I drag myself out of bed at 4.30am and proceed to get everyone else up and dressed and out the front door in record time. It’s tight, but we manage to be driving up the M1 in smug, self-congratulatory mode, with three of the Fab Four plugged into the DVD shortly before 6am.
We are on the M6 when it dawns on me that Hub has not got the required photographic ID. We do a U turn – well, not literally on the motorway, itself, obviously, that would be stupid (but apparently, not unheard of))
Back on the M1, we come to a complete standstill, as the motorway closes both ways due to a lorry fire. It remains closed for two hours, giving us plenty of time to reflect on the wisdom of our decision to delay breakfast until we had reached some place past Birmingham.
We eventually arrive back at home, some four hours after we first left it. We all get out, stretch our legs and generally contemplate the fact that there is something not quite right about having a “toilet break” in your own house.