We’d arrived in Cheshire the previous day – and I was already approaching 6 pages of notes at this point…

It was 9°C and about 9.50am when the room was left again: I forgot when we got to Jodrell Bank – where signs said ‘Boldly Go From 10am, Boldly Go Home By 5pm, Times May Differ In A Parallel Universe’, and I shivered a bit; Mum wanted to do a childrens embossing trail (finding stamps around the exhibition) that I pointed out, a lady in a box told us stuff about the place, it seemed there was no other entrance option except buying an annual ticket; and then Mum wanted coffee, so we sat down in the café at 11.30am – and there were lots of clocks on a walk showing times in other parts of the universe, and a big timeline on it as well.

While sat there – sharing a tiny brownie – I heard staff talking about a toilet block, Mum pointed out (when answering question one of the trail – ‘what was the name of the first artificial satellite?’) that she’d been alive when Sputnik was launched; and at 11.55am, there were Christchurch Academy kids in the shop, and recycled dog bandannas, celestial trinket dishes, seed ball making kits, and packets of space food were for sale. A statue (the head of Nicolas Copernicus) had information boards by it saying Nicolas Copernicus did something I forgot because Mum started talking to a toddler called Casper (who looked about 3 years old and was wearing a waterproof) via ‘whispering dishes’, and he or she played with wheel races toys and inclined lanes and a very blossomy tree with his or her dad.

Daffodils were blowing around in the freezing wind outside by the Lovell Telescope…

…another smaller dish was on top of a slightly decrepit looking building close by; and boards about the telescope, quasars, the Big Bang (and the Planck space craft), pulsars (and that board said a teaspoon of neutron star material could weigh about one hundred million tonnes), the search for life in the galaxy, and about the upgrades and maintenance to the telescope were positioned along the path. A 2nd smaller dish was visible, the school kids were trying out the whispering dishes when we went into the space pavilion; and a heat vision camera…

…the SETI Project, exoplanets, the 39 space telescopes on Earth and the 10 in Space, and a Cosmic Threads exhibition was displayed.

The sun was out (and cold winds were constant) when the path was continued round, stamp number 7 on the childrens trail was found in a room with an Orrery (a mechanical model of the solar system) dangling from the ceiling; and then back by the entrance we replaced our lost map, and I noticed an algae covered pond had a duck on it. Stamp number 2 was found in the First Light Pavilion, and there – was a dark room about the history of Jodrell Bank, where a tiny toddler called Dylan was refusing to put his coat on (and telling his mother he wanted to get cold), and very dramatic music was playing. Bernard Lovells radar was explained, some braille about the site was on a board, and Jodrell Gooseberries were on a plate (and didn’t smell too bad); there were some old filing cabinets, a slightly random deckchair, and a very very old analogue computer before the exit.

Back outside just before 2pm, crows were making loud noises, it was cold – and then I forgot where Mum found number 3; we walked back down a path with more information boards; and in the gift shop were stomp rockets, make your own slimy monster kits and make your own exploding rocket kits, big telescopes, travel telescopes, and she couldn’t restrain herself from buying an astronaut rubber duck; and I found number one of the trail.

Back in the car – which said temperatures were 9°C – the map got looked at, I put the duck on the dashboard (and dated him); 2.31pm was when the car moved, and a sign with a quote on from the 4th book in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (coming from a message left by dolphins before they leave Earth) said ‘so long and thanks for all the fish’ was on the way out. Signs for Middlewich went down the road (and Mum was wondering if the ‘wich’ of these towns had anything to do with salt production); I was trying to keep my finger on the map and not forget where we were, a Lloyds Bank advert for mortgages on a board said ‘ding dong’ on it (and seemed to be intended to look like a front door), and a sign in the town of Tarvin said ‘Wing Hings’ on it (and seemed to be an advert for something). Littleton was entered at 3.25pm, followed by Chester, where I saw an aesthetics training academy; wiggling around in a vague circle got us back to the disgusting car park (and the car was parked in a small space next to a wall – so I climbed out of the drivers door); and then we returned to the hotel just after 4pm.

Up in the room, the kettle was boiled, the duck was shown what Wikipedia is – after an email from the Wikipedia Foundation was received, including a quiz asking ‘which Wikipedia of the Future are you?’ – so she did it, and was told she was The Young-at-Heart; and I did the quiz myself (and was also told I was Young-at-Heart).

It was 7pm, 10°C, and the corridor reeked of air freshener when the room was left again, as we’d decided to return to the Piccolinnos we’d been to yesterday. There, I chose something I forgot the name of (so I photographed it), and Mum chose orecchiette con salsiccia (trying something different – and trying not to stuff ourselves as much as we had the day before) and browsed the town map before food arrived, and we were consuming it when someone called George, at a table of late teens/early 20s people, had something with a sparkler stuck in it served to him – and the people sang Happy Birthday.