Driving me nuts!

Ok, I've been driving since I passed my test first time on my 18th Birthday... that was over 9 years ago.

Ok, I'm not a "vet", but I'm no newbie.

In the last 9 years, driving has gone from freedom and a pleasent experience to sheer frustration and annoyance.

I only live 3.9 miles from where I work, and I've got a Tesco Extra store 1.6 miles from my house. Therefore I can do a awful lot of extremely short journeys, however nowadays you only have to be on the road for 2 minutes before you come across your first idiot.

Now, I am really trying to keep a cool head these days, finding if I let something really make me angry I'll suffer from ulcers, therefore I had to increase my fuse before going nuclear, however it's not easy when faced with the likes of these people (note, not an exhaustive list!):

Older, quite often female drivers who see nothing wrong with driving while just being able to see over the wheel, or in some cases they look THROUGH the wheel. How can they drive with due care and attention at that height? The seats ARE adjustable and you can use a cushion just like you do at home!

Boy/Girl racers, who treat house estates as race tracks, you're the ones driving dangerously and likely to kill someone, you're the ones the Police should be after, not fining someone for doing 35 in a 30 limit, snapped by a camera RIGHT after a roundabout on a mostly deserted industrial estate!

Slowpokes, in Horley (small town right beside Gatwick Airport), there is a particular set of traffic lights right by a bridge over the railway. Many of us turn right and go over the railway to get to the rest of Horley... the traffic light sequence for those turning right is approx. 10 seconds. While I realise there's a good chance some are not local to the area.. however at rush hour you'd expect them to be familiar with the route seeing as it is rush hour, most are travelling a standard route they often take. Surely this would be common knowledge by now to not fart around and get a move on, less only the first 3 vehicles get a go.

This can be said for a number of traffic lights, the "I'm alright Jack" mentality is as soon as you (the car at the front) are past the lights, foot comes off the accelerator and switch to dawdling mode. Oh what I would give to be able to fire a rocket launcher at the one in front at this point, and drive through the blaze left, just like in the movies.

Mandy/Mark no-manners, even if the obstruction in on the other person's side, I prefer to acknowledge them with a thank you, it's just the polite thing to do. Given the number of (mostly) white van men and woman drivers who plough through, regardless of the Highway code (yes there is the " didn't see you, now I'm commited argument, however that doesn't stop you pulling in at the next chance! Unless of course the person coming the other way is the berk and puts their foot down, not giving you the chance to get in, that also happens). We're ALL trying to get somewhere, well maybe not the "Oldies drivers", they do seem to be on the road aimlessly heading for nowhere in particular.

School run, which nowadays is a warzone or rough terrain exercise. Ok, if you have a tribe of offspring, the weekly shop may require something with more room than a Corsa, but really, these huge 4x4's are just rediculous, especially when the driver (typically female), believe it to be a close relative of a Army Tank, which gives them ownership of the road and everyone else must get out of their way. It's undeniably a far nicer journey to work, when the brats are off school, sadly this usually means the streets are far less safer, oh well you can't have it all, can you?

Road-side parking, even those with garages, park on the road... with no consideration if they're parking outside YOUR house, on YOUR side of the road, bad enough they don't keep the othe side clear for your driveway. I pray there's a small fire down the street, nothing serious, just enough to have a Fire Engine belt through and plough all the parked cars our the way, that'll make them think twice about leaving their cars there. Especially with NO consideration for anyone to actually be able to drive past them down the road... it IS a road afterall, not a car park!

Signals... every car has them (well, saying that, it looks like some car manufacturers are trying to phase them out, making them smaller and smaller, or sticking them in weird locations other drivers can't see them!), yet s few people use them... or what really aggrivates me, is the mindset of using the indicator RIGHT AS THEY'RE turning, almost as if for them to be able to turn the wheel fully, they must activate the indicator to be able to do it. That is NOT the reason for indicators, you're to use them BEFORE your manouver to alert other motorists and pedestrians. It's Mirror, Signal, Manouver NOT Signal+Manouver simultaneously!

On a similiar note, unless they're teaching something different, when approaching a roundabout you signal left on the approach if you're taking the first exit, you signal right if you're taking an exit which would cause you to go round the motorway by 90 degrees, i.e. if you're not going straight over/across the roundabout and by that I don't mean literally (though some idiots seem to do it, judging by the tire marks on the smaller roundabouts). Which, by the way, is extremely idiotic if it's a multi-lane roundabout (even just two lanes) and you're in the left lane, and then turn right/take the right-hand exit (whether there is a straight on exit or not). You are in the wrong lane and cutting people up, stop doing it!

There's a mini-ish roundabout near my house, I signal right and take the right-hand exit to go home, but many in front and behind, signal right and go straight across, what idiots! A pedistrian could see your signal, begin to walk across the road and be ploughed down by you!

Worst still, we can't rely on the authorties to be a good example, if it's not Police racing to clock off and smacking into a 4x4, it's the number of ambulances I've seen "sneak up" on motorists, waiting until they're behind you to activate their siren to scare the heck out of you, nearly causing an accident themselves. They should have it on PERMANENTLY when in an emergency situation, Ambulance, Police, Fire Engines, not turning it off and the on at the most stupid time. Yes they have flashing lights, but the roads are getting so glogged up with cars (driving and parked) that's not always enough. It's becoming a game of waldo when you do faintly hear something, and goodness help you if you're about to join a major roundabout, it could be coming from anywhere and going anywhere else!

Worst still are the movie-loving police men/woman with the "hair dryer" speed camera, these should be banned, there's no reason for them with the fixed camera and mobile camera vans, and the officers should certainly be trained, not to pull them out like a weapon. If a kid pulls out a toy gun, they shoot him on the spot, how do they think the public feels when they see an officer pull out and point what looks like a weapon at them, especially if they rest it ontop of their parked vehicle for stability, surely that's not necessary to tag a vehicle, but it is if you want to shoot the driver, that's how it's perceived by the member of the public in the car.

Yes, I am referring to an incident I experienced, no it was not me he was after, but the Ferrari rocketing up beside me in the fast lane, who looked like he was going to fly by, but then didn't, instead staying a little ways behind me.

They don't make the roads safer, they make them more dangerous, people slamming on the brake, warning each other, rubbernecking etc.

We're in Autumn, and Winter will soon be upon us, the season for daily accidents, motorway collisions, back road ditch car upending and icing spinouts/telephone pole wraparounds.... if any proof is needed we as a race are heading for our own extinction by stupidity, it's the quality of driving, especially in the winter.

How do these people past their driving tests?

Sponsored by a company that wants to aggrivate you

Ok, well I finally felt good enough to see the first episode of the new series of Lie to Me (if you don't know what that is, go and google it and come if you must), the episode itself was pretty good, felt the ending pretty sudden, however at each point before and after the advert break, we're told that the show is brought to you/sponsored by "so-en-so".

This gets remarkably annoying at the best of times, even worse if it's been done by some wally in marketing. However, this time, the company (a carpet company of all things) decides the best way to tell viewers it sponsors the program is by showing a spider, tarantula I believe, when going to adverts and a snake on the return. These have to be two of the biggest phobias possible, I personally suffering from the Arachnophobia, not that I fancied seeing the snake either mind.

Did I miss something, or is sponsoring a program another method of advertising your company to possible customers? If so, what idiot though using phobias would turn people on to considering them for getting their new carpet??!!

Worst still, I have to remember to cover my eyes/look away when the show goes to an advert break, which happens, what 4 times per episode, and say about 26 episodes on average per series in America, say 100 chances, great, that doesn't put a dampener on my enjoyment.. no... I shall be emailing their customer support/complaints department.

What were they thinking?!

Sick

Ok, I've been suffering for the last week or so, with the flu, I'm still coughing, but at least that's all now.

I won't go into the disgusting details, suffice to say it was a pretty bad flu I had.

It's usually my bad luck to catch one thing every winter, but it only just started getting a little nippy out a week ago, usually I make it to December/January, usually around some party I'm too ill to go to, this time I feel like it was waiting for me round the corner, as we turned into October, it attacked me.

What I don't get, is why your body is pathetically weak, except when it comes to coughing and sneezing... it's like the virus has taken control of your system and reprogrammed your brain and nasal passages for FULL power, or overload... you sneeze so hard, you blow a hole in the 5 tissues you grabbed at once, made a noise so loud and unearthly it scared every human and pet in the house. Then of course as you returning to your normal seating position, checking you still have both your eyeballs still in their socket, and there's no visible trances of any escaped part of your brain, your shoulder bones ache like you've just been in a Mr Strongman competition.

You curse your body and the virus, why? What possible reason could there be to put yourself through such a force, your nose is highly unlikely to be any clearer, so why? The only logical reason I can think is the virus forcing you to spread itself.

The sneezing has stopped, thank goodness, but I still have the cough, a dry cough, there's nothing to cough up, least it doesn't feel like there is. Yet again, my body's on autopilot, been hacked into, hijacked, forced to cough at regular points, and particularly when the room is quiet, or at a church for a Christening.

At least I wasn't the only one hacking up a lung there.

BT vs VM

Thanks to the two engineers from "our favourite telco" (saying originally from RevK), they were not able to find my cables in, and began ordering a survey and a new feed laid through the pavement.

Fortunately, that night, we discovered the entrance way's of our's and next door's house were added on afterwards, and the builder who did it, decided to plaster in the telephone cables, and ditch the box. Very insightful, anyway some exploration later, my father and myself found the missing cables, and after several phone calls and screw ups, I got at least one of my new lines installed. A full week later when my other new Broadband provider who also took a while longer than expected to install Broadband.

This lead to I'm sure a very strange occurrence on our street, or indeed any street, the meeting of the rivals.... I snapped this while they were both here, and no I didn't ask them to park that way round, with the Virgin van's "Near Miss?" in view of the camera... that... is just fate.

Our fav telco will be back this Wednesday to put the second line in... because of course they couldn't put two in, side by side, at the same time. Particularly not when the engineer spend enough time just getting a new 66 junction box, Virgin practically installed cable while he was still looking!

He won't have much to do, literally the cables are there waiting, just need the master NTE and of course the line patching through.

You maybe wondering... "why?", well firstly these are currently just BT phones lines going in, I'll be sorting out Broadband down them through another provider, as for the cable, well it's a fall back, and I intend to use it for personal use during the weekdays. I've got a specialist router, which I'm learning to handle multiple WANs/ISPs, probably more on that later.

It begins?

Right, here we go. Another Blog, I'd hate to think how many are on the internet taking up space, more than likely contributing to a gigantic waste of data, so what am I doing contributing to the madness?

Well, I figured it would therapeutic (thank god this thing has a spell check, that'll save some time) for me, somewhere for me to rant and rave, if you've found this Blog, you either know me through some other means, or you clicked a link on a search engine... good grief.. if search engines index these things (blogs) soon it will be impossible to find what we're looking for online.

So anyway, maybe you'll get a laugh, maybe your a kindred spirit, nice, just if you don't get my wavelength, then please find something better to do then argue on here, I'm not always right, but I always hate being made to feel the idiot, so move along.