Quite what the joneses really think of me randomly turning up every so often I do not know, they’re such genuinely nice people they welcomed us in. Mrs j. gave us toast and tea, and we sat there warming up by the fire in their large, homely kitchen. It turned out, however, that Charlie wasn’t there after all – she was at her brother’s place in London, where they had seen him perform the night before. Nevertheless, we had a good talk, and lee got to meet poppy and will, C’s younger siblings.

We didn’t stay too long – I didn’t want to intrude too much – and we left after about an hour. Mrs. Jones and Will walked us back to the bus station, but, seeing as the bus was going to be 45 minutes later, they left us in subway. We again had no problems with thee busses, save for the waiting, and we got back to alsager about half ten.

It was too late and too cold for Mayer to drive home, so I asked security to open up an empty room at the other end of Westfield flat. They kindly obliged, and, after I had lent lee some pyjama bottoms, and after we had talked a bit, we both went to bed exhausted.