Judy's "Grand Day Out"

Great Expectations!

Who said it was better to journey than to arrive? That person obviously never sat for nearly three hours in a stationary queue of traffic on the M40!!

Sadly it was the road to nowhere, and not the glamourous Royal Lancaster Hotel, that Judy & Brian from Williams of Audlem spent their glitzy evening as finalists for this year's national GREATS awards on Thursday

Instead of tucking into a sumptuous dinner and cocktails -- it was a bag of Hula Hoops and bottled water left over from Brian's lunch the previous day.

After setting out buzzing with excitement from Audlem, a good ninety minutes earlier than necessary, the pair were soon cruising down the M40 to the event -- hoping to spend a little time in Hyde Park first. However, Gremlins struck just after Oxford as the traffic came to a grinding halt -and so it remained as the minutes, then hours, counted down. After crawling down the carriageway at the pace of a limping snail (approximately 2 miles per hour) to the next exit, it became apparent that with the event by then well under way, and the alternative route planner showing a journey time of another 2 hours -- dinner would be cold and the champagne would be as flat as the mood in the car.

With a heavy heart, the trip had to be abandoned, and the couple returned home.

Judy said "We were deeply disappointed to miss out on such a wonderful evening -- but in the scale of world events, especially Ukraine, we have to think that we were fortunate not to be missing out for more traumatic reasons -- and we very much hope to be back at the Greats again in future!

And as things have turned out, we are also finalists at next week at Britain's Small Business Awards -- also down in London. So it's definitely a case of better luck next time !"