We dropped off Jasper at the Cozy Pets Boutique Hotel which was busy on this Sunday morning. So nice to be out and about in temperatures less than 30 degrees C! Loaded up the car and we drove to South Mimms where we had an encouraging session with a car charger - it all just worked and juiced up the car by the time we left. That was reassuring and we were convinced we could get to Southampton and back with an electric car.

Less reassuring was our experience with Burger King. We thought we had ordered two burgers and two drinks using the kiosk - what we ended up with rather more in quantity and cost than that. Okay we should have realised before paying yes you can say that. The kiosk didn’t clearly display what it thought you had ordered. I think the user interface was optimised for a user who knew what they wanted and wanted to do it in as few actions as possible. Not for a user who was exploring what the kiosk was. Not as bad as the Princess Cruises website which if you type in the wrong booking reference it tells you your booking has been cancelled. We did manage to donate some of the unwanted food to a guy cleaning the floor and tables.

Arrived safely at our Holiday Inn in Southampton though it’s stressful driving on a congested M25. Is that big lorry behind you going to stop before it abbreviates your car’s length? Will you spot all the people switching lanes to get there quicker? Do they save much time switching lanes? Perhaps, or perhaps it gives the feeling of at least doing something about being caught in slow-moving traffic.

We had an evening meal at the Harvester Ham Farm. Decent food well served and served quickly. It was a little crowded it being Sunday evening, I wasn’t sure when we entered but I feel it was more pleasant than eating at the Holiday Inn would have been. The tables were a little cheek by jowl.

The next morning started with an unprepossessing vista of an aging smoker in his pyjamas polluting away in the car park. A good breakfast, the staff at the Holiday Inn are pleasant and helpful. It took me a time to find the right buttons in the lift as the panels in the two lifts are different! There is a button with a label that looks like a bat but I haven’t tried pressing that. I don’t want to be disappointed when the theme doesn’t play!

The Holiday Inn has a charge point and I made use of that to put a bit more charge in the car while we wasted time in the hotel.

We had a nice little visit to the Harold Hillier Gardens before we setting off for the main ordeal of the day. Soothing for the soul amid the quiet woods and flowers. Dropped off the car at Cruise Parking Southampton (a smaller operation than I expected perhaps fewer people do this nowadays) and one guy took us to the Ocean Terminal.