Actually, we should probably qualify that last statement since Hughesy's pauses tended to take the form of finding a clear space and waiting until someone who'd been investigating something arty crafty. If I'd thought about it I'd have brought the iPod along for the ride, but it was sitting in the car and I wasn't going to be heading back to retrieve it, was I?
Still, we'd gone To market, to market, and while we'd failed to pick up anything in the way of fat pigs, we'd collected bread, cheese and pasta sauce as possible meal options over the next couple of days, along with a small bottle of a rather interesting single malt and a new cap for Hughesy and a new black handbag for She Who Was In Need of Fashion accessories.
It was around eleven-thirty when we disentangled ourselves from the Markets and hied ourselves back to the car, far too early to check in at the accommodation in Margate, but there were other fish to fry along the way.
For a start, while we had bread, cheese and pasta sauce, we probably needed some pasta, which would cover things nicely if the accommodation had cooking facilities, so we diverted off the highway at Kingston to remedy the situation at a convenient Coles. Had we investigated the options more closely we'd have found fresh pasta in one of the permanent establishments, but since the packet of Barilla Cascaresce is still sitting in Hughesy's suitcase we probably pulled the right rein.
From there, we headed on through Margate to Kettering, scoping out the pickup arrangements for the Eco Cruise the following day. We weren't confident of getting away to an early start, and were out to make sure we knew exactly where to go.
We filled in a bit of wait till check in time by taking two wrong turns and discussing where we were supposed to park, then headed on to Woodbridge, where we found an excellent time killer in the form of the GrandVewe Cheese Company and a couple of travellers from Central Queensland.