:: Driving me Crazy... ::

:: Tuesday, October 28, 2003 ::

Wow. July to October is something of a record between posts, even for me.

Clearly there's not enough happening to sustain a blog, so this will be the final post. It's been a useful thing for me, allowing to rant with impunity and forcing me to think about what I've seen on the roads. Thanks to all of you that told me you were readers, and thanks particularly to the zero people who actually sent me a message of support.

If you enjoyed reading half as much as I enjoyed writing, I had twice as good a time as you did. :P

Gary
:: Gary 28.10.03 [+] ::
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Got back a couple of hours ago from the MotoGP. If any of you EVER hear me suggest I might be visiting a major event at Donington, unless it's Formula 1, slap me and remind me to re-read this post.

I hated it.

Not the MotoGP part, the actual racing was fun though the main reason I went was to test out the camera again. The shots that came back are not great, either. Although there are a few good ones- I'll be updating the 'bigger' online photo album later this evening with the passable shots.

No, the main reason I hated it is that Donington is about 30 miles from my house. So having it take three hours to get into the circuit kinda took the shine off. But not as much as it taking one and three quarter hours to travel the quarter-mile to the exit. Honestly, with the best will in the world, Donington officials cannot clear the car parks in an orderly manner at major events. The attitude appears to be that we're all like-minded racing fans and we'll work it all out ourselves.

There's a flaw in the logic.

Well, not actually a flaw, so much as a lack of analysis. Yes we're all like-minded, and yes, we're all racing fans. So what does that mean?

We all want to race to the exit.

Anyone who's seen carnage at the first corner of a Formula 1 race knows what I'm talking about. 20 drivers all competing for the same space of tarmac that's wide enough for two at best. Well there were about 100,000 people at Donington today. You work out what's going to happen.

Couple that with the vital point where you have to decide whether to go North or South. I'd be going North- only there's a truck broken down at the junction, so the Police are directing EVERYONE South. Eventually I find myself back at Junction 24, but approaching it from Kegworth rather than East Midlands Airport.

It's at this point the car's magnetism kicks in. Either that, or there's a cloaking device installed that I don't know about. I mean, I never have trouble finding the car, so it can't be on all the time. And I've seen the car being driven in the car park of the local Toyota dealer, so it's not an ignition switch thing. Anyway, what leads me to believe there's a cloaking device is that someone trying to leave the GP (I assume, coming from that road) pulls straight out in front of me, despite there being rules in this country that you give way to traffic already on the roundabout. It's different on Malta, so if the family's just come back from there I apologise, but you still shouldn't have control of a car.

Then there's the Ka that totally fails to see me. I'm sure the lady still doesn't realise how close she came to taking the front right corner off my car.

While I've been typing, I've been finding a few better bike shots. Feel free to take a look- need all the hits I can get.
:: Gary 13.7.03 [+] ::
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Most of the time, bikers are very careful people. After all, they're quite vulnerable if they drop the bike, and there's not a great deal of crash protection. So why is it that as soon as the sun comes out, significant numbers of them lose all sense of self-preservation? I was followed this evening by a bike at a distance of about one foot. This is around RAF Newton, a twisty piece of tarmac covered in roadkill- there are lots of rabbits in the abandoned RAF base and they're not learning the green cross code. The car in front was visibly hesitant, and hadn't actually changed speed since leaving Ratcliffe on Trent. Though they'd gone through that village at 40mph.

Anyway, the bike's flashed up from out of nowhere, and is sitting right on the bumper. I tried slowing down, I tried driving as far left as I could but the bike wouldn't go. Eventually, they decided it was 'safe' to overtake and pulled out. I put safe in quotes because I'm not sure what constitutes safe to someone who thinks 12 inches is a suitable braking distance. Had I hit the brakes he would have probably been catapulted straight over the car so I could run over him. It can't have been a personal thing becuase the rider did exactly the same to the car in front. I had something similar on the A46 with a Honda Goldwing, though there's a bit more of an excuse for one of those; it's almost as wide as some cars. And both rider and passenger waved thankyou when they went past so at least they understood what I was trying to do.

The only conclusion I can come to is that for some people the hot sun on the crash helmet forces the brain to overheat. It's the same effect that allows these people to assume that since leather is cow skin, their own skin must be just as good at protecting them in a fall.
:: Gary 16.6.03 [+] ::
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Saw something amazing a couple of weeks ago. I was at the Ferrari & Maserati Festival of Racing at Donington on May 25th. Up at Redgate, the first corner, is the Ferrari Owners' Club Car Park (and one of the best vantage points for a photographer). So naturally, that's where I wanted to be... Just after lunch, all the Ferrari owners drove their expensive toys (I'm only jealous, I'd love to have been out there) around the circuit a few times. And once they'd all parked up again, I went to the car park. Surrounded by the best in Italian modern sculpture, you get a bit blase' about another 360, or the pair of 355s, or whatever. So- what draws attention in a car park full of Ferraris?

Ask the gentlemen who pulled up in a bright orange Lamborghini Murcielago.
:: Gary 9.6.03 [+] ::
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I've discovered a new kind of instant weather forecast for rain. As soon as I try to polish my car it starts.

Four times today, as soon as the polish hits the steel, down it comes. It's sitting outside now, half-covered in resin polish that I couldn't remove before the rain started in earnest. What galls me is that every time, it's been dry for more than 20 minutes before I started. First time the car's been washed in weeks, the day before a friend's Wedding and I can't finish the job. I hate frustration, but I should be used to it now, I guess.
:: Gary 10.5.03 [+] ::
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I seem to start all of these by apologising for not updating so this time I won't. But I've not been able to post for a couple of weeks due to a machine change; the ol' 1GHz P3 appears to have suffered a hard disk failure, so after a frustrating week at work I took the plunge and ordered a new machine. So now I'm typing on a 2.4GHz Pentium4 whilst trying to rescue the P3.

Not much of interest happening on the roads these days- I could talk about daft overtaking but I've done that so often it's getting boring for me, so I dread to think how bored you must be. But the one I saw this week was a little unusual and I'm not sure it counts as a dumb maneuver, I think it actually saved lives. I was heading away from Ruddington on the A52 back towards Radcliffe-on-Trent, actually I was heading for the Goose at Gamston for lunch with a colleague. Two or three cars ahead of us was a seven-and-a-half ton truck. Who virtually stopped, before pulling into a layby. Imagine the scene if you will. Behind this truck is a convoy of about six or seven cars, all moving at about 50mph. And a 38-ton, 18-wheel juggernaut. Then the vehicle at the front stops.

Can you see what's coming?

When I first started this I talked about how truck drivers, particularly the long-haul drivers with massive loads, deserved more respect. This underlines it. The 18-wheeler pilot spots what's going on, realises that if he doesn't do something drastic he'll crush maybe two cars ahead. So he goes down the right-hand side. Into oncoming traffic, trying to give everyone enough room. Anyone who hasn't looked could pull out in front of him trying to get round the blockage. There are cars and trucks heading towards him, with not enough room to get past. At the time I cursed it as stupid, but since then I've realised just what the driver has had to do. Make the decision in a split second, then put himself in danger to avoid certain disaster. And keep everything together long enough to get back in the correct lane before oncoming traffic hits him. I think I owe this driver some thanks.
:: Gary 26.4.03 [+] ::
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And so it begins. American, British and Australian forces have engaged in a war we've all seen coming for months, only they've done it without the backing of the rest of the world via the United Nations. This scares me. For a long time I've been asking "when Bush does go to war (that much was inevitable) should Britain stand with him or against him?" It seems Tony has decided to side with military might rather than international legitimacy. Had the United Nations backed the action, I would have supported it. But if it's not supported by the UN, don't we have the invasion of a sovreign state by an outside force? Wasn't that precisely why Bush Senior went into Kuwait in 1991, to repel such an invasion by Saddam Hussein? How is this different?

The question that scares me than all the others is "Who's next?". Once Dubya has made his point and levelled Baghdad, what will he do? Pyongyang is I think a greater threat, so why haven't UN inspectors gone to North Korea?

The US administration has always stated that its aim in Iraq is 'regime change'. Will this be the reason American tanks roll into Paris, in a few years time? What will Britain do then? Will we be complaining to our Senator, and hoping the President listens?

:: Gary 20.3.03 [+] ::
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