Blogging
Archive
27
October 2004 – Ka Troubles
It’s
been a troubling few weeks with regard to the Ka.
First
off, his ABS is currently not
functioning. The problem is a duff front
drivers side speed sensor, but the part in question is a factory order
one. And the factory didn’t have any, so
there was a delay of a week before the part could be acquired and Kermit could be
fixed. All up, it’ll be four weeks between
the ABS lamp illuminating and the sensor being fixed, but for two of those we
were out of the country.
On to
his tyres, and Kermit’s been running
on Wynstar tyres at the front and Falken at the back. In the dry, there’s some difference between
the two tyres. The Wynstars squeal and
let go, but it’s reassuringly progressive.
Lifting off the power results in the nose tucking in but I’ve yet to
unstick the back.
In the
wet, however, it’s a different story. It’s
been raining a lot! The Wynstars just
don’t work on Kermit, no matter at what pressure I run them at. From rest, I have wheelspin if I’m at all
keen. Actually, if I boot it from rest,
it’s still wheelspinning in to the low 50s in third gear. This is a reflection on how dismal the tyres
are. You know you have issues with the
tyres when the effect of the air conditioning compressor kicking off is enough
to entice wheelspin!
A car
that has poor low speed acceleration is a pain, but a car with poor deceleration
is a menace. In the absence of ABS, I’ve
had to relearn the necessary sensitivity required for cadence braking. It all comes back to you very quickly, but
his front wheels lock up very easily in the wet. They’ll show signs of locking up under just
moderate braking from speed.
To this
end, we’re binning the Wynstars for some more Falkens! But before I did, I followed the advice of a
friend of mine, who helpfully suggested I swap the front and rear tyres around,
“just to experience a loose assed Ka.”
After a spin, I did get into the knack of darting into a corner, lifting
off the power just enough to coax the back into a oversteery slide, then back
on the power to pull it through.
However, although the chassis is wonderfully stable, a change of road
surface can cause all sorts of excitement!
Further
problems; Kermit dropped a headlight bulb, so I’m riding about in a “one eyed
monster,” as the safety videos broadcast a few years back. It’s obvious from inside the car that you’re
one lamp down, although the Ka’s lights perform better than I was expecting -
and much better than my Cinquecento. At distance, there’s noticeably less
illumination. Close in, it’s the
passenger side bulb that has gone so there’s little in the way of kerb
illumination inside four or five feet.
Mid-range, there’s not much in it (the Cinq’s lights were not exactly
wonderful at the best of times, and with one headlight it was easier to drive
by memory). Anyway, as a result of him
blowing a bulb we’re accelerated our plans to get the Morettes put on to the lad.
19/10/2004
– EnthusiastiKa Nonsense
Click here to appreciate this blog.
It’s
amazing how underhand somebody can get when they feel wronged.
Depending
on when you’re reading this, the definition of EnthusiastiKa was put up on http://www.urbandictionary.com/
by somebody who, clearly, feels wronged by the magazine. I suspect that the intention is to get me to
respond. So I attempted to discuss the
situation in the Ka Klub forum. Guess
what? After some heads-in-the-sand
posting, like “don’t take things so seriously,” that night the relevant posts
were deleted.
Can
anybody else smell a cover up?
The
individual concerned isn’t bothered about hiding their identification (don’t
you just love IP addresses?), so I know who you are and what ISP you’re
using.
The
trouble is that these sorts of cheap shots just make Charlie all the more
determined to continue publication of the magazine. There are over a hundred names on the email
list, and the list was started just two months ago as I write this.
And
that’s what they are - cheap shots.
Criticising the magazine for having “no content” is rich when the other
rumoured Ka magazine has absolutely no content whatsoever. How come?
Because it’s not been produced, there is no other Ka magazine (as I
write this).
But you
know, what really upsets me is how the UK Ka Klub believe they have the right
to exclusive Ka content. There is no
official Ka magazine (just ask Ford), no official Ka Klub magazine (one
has been coming for a number of months now), indeed the Ka Klub certainly
isn’t official in any way. Ford have not
offered them the rights to the Ka and they certainly don’t have rights to a Ka
owners club, either. So what gives?
I don’t
care for digs at my beliefs (I’m writing about religious persuasion here)
because they’re founded on ignorance or stupidity. I don’t want some kind of competition with
the Ka Klub, I don’t want members feeling that they must decide what to support
- quite the opposite, I want the Klub to succeed and I see it as being just one
avenue. I’m not interested in some kind
of war of words, since perpetuating will only lead to a rift. So what do I do?
If you
know the answer to this, I’d love to hear from you - contact me if you will!
04/10/2004
– Unlucky For Some
We had
an unlucky week in late September. First
off, the Ka Klub chairman wrote that EnthusiastiKa was formed “because the wife
of the creator couldn’t put together a half decent Klub magazine” and that
there was “no content,” amongst other things.
Unfortunately, in additional to being incorrect on several points, he
has also burnt his bridges. I’ve
resigned from my position of North East Regional Representative of the Ka Klub
and I will not support them in the way I have done whilst the Klub is being
“run” by a hypocritical dictator.
Meanwhile,
we’ve been trying to buy a house but the bank have delayed and delayed the
offer documentation. It was finally
produced on the Thursday before we were due to fly out to the
Then,
when leaving the office to start my holiday on Friday lunch, Kermit’s ABS remained lit. I’ll have to get this seen to shortly.
Finally,
after spending just eleven days away from him, when we returned to the
The day
after we had the battery replaced, I came down with tonsillitis!
So, yes,
it’s been a bit unfortunate!
12/06/2004
–
It’s a
good place to live and work, setting aside the high price of property.
But it
has a problem with traffic. On the one
hand, people feel that they need to use their private cars to get to where they
are going. To a degree, I sympathise –
there’s a balancing act between making
A
significant chunk of the city centre is (supposedly) closed off to
non-bus, non-taxi traffic during the working day (that is, eight in the
morning until six in the evening).
This means that cars should use the inner ring road, the outer
ring road, indeed anywhere except using the city centre.
There is
some policing of the above city centre closure, but not much. There are short cuts that one can take – I’ve
made it my business to find most of them – and this means that one can travel
about the city rather freely, without worrying about using the heavily
congested inner ring road.
Congestion? I’ve observed the flow of traffic around the
city and the conclusion that I’ve reached is that the traffic light timing at
critical junctions are designed to slow traffic flow. I’m supposing that the rationale behind this
is to encourage people to use the busses, walk, cycle, indeed do anything other
than sit in their car in a traffic jam.
Worse
still, although the volume of traffic varies from day to day (associated
with the weather, events taking place, so on and so forth) in the absence
of a race meeting, it doesn’t vary that much. So why does the traffic problem move about
the city so much?
As an
example, I left Office World at 16:22 on
But I’ve
since driven this route at the same time, and the lights have let over a dozen
vehicles through. Instead, traffic
lights on the other side of the city have been on this funky timer setting.
I’ve had
no response from the council regarding this.
Not yet. I’ll keep asking.
Are the
traffic light timings deliberately set up to cause traffic problems?
15/04/2004
– Parcel Delivery
You have
to admire parcel delivery van drivers.
They presumably have to learn a number of important catch phrases, such
as “delivery, mate” (to any traffic wardens), “come on darling you could
get a bus down there” (to any female Corsa
drivers unwilling to move between two parked vehicles), and “bacon bap with
extra grease, please” in the local greasy spoon. Oh and, “could you take this for number
three?”
Of
course, if there’s nobody next door, they drop a little card through your
letter box, and you have to ring their number to arrange a new time to deliver.
This has
happened to us. Our boot drive is
failing so we need a replacement, and I’ve ordered a nice fat 80 Gb unit (it’s
a fat drive for us). Since Charlie
and I work during the day, when the chap came around we weren’t around. I arrive home about half five, and ring their
number to arrange that I’ll collect it the next day.
No
answer. Well the card says they’re open
until six o’clock, so I keep trying, and they keep ignoring it. I give up just after six, and try again the
following morning from eight o’clock.
Now then
here’s a surprise - their telephone number is engaged. So I try and try again, but there’s no
getting through until close to nine o’clock, “oh, it’s gone out again today,
but you can collect it tomorrow, or maybe Monday?”
Grrr! Meanwhile, our new hard drive will have been
tossed about in the van for two days in a row.
13/04/2004
– I’m Sorry!
I admit,
I’ve upset people - and I’m sorry. I
didn’t mean to do it; I guess people take things too seriously?
When
leaving the office this lunch - turning right onto a very busy line of traffic
- I “dared” pull into a space in stop / go traffic in front of a reasonably
young and quite attractive lady with two toddlers in the back of her Fiat
Multipla JTD and two babies next to her.
Dared? Well yes, because when
repeated blasts of the Fiat horn failed to attract my attention, she pulled
alongside (quite an achievement in itself), powered her window down, and
attempted to give me a piece of her aggravation. I believe her precise expression was, “how f*****g dare you f*****g pull out in f*****g front of me
when you f*****g don’t have f*****g right of f*****g way you f*****g w****r
c**t.”
I
believe I understand why her language degenerated as her monologue continues,
because I was looking right at her, tongue extended, wagging my head from side
to side in mockery. Then the dulcet
tones of Kylie Minogue’s “Fever” (well hardly dulcet, more like raunchy)
were put on the lad’s CD player and I couldn’t hear much else besides Ms.
Minogue. That may have annoyed her too,
but I didn’t hear anything else from the young lady, and by this point had
dismissed the Multipla as an irrelevance to my journey. A suitable wave (not the finger, heh)
and I was on my way.
Admittedly,
I could have waited for a suitable gap to appear. But wait.
There was plenty of room in front of the Multipla and nobody else was
moving, so I seized an opportunity. I
certainly didn’t force myself into the flow of traffic nor do I believe I
caused an inconvenience to anybody, other than the imaginary one that
presumably made her react in the way that she did.
My
theory is that she is a nanny forced into driving the Multipla by her
employers, but her own car is probably a black Golf GTI. If this is the case, then I would like to
offer my most sincere apologies to her employers, because their kiddies may
well have learnt some colourful new words.
13/03/2004:
Office Security
Office
security is something that we all need to take very seriously. We also need a register of who is in the
building should there be a fire or security alert, and everybody has to leave
the building. These are perfectly
respectable and sensible precautions.
I mean,
we don’t want riff-raff in the office, now, do we?
But
sometimes, pettiness can overtake the prudent use of the signing in book. Micromanagement of quite where an individual
is can cause untold disruption to the working day.
Unfortunately
and occasionally, I do forget to sign in or out of the signing in book. The reason why I forget is almost certainly
because I’m one of the first three individuals to get to the office in the
morning, and often the first to consider bringing in the newspapers and milk
left on the doorstep. So somewhere
between unlocking the door, deactivating the alarm, putting the milk away,
reading the front page of the newspaper, grabbing my Ka Klub mug and going
upstairs to my own little corner of the office, I forget to sign in. How remiss of me!
Office
policy originally dictated that we must sign in and out of the office each and every time we
leave. When I queried when, exactly, we
should sign in or out, this was hastily changed to be office premises including
the car park. So if you popped outside
for a fag, you didn’t have to sign out.
Presumably
this being because none of the smokers have signed out... including the
individual responsible for ensuring the book is kept up to date... Except this individual used a scapegoat to
pass the message on...
Or am I
just being both cynical and unreasonable?
12/03/2004:
Victory
Those of
you who have been reading my blogging page will have realised what an effort
achieving a decent workable parking facility has been at my office. 
Management originally refused install some sort of
guideline, after all we’re all sensible people and sensible people can park,
right? All we needed was a bit of common
sense, no need for markers. Never mind
that most roads out there have white lines for guidance...
However,
this morning I arrived at work - the first person to get to the office yet
again - and I find that we now have guidelines for parking... They’re very subtle, of course – a few wee
dods of wood on the wall – but it doesn’t matter. They’re there.
Is this
a minor victory? Can I now walk around
with a smug look on my face?
No,
probably not. Somebody else will claim
to have had this great idea... But it
doesn’t matter to me. I’m happy.
09/03/2004:
House Buying
It is
perhaps my worst kept secret that Charlie and I wish to buy a house to use as a
means of emigration. It is through a
house that we will be able to save the necessary capital such that we will be
able to move from the
But
house prices in
Right. Find a friend and combine your money. Doesn’t that say something when two full time
workers cannot afford to buy their own home.
The
statement is actually quite insulting, although this is of course a very
emotional topic of discussion, so perhaps I’m being a little bit too sensitive?
So we’re
been looking outside of the city, and contacting various estate agents, with a
view to finding somewhere to live.
Daft
prices in
Some
people might think that £185,000 for a three bedroom end town house, with a
drive, double glazing and gas central heating, isn’t too bad. Perhaps these individuals earn enough to make
a mortgage on this value a realistic goal, or perhaps they already have a house
with some equity to use as a deposit?
For first time buyers, without a deposit, this value of property is
essentially in our dreams. Oh and it
doesn’t even have a garage. Some are
also “in need of some internal modernisation.”
Our
budget varies according to how far we have to commute to get to work, but a
broad figure of £70,000 is what we’re comfortable with borrowing (owing to a
measure of Dervy-caution with regard to the future of interest rates). We could stretch a little bit more in
One can
buy a “compact studio flat” for £70,000 inside
I think
not.
Colleagues
can be an especially useless source of information. “You don’t want to live there, it’s too
rough” or “why not live in
The
above written, some colleagues have been very supportive and helpful.
The
Council were a little bit helpful, “if you cannot afford a mortgage, you
shouldn’t be thinking about it” one employee said, then told me that the above
comment was off the record. Presumably
he was a landlord, but I’ll discuss this in a little bit. “You could try the Rowntree Housing Trust.”
The
Housing Trust were helpful. But even
with a 25% cash advance (they have a share of the house) it was still
too expensive. Only a few thousand over
our agreed limit, admittedly, but there has to be a point whereby you have to
stop looking because they’re too expensive.
Estate
agents. Some estate agents are good
because they don’t upset me with bad news.
This is because they ignore my requests for information, nor do they
return telephone calls or emails.
Some
estate agents have wonderful search facilities on their websites, can update
you via email, and even by the telephone, however by the time they have updated
you, the property has been sold and there are no more available. It seems one has to do some serious
bottom-kissing to make any progress.
Estate
agents are also guilty of not telling you quite what they mean. “Requires some attention” usually means, “it
needs gutting and redecorating from scratch.”
“Close to a busy town centre” meant, in one example, “abandoned car in
front of the house, used needles in the yard, and a really bad
smell throughout the entire property.”
Yours for a mere £39,995, presumably including a contract with the local
crime lord.
I could
mention the “we’ve not tested anything in this house” disclaimer. It usually means the central heating and
plumbing. It’s occasionally obvious that
the central heating doesn’t work because the chuffing boiler is missing, or
that the plumbing is requiring work because the pipe work is clearly split.
If the
above sounds cynical, you’re right, it is.
So we’re buying somewhere privately, and cutting the estate agent out of
the loop. And Kermit is getting his own
bedroom. Yes, it is forty miles out of
Does
this mean that we’ll get fed up of the commute?
Possibly. There will be
opportunities closer to home, this is for sure.
But it
will all become academic just as soon as the house value increases enough for
us to be able to sell up and emigrate to
I do
love the
Now if
only we can introduce the Ka over there...
Footnote
So why
are house prices so expensive in
However,
the “buy to let” brigade have really got their claws in the market. Some landlords have amassed large numbers of
properties, which they rent out at inflated prices. Unfortunately, there’s nothing illegal with
this activity. A rise in interest rates
isn’t going to make all that much difference to some of these landlords because
the properties have relatively small mortgages.
24/02/2004:
City Driving Numpties
Why do
many people behave so stupidly in our cities, in stop / go traffic, hold ups,
and jams?
On the
one hand, you’ve the individual who was taught that when they move off, they
are accelerating. Some people are
incapable of using just enough power to move off. So they accelerate quite smartly, and then
immediately have to brake quite firmly.
This is repeated until they either break their neck, their clutch, or
their bumper on the car immediately in front.
Then we
have those people who are incapable of ascertaining what is happening beyond
the car immediately in front or behind their own vehicle. These are the individuals who clog up
junctions, roundabouts, or who stop dead in the road because the car they’ve
been following is turning right.
Oh and
we must not forget those people who are turning right, across the stream of
traffic, but who don’t bother to position themselves thus blocking the road.
And
those drivers for whom a traffic light immediately converts them into a racing
driver.
Or those
people who believe if their vehicle is stationary, something awful will happen
to it and so when waiting for every traffic light, or at a junction,
continuously inch their vehicle forwards.
Finally,
although most bus drivers in and around York are careful, considerate drivers,
there is a hard code cache of individuals to whom the bus represents a means of
getting their own back on all of the other car drivers who may have upset them
in the past.
Some
smokers manage to almost completely fill their car with smoke, and although
I’ve never seen anybody using their wipers in this situation, it must only be a
matter of time.
11/02/2004:
First Time Buyers
Charlie and I want to buy a
house. Now we’ve a few reasons for this,
but the main one is that we’ve been renting property since we’ve been married
and we’ve recently counted on how much money we’ve spent on this. It’s a scary figure. It’s buy-yourself-a-Streetka-with-change-for-a-heck-of-a-holiday
money. And this is only from four years.
Well, here’s the first snag. We went along to see The Bank, understanding
that whilst they wouldn’t be the cheapest, they are the most likely to be able
to lend us the money. After some
discussion about salary multiples, interest rates, and all sorts of technical
jargon, The Bank came up with The Figure.
The most that they would be prepared to lend us. Actually, The Figure can only be up to 95% of
the value of the property because we need to find the 5% deposit from
somewhere. I’ll deal with the deposit
situation elsewhere.
Unfortunately, The Figure is significantly
less than the value of the house that we live in. Now we don’t live in a palace by any means -
it’s a two bedroom, mid terrace house - quite small, but in a quiet enough
area. On street parking, some double
glazing. And typically sell for 125% of
The Figure.
Okay, so perhaps we can move out
of the centre of
But here’s the snag. The monthly interest-only payment is almost
as much as our rent (which, by the way, we consider to be extortionate for
what we have). It’s within forty
notes a month. Then we take off the life
assurance that we need, oh and whilst we’re at it we should also fund a savings
vehicle too. Oh, hang on, so we can’t
afford to move out of the city and buy somewhere given the mortgage that The
Bank have given us.
So what do we do? Well we need to be spending less on a house,
then, or we need to make more money.
I work for The Company. I’m led to believe that I’m paid well for
what I do. But of far more importance, I
love working at The Company and I have some good friends there. Money by itself is not sufficient motivation
for me to want to move somewhere else.
Buying a cheaper house is another
idea, but begs the question of “where?”
05/02/2004 – Bad Parking Revisited
I’m sure it’s happened to most
drivers. You return to your vehicle and
some inconsiderate tosser has boxed you in, or (arguably worse) has nearly
boxed you in. So you have to shunt
backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, and you know that the other
driver is probably watching you from afar, having a chuckle at your
misfortune. I’ll wager that it won’t
happen to somebody with lots of parking scrapes on their bumpers (hmmm,
thinks, I wonder if you can get “battle damage transfer kits” for the Ka?).
What do you do when it’s a colleague at your
workplace, in your office car park?
Well, you could start shouting blue murder from the car park knowing
that somebody will hear you. Of
course, more likely than not, it’ll be your boss who hears you, and before you
know it you’ll be standing in front of his desk whilst he chews a cigar (extrapolate
this to suit your boss).
If you have fully comprehensive
insurance you could “accidentally” drive into the offending vehicle(s),
reverse, then make sure, knowing that all vehicles involved will be
covered. Or if you have just third party
cover, you could do this anyway, since it is likely that you’ll do far more
damage to their car than to your own.
You could write a snotty email message for all staff, naming and shaming
the bad parkers, enclosing photographic evidence, or perhaps put up a website (www.badparking.com
perhaps?) to tell the whole world about your problem.
Or you could just call NASA, after
all, parking isn’t rocket science...
31/01/2004 – Numpty Snow Driving
I’m amazed at how many people’s
intelligence drops with the temperature.
In late January, we had some snow in
Or the chap who said to me, “hey
my car’s great in the snow, the ABS’s really cool, but why does it take so long
to stop?” Kermit has ABS but you know, I’ve only triggered it
intentionally... and this is with his
“nervous” tyre behaviour in low
temperatures.
The news doesn’t help matters -
headline stories of accidents then footage of numpties attempting to drive off
in slippery conditions by simply depressing the accelerator harder doesn’t
inspire confidence.
So, if you’re out in the snow, do
bear the following:
·
If you
fall over whilst walking to your car, it’s icy out there.
·
If you
have to thaw the door locks, the windscreen and all of the windows, it’s
probably icy out there.
·
If, when
trying to drive off rather smartly, there’s a swishing noise and the engine
revs are rising (you may even see some activity from the dashboard), you
are wheelspinning. Lift off the power
and let the driven wheels decelerate before trying to move off again.
·
If you
find that your brake pedal is jumping about under your feet and your stopping
distance is measured in miles, you’re driving too fast in slippery conditions.
·
Use of
the handbrake mid-way around a busy roundabout is not advisable.
·
It
doesn’t matter if your BMW has electronic stability protection, it’s designed
to allow some rear end oversteer, but it doesn’t understand that it’s slippery
down there so you can still crash it.
·
I don’t
care if you have four wheel drive, without proper tyres, you’re no safer than
my little front wheel drive hatchback, except you’re carrying a lot more
weight.
16/01/2004 – Parking!
When parking your vehicle, could
all drivers please note that:
·
Those
white lines are not advisory, you are required to park inside them. It is also advisable that you park in the
centre of the bay, such that the person next to you can actually get into or
out of their vehicle.
·
Try to
imagine those lines forming a box, and then get the nose inside the front and
the stern inside the back. If your car
is too long to use the spot, compromise and be sensible. Don’t let the car’s nose or rump overhang by
eight feet.
·
“Touch
parking” is a sign of excessive stupidity.
Learn the size of your car using a wall, not other peoples car.
·
If you
do drive into somebody, owning up and admitting you did it won’t get your
lights punched out. Not admitting you
did it and being seen committing the act may well do so.
·
Car
parks contain parked and moving vehicles, narrow spaces, pedestrians and maybe
even loose trolleys. First gear is
suitable. Third gear combined with hard
acceleration is not.
·
Kindly
note that the vehicle next to you is not designed to prevent your door from
opening too far. Don’t let your door
bang against it.
·
Wear
your seatbelt. You’d feel especially
stupid if you managed to crash into something and woke up buried in a pile of
shopping trolleys because you didn’t put your seatbelt on.
·
When
you’re in a supermarket, take your shopping trolley back to the depot! Not only are you being lazy, but you confuse Fiat Siecento owners, who when they
see a whole bunch of trolleys in a car park, immediately think that it’s an
owners club meet.
·
Do try
to plan entry and egress into the parking bay.
It’s often easier to reverse in, but if you’re buying a load of
shopping, consider putting the car nose in.
Of course, reverse in if you’re lucky enough to be driving something
with a boot in the nose of the vehicle.
Note the positioning and function
of the little button on the handbrake (or parking brake). Use it.
10/01/2004 – Mercedes Drivers
After reading this,
which made me chuckle, I think a similar document needs to be written for
Mercedes Benz drivers – especially those company car drivers who have finally
been able to afford to lease “their first Merc,” either a C180 or an A140:
·
That
badge may have been bought to impress the neighbours, but it doesn’t impress
me. So back off, I’m not going to go any
quicker, actually if you continue to drive eighteen inches of Kermit’s exhaust,
I’ll slow down to bring you in even closer.
Eventually we’ll stop. Just you
wait.
·
Indicators
do contain bulbs or LEDs, and are a useful clue for the other motorist as to
what you’re doing. And the stalk’s there
too – so use it.
·
I
appreciate that the accelerator pedal is especially heavy to as to save fuel,
but occasionally one does have to depress it rather more than normal to ascend
the hill.
·
When you
are stationary in your automatic Mercedes Benz, it probably puts itself into
neutral, so you can use the parking brake and get off the foot brake. Those eighteen watt brake light bulbs are
burning the image of your lamps into the back of my head!
·
Just
because you have fancy headlights, doesn’t mean you have to use them all of the
time. And your standard halogen fog
lamps look awful compared to the Xenons so switch them off!
·
The
three pointed star is not a lead-in target for other motorists in supermarket
car parks. You can keep coming towards
me, I’m not moving out of your way just because you keep on creeping forward.
·
If you
continue to look down upon me from your “executive saloon,” I’ll continue to
point and leer at your cloth trim, whilst I’m sat on leather.
·
I don’t
care if it has a Merc badge on it, it’s cousin is the Dodge Neon, deal with it.
·
Is that
an Elk? <mwahahahahahah!>
17/11/2003 – Sidelights
I don’t get the point of allowing
people to drive with either sidelights or “dimmed dip.” Why do manufacturers allow this? Why do people drive around with what appear
to be deceased glow worms masquerading as light bulbs? Do the manufacturers not realise that stupid
people believe that because the dashboard is illuminated, their lights are
effective? Do drivers see other cars
with sidelights aglow, maybe even the same make, model and age as their own
vehicle, see how useless the illumination, and do something about it? The answer to all of these questions is
clearly a resounding “no!”
And what’s worse than a driver in
misty or foggy conditions with sidelights on?
A driver in perfect conditions (day or night) with sidelights and fog
lamps lit (usually front, sometimes rear and sometimes both).
So what’s the point of a sidelight
setting? Running lights? Errr, no.
Parking? Yes, I suppose.
06/11/2003 – Traffic Lights
Do people not realise that traffic
lights issue instructions? Some drivers
seem to think that the signals they provide are merely recommendations! Just this morning whilst walking to work, a
dark silvery grey BMW 530d (yes it may be sad that I noted the model) drove up
to a light that turned to amber, and then, without any change of speed, went
right through the red lamp. And for
what? To save a few seconds?
Drivers also have a dangerous
habit of moving off when the light flicks to amber rather than waiting until it
hits green. I’ve already witnessed one
accident in
So am I missing something? Are you a wimp if you don’t consider traffic
lights to be advisory? Are such lamps
only there for the timid drivers?
04/11/2003 – Headlights
Tonight I was following a Citroën
Xsara down a moderately twisty main road in the dark, nobody in front,
reasonably late on, and the other driver seemed unwilling to drive beyond 45
mph. Unfortunately, he or she also did
not appear to understand the concept of “main beam” (or “brights” for any
American readers out there). So
we’re dawdling along at the heady speed of 45 mph, and I’m unable to safely
overtake since I cannot see much beyond the car in front, since he or she is
doing very little to illuminate the road!
As we go through a few villages with 40 mph speed limits, I slow down to
stick inside the Law, but the Xsara driver doesn’t. Thus, a couple of minutes after leaving the
village, I catch up with it again.
At the exit of one village, it
leads to approximately a mile and a half of dual carriageway, so as we leave
the 40 limit, we’re down into third gear, and extending the engine. Unfortunately, Xsara guy sees this Ka bearing
down on him, and I guess he or she likes looking at the front of it, because he
accelerates hard too. He accelerates to
a speed that it significantly above 70 mph too, and leaves me pretty much
standing.
That’s okay, I can cope with this,
perhaps he’s decided to get a move on.
But, no, two miles after the dual
carriageway switches back into single carriageway, I catch up with him again!