Memories of the drive to Madrid today...

- Watching cars go past at 160kph in the mist and on a surface made greasy by the first rain in over 2 weeks

- Thinking that some of the drivers might actually turn out to have been driving as if there were no tomorrow

- Being almost fatally caught in a pincer movement by two trucks as I was moving from the A52 to the A6 near Benevente

- Being passed by a funeral car doing at least 160kph. Wondering whether the family of Fernando Alonso was now in the undertaking business. Or whether it was just one of that rare breed of car - the racing hearse

- Being overtaken by every single car, truck and bus as they all blithely ignored the 80kph limit in the extensive roadworks on the edge of Madrid

- Wondering whether there is any more boring job in the world than being an outrider for a very slow moving vehicle. Even the driver of the truck has a greater challenge than merely avoiding sleep

- Driving to within a kilometre or two of my daughter's city-centre flat at 120kph. In how many capital cities of the world can you do this?

- Remembering just how much I like Madrid