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Slow travel, and the Brightside roadside diner

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I was asked today if I would go back to a petrol car? My instant reply was ‘no’. Of course, if circumstances changed I might have to, but it is not in my plan right now.

The reason the question was asked was that I was describing a trip I’d just done. Instead of three and a half hours, it had taken four and a half hours due to charging the car en route. It sounded frustrating but it wasn’t. I’d taken along work to do, and discovered the InstaVolt charger was available when I got to the pre-chosen charging spot. InstaVolt, by the way, has a simple tap and untap method of payment. After way too many stressed out sessions at charging points needing mysterious apps I’ve decided InstaVolt is the way forward.

Anyway, back to that trip’s charging session. The InstaVolt charger I used was one of a pair positioned at the end of a carpark on the edge of the A303 near Honiton. At the other end of the carpark was the Brightside Diner. It was my second stop at the diner, and it still felt cheery and clean so while my car hummed away outside I had a pot of tea, and some delicious pancakes with blueberries, yoghurt, granola and maple syrup. In the end I stayed for just under an hour, thankful that rather than being in the draughty, neon-lit, soulless belly of a service station I was able to sit in a warm, quiet space and watch the morning sun fall in folds across the autumn flecked fields of Devon.

That for me is the bright side of travel with an EV. If I hadn’t needed a charging point, I would have been in and out of a service station, hands full of petrol, head full of fumes, clutching a coffee to go.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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At last – some time to read this

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Dervla Murphy wrote over twenty books. I have read just two so far – Wheels within Wheels, and Full Tilt. I enjoyed both – really enjoyed both. For me there is something so inspiring about being in the company of a real travel writer, someone seemingly unimpeded by the need for any kind of comfort zone.

Ethel Crowley, who selected the pieces in this edition, was a great friend of Dervla Murphy’s and has chosen extracts from each of her 24 books. The forward tells me that they started work on the project together but that Dervla Murphy passed away shortly after they began, leaving her family to continue giving this new book the same trusting support that she had.

Now these extracts, drawn together with real knowledge and affection, are sitting next to me. Together they contain miles and miles of life observed. All I have to do is pick up Life at Full Tilt and start to read.

My thanks to Eland Publishing for sending me this copy.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023

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I remember Charlottesville

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It’s not every day that I receive a book like this in the post. This was sent to me by a friend. The author, Nora Neus, is her daughter.

I’m looking forward to reading this, and hope it’ll help me to understand what happened that August in 2017 when the Unite the Right rally came to Charlottesville. The voices apparently are those of witnesses and antiracist activists from across the communities who stood up for the world they believed in as the rally arrived.

The book is not long – a little over 200 pages, mainly composed of interviews, the majority of which Nora Neus carried out herself on the day after the riots. At the time she’d recently started a job in New York with CNN, but happened to be in the city of Charlottesville in Virginia, clearing out her apartment as the drama evolved. Charlottesville had been her home for years, and suddenly it was struggling to absorb the impact of the white supremacists and neo-Nazis who’d brought their Unite the Right rally into the very core of the city. She was right there, understood the city’s rhythm, and tried to capture what happened.

It must have been a deeply unnerving time.

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2023