Him? He's Ineffable!
He's a manifestation of a conceptual entity!
Driving back, roads were pretty empty as usual, and I managed to get the average fuel economy up to around 40mpg; not that good as cars go, but not too shabby for an eight-year-old Mégane with the same engine as the fabled Clio Williams (ooh, get me, clutching at straws of respectability). I don't really drive all that often, and my excursions can be divided into three types. Most commonly, driving members of my family to and from shops, houses, pubs etc. Occasionally, driving myself to other towns and villages to go exploring. Sometimes, going to see friends, which invariably means driving back late at night. So a large proportion of my mileage is done on A-roads in the middle of the night. I quite enjoy this because there isn't much traffic so I don't have to drive right at the speed limit, and there's usually something good on Radio 3. However when there's other traffic around it becomes something of a problem; the excellent county council sees to it that there are next to no cats' eyes, no white lines marking the edge of the carriageway, and where there is a centre line it's not been repainted in ten years or more. When the road's empty this isn't too bad; even if you can't see where on the road you are there's nothing to crash into. It becomes a problem though when there are other cars coming towards you, because their lights make it very difficult indeed to see the road, and of course they present a large target into which to crash. Less than ideal.
Nevertheless I made it home, to find Mum, rather than having retired at 10 or somesuch unworldly hour, was watching Glastonbury coverage on TV. Eliza Carthy was on, and it occurred to me that I couldn't remember when I last saw someone playing a melodeon on TV. There was also a band called Bloc Party, of whom I'd heard, most recently on Radio 4 yesterday when they were talking about all these current bands with Eastern European names (Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand...) and how very similar they are to post-punk bands of the late 70's. So there you go. Anyway, it occurred to me how many people I know (friends, college-mates, supervisors) are Glastonbury types. My attitude is always of the 'I don't do Glastonbury, I don't do camping, I don't do mud' variety, but I have to say I wonder why exactly I'm always so averse to new experience. I did recently have a sleepover (as it would be called if I was 12 and a girl) with a friend, which is a first (in this century, at least), so I'm not entirely stuck in my ways, but pretty much. Maybe I should try to change that.
Finally, Christopher Middleton in today's Torygraph extols the joys of courteous motoring, and bemoans the lack of guidance on this point in the Highway Code. Now, I thought there was at least something in there about how to thank other drivers, but I haven't managed to find it yet. Either way, as Middleton and the Honda Jazz adverts say, we really should all be reasonable to each other. That said, I still refuse to stop flashing my fog lights at the berks who drive with them on. I tried switching them on tonight to see what difference it made, and found it illuminated a little patch immediately in front of the left wheel. Not all that helpful, so I assume the aforementioned berks are making a statement. Perhaps 'look at me, I have a middle-of-the-range car or better', or maybe 'raaarh, out of my way, I have many candle-power and thus am better than you'. I also cannot abide the people round our way who park half on the pavement, on a T-junction, on a bend, on the crest of a hill, on a residential road where people drive too fast. Yes, all of those at once. (For the record, it should have a 25mph limit or lower in my opinion, and shouldn't be a through-road at all, because it's used as a (dubious) short-cut by people who don't live in the immediate vicinity, rather than using the intended route which doesn't have any houses on it.)
Where was I? Oh yes, but I'm no expert on the Highway Code myself. Recently I had to miss a right-hand turn (I took the next one, which led to the same place) because I wasn't sure I was allowed to cross double white lines to turn off the road. According to Rule 108 it would've been OK though.
Better get down to some 24, it's getting late...
What, just orange juice then?Went over to Andy's to watch some DVDs and eat pizza. I ate rather too much pizza, but then Andy ate rather too many of Mr Kipling's exceedingly good whatchamacallems. Still tend to disagree on the big-scary-spider-killing front, but I suppose it was a more practical solution than my patented 'just surrender that wing of the house to the dominion of the arachnid, until someone else comes along to evict it'...
Driving back, roads were pretty empty as usual, and I managed to get the average fuel economy up to around 40mpg; not that good as cars go, but not too shabby for an eight-year-old Mégane with the same engine as the fabled Clio Williams (ooh, get me, clutching at straws of respectability). I don't really drive all that often, and my excursions can be divided into three types. Most commonly, driving members of my family to and from shops, houses, pubs etc. Occasionally, driving myself to other towns and villages to go exploring. Sometimes, going to see friends, which invariably means driving back late at night. So a large proportion of my mileage is done on A-roads in the middle of the night. I quite enjoy this because there isn't much traffic so I don't have to drive right at the speed limit, and there's usually something good on Radio 3. However when there's other traffic around it becomes something of a problem; the excellent county council sees to it that there are next to no cats' eyes, no white lines marking the edge of the carriageway, and where there is a centre line it's not been repainted in ten years or more. When the road's empty this isn't too bad; even if you can't see where on the road you are there's nothing to crash into. It becomes a problem though when there are other cars coming towards you, because their lights make it very difficult indeed to see the road, and of course they present a large target into which to crash. Less than ideal.
Nevertheless I made it home, to find Mum, rather than having retired at 10 or somesuch unworldly hour, was watching Glastonbury coverage on TV. Eliza Carthy was on, and it occurred to me that I couldn't remember when I last saw someone playing a melodeon on TV. There was also a band called Bloc Party, of whom I'd heard, most recently on Radio 4 yesterday when they were talking about all these current bands with Eastern European names (Kaiser Chiefs, Franz Ferdinand...) and how very similar they are to post-punk bands of the late 70's. So there you go. Anyway, it occurred to me how many people I know (friends, college-mates, supervisors) are Glastonbury types. My attitude is always of the 'I don't do Glastonbury, I don't do camping, I don't do mud' variety, but I have to say I wonder why exactly I'm always so averse to new experience. I did recently have a sleepover (as it would be called if I was 12 and a girl) with a friend, which is a first (in this century, at least), so I'm not entirely stuck in my ways, but pretty much. Maybe I should try to change that.
Finally, Christopher Middleton in today's Torygraph extols the joys of courteous motoring, and bemoans the lack of guidance on this point in the Highway Code. Now, I thought there was at least something in there about how to thank other drivers, but I haven't managed to find it yet. Either way, as Middleton and the Honda Jazz adverts say, we really should all be reasonable to each other. That said, I still refuse to stop flashing my fog lights at the berks who drive with them on. I tried switching them on tonight to see what difference it made, and found it illuminated a little patch immediately in front of the left wheel. Not all that helpful, so I assume the aforementioned berks are making a statement. Perhaps 'look at me, I have a middle-of-the-range car or better', or maybe 'raaarh, out of my way, I have many candle-power and thus am better than you'. I also cannot abide the people round our way who park half on the pavement, on a T-junction, on a bend, on the crest of a hill, on a residential road where people drive too fast. Yes, all of those at once. (For the record, it should have a 25mph limit or lower in my opinion, and shouldn't be a through-road at all, because it's used as a (dubious) short-cut by people who don't live in the immediate vicinity, rather than using the intended route which doesn't have any houses on it.)
Where was I? Oh yes, but I'm no expert on the Highway Code myself. Recently I had to miss a right-hand turn (I took the next one, which led to the same place) because I wasn't sure I was allowed to cross double white lines to turn off the road. According to Rule 108 it would've been OK though.
Better get down to some 24, it's getting late...
posted by Z31 at 12:39 am
1 Comments:
Well Steve, I'm aftaid it was either kill the spider or have nothing to eat or drink for the rest of the evening. And nothing comes between me and a cup of tea!
Post a Comment
<< Home