Inherently Useless

Posted: Wed 20 August, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, Getting Old(er), M1, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

On my commutes, I regularly find myself bemused by the whole thing of performance cars – things like Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Aston Martins, AMG Mercedes and the like.

Don’t get me wrong, I do like the look of a lot of them, as well as the idea of fast cars. I love seeing them, and some of the stuff about them, the hand-made elements and so on. But here in the UK I just don’t really see the point of them.

I get that some of it is about showing off, that you can afford a fast car (as well as the petrol etc.) and fair play. Personally I don’t value myself by my possessions – large or small – and I don’t define myself by that perceived value, or that of the brand/marque that’s been chosen.

But regardless of whether you’ve got a shitty old Mk1 Ford Fiesta (or any other ‘low-end’ vehicle) or a £200,000 Mercedes SLS AMG, you’re legally limited to 70 mph. 80 at a push. And the run I do on a daily basis is populated with speed cameras and police, so it’s really not worth speeding past that – it’ll become a very expensive hobby, for sure.  So what’s the point of a car that can do 200mph, if it’ll never get there?

Sure, there’s other places you can speed, where there’s less cameras. But even then if you do get caught, it’s going to be expensive.

And then you get to the fuel consumption. That SLS gets 21mpg on the combined cycle – and I bet that drops like a stone if you put your foot down.

Great, you’ve got the money to make it feasible for you. I’m happy for you – not impressed, and not bothered, but it’s not for me, it’s for you.

Mind you, if you own that £200,000 car, it must really steam your piss to be overtaken by a shitty 13-year-old Saab that’s worth less than a hundredth of what your car cost…

Seen In Summer

Posted: Mon 28 July, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Cyclists, Domestic, Driving, M1, People, Stupidity, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Things I see regularly on my current commute that just worry me more than they possibly should…#

  1. Riders of powerful bikes on the M1 wearing t-shirts and shorts.
  2. Rear passengers in cars reclining with their legs hanging out the windows
  3. Front passengers reclining with their feet on the dashboard.

All of these setups worry me – in all cases, if anything were to happen, they’ll be injured far, far worse than they would be if they were sitting properly.

Of course, none of it is really my problem. I just can’t help noticing, and being somewhat concerned.

Squish (Follow On)

Posted: Thu 10 July, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: A428, Animals, Commuting, Driving, M1, M25, People, Thoughts, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

This year, I’ve seen a lot of roadkill – as I’ve commented before – which is at least somewhat related to going back to doing a fair amount of driving on fast roads, dual carriageways, motorways and the like.

I don’t mind that too much – although I think it’s quite sad to see it – but there’s something that bugs me about it, which is this.

No matter where the bodies are on the road – including right over by the edge and (particularly on motorways) right in the middle, near the central reservation and safety barrier, right out of the traffic lanes.  Yet within a couple of days, the bodies are flattened, all bones crushed and so on.

It’s not decomposition – OK, it could be, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t happen that fast.

All I can assume is that there’s a certain breed of driver who feel it’s acceptable (or perhaps even amusing, I don’t know) to run over the bodies, even if it means curving out of the lane, towards the crash barrier in order to do so.

And really that just boggles my little mind…

Tempting Fate

Posted: Fri 4 July, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, M1, People, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Of course, having written yesterday about how smooth my commute has been – and comparatively quicker than getting to Milton Keynes – last night’s journey was vile, and this morning’s one not much better.

Last night I saw the aftermath of more accidents than I’ve ever seen on one stretch of road.  On the M1 I saw no less than seven sets of crunched vehicles. Thankfully most of them were pretty minor, but all told they’d resulted in (and/or were the result of) about ten miles of traffic jam.  In the same journey, I saw four different lots of police who’d pulled people over – I assume for speeding.  And finally, on the other side, a rolling-roadblock in place for what appeared to just be an articulated truck travelling slowly on the hard shoulder.  (Why that required a full rolling roadblock I have NO idea!)  And of course everyone on my side had slowed down to have a look at whatever was going on – which also almost caused a couple of accidents just in what I saw around me.

This morning was just a section of the A1 that was screwed. No idea why, and no reports on radio etc., but it was just solid from the M1 into London.  Thankfully I was only on it for a fairly short stretch (about 3 miles, all told) but that short stretch took me half an hour.

I’m heading back late tonight – a small matter of seeing Neil Gaiman at the Barbican in London – so that’ll be fine for the return journey (or had bloody better be!) but I hope that type of journey is the rarity rather than the commonplace.

I’m pretty sure it will be, but fingers crossed all the same.

Time vs Distance

Posted: Thu 3 July, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, M1, Work-related | Leave a comment »

My new job is based in North London – which means that my daily commute is now about 40 miles instead of the 15 or so into Milton Keynes.

However, weirdly my travel time is now usually about 45-50 minutes – which is much the same as it was for the MK role. In fact it’s actually a bit less, mainly because MK at peak times is pretty much gridlocked, particularly around the key roundabouts/interchanges – of which my route went through four or five.

Now it’s a straight shot down the M1, round a tiny section of the A406 (the dreaded North Circular road) and that’s it.

Obviously if I were closer to the centre, or it involved the M25 at all, or were somewhere a bit less “on the route” then it’d be worse. But as it is, it’s working out pretty well for me so far.

I can live with that.

Londinium

Posted: Mon 24 March, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Food, Gigs, London, M1, Reviews(ish), Travel | Leave a comment »

Friday turned out to be a really good evening – despite the trials and tribulations of driving in London.

I knew the drive was going to be a pig – after all, 6.30-7.30pm on a Friday night is always going to be a pig. I’m not the greatest fan of London driving at the best of times, but this one certainly wasn’t the best of times.

Apple MartiniStill, I got the job done, and only wished death and fiery rain on about fifty drivers – mainly those ‘in control’ of buses and taxis. The parking I’d found turned out to be perfectly located (in Chinatown) for where I wanted to be (Leicester Square), despite the number of suicidal orientals assuming that they had priority over big lumps of steel indicating that they were turning into the same street.

I’d picked a place called QPark – not the cheapest (although there’s no such thing as cheap parking in London, it appears) but cheaper than most of the other ones in the area that looked far dodgier. I do have to say thought that bloody hell, the parking spaces are tight – particularly when driving a sodding great boat like my Saab. Not too much of a problem going in, but reliant on others not parking like cunts when it comes to making one’s escape.

Garden PearAfter that, meeting up with friends at Scoff and Banter in Leicester Square was easy – and that Apple Martini was a worthy reward. (I’d got four hours minimum before driving, so a drink wasn’t going to cause any issues)

Having put the world to alcoholic rights, and grabbed some food as well – which was also excellent – it was on to the Leicester Square Theatre to see Mr Bill Bailey.

I’ve seen Bill Bailey before – as it turns out, ten years ago – although this show was much smaller. I believe this one was a testing run for his new ‘Qualm Peddler’ tour – and if that’s the case, go and see it if you get a chance. Some of the stuff was just surreal (and usually caused by some very strange members of the audience) and he seemed close to corpsing with laughter himself at some points. It was that sort of gig, really.

Food!Highlights included the reggae version of Downton Abbey, and Zombie Country and Western, but the entire 90 minutes was excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed it all, and would love to have seen more.

After that, it was just the drive home – with London still solid traffic, even at 11pm – and then a clean run up the M1.

Oh yeah – and with those timescales, why did I drive?  Mainly because a) I don’t mind driving, and it’s always good to be able to say “Yep, done that, it holds no real fears” and b) because I’d thought it was going to start far later, and end after trains had finished.  Not that I mind at all – it was a good evening, and the driving was just one part of it.

But I couldn’t drive in London on a daily basis – there’d be far too much temptation to kill people…

 

 

One Year On

Posted: Sun 19 January, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Bankruptcy, Change, Domestic, Driving, Finances, M1, Work-related | Leave a comment »

It’s now roughly a year since my Mondeo killed itself on the outside lane of the M1. It’s pretty scary how time flies sometimes. At the time I was lucky, because despite certain essential bits of the engine having effectively exploded I was able to coast/chug across to the hard shoulder. I suspect that whatever it looked like from outside the car caused some brown trousers on the part of other drivers, but there were no collisions or dangers.

That was really my last “oh shit!” moment when it came to finances. I honestly didn’t know how I could work it out to sort out a replacement vehicle, what the hell I was going to do with Mondeo, or even what I was going to do while waiting for a replacement vehicle. I spent a couple of very cold hours on the hard shoulder of the M1, waiting for the recovery vehicle and trying to work out what I could do next. I was pretty sure that repairing Mondeo was unfeasible – which was confirmed once the recovery people turned up and did their diagnostic tests – so I knew that was likely out.

Fortunately, I got somewhat lucky. Once I got home I was able to get in touch with the people handling my bankruptcy, explain the situation, suggest a plan of action, and within an hour they’d agreed to it, which freed up a certain amount of money. I also organised an advance on my pay with my employer, allowing me to rent a car for two weeks until I got paid. It was a real juggling act, but I got through it.

And in the end I got the Slab, which has so far served me well. I got a good deal on it, although there were some things I didn’t consider at the time- particularly what amount of vehicle tax I’d pay on the thing.

I did OK in the end, and things have continued to improve ever since then. I hope I’ll never be in that situation again, but as with so many things, if it does happen, I know I can handle it again.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →