Average 50
Posted: Mon 26 November, 2018 Filed under: Commuting, D4D™, Domestic, Driving, I Don't Understand, Laziness, M1, People Leave a comment »At the moment, my daily drive is on the M1, which has roadworks on it through ’til mid-2022. (Yes, it’s a joy) Throughout those roadworks there’s a speed limit of 50mph, which is monitored by average-speed cameras. And as I’ve been going through them, I come more and more to the conclusion that the average speed stuff isn’t actually all that safe.
More accurately, I don’t think they’re that safe when it comes to British drivers, and the habits that a lot of them have – which don’t appear to be the same as those of drivers in other countries.
The main problem with averaged 50mph limits is that it means everyone is driving at the same speed – cars, vans, HGVs, all at 50mph (or close to it) That means that the British-normal of last-minute lane changes for junctions are nigh-on impossible (although that doesn’t actually stop people from trying it) Instead, you need to be aware of the other lanes, and plan to be ready for the junction far further in advance.
Additionally, British drivers being what they are, turn off their brains completely when in average-speed areas, and will just stick to a particular lane with no regard or understanding of anyone around them, or of moving over into empty space to allow others past. On any given day, it’s terrifying to see just how many drivers are there, zoned out, sat in the outside lane and overtaking two lanes of fuck-all.
All told, it adds up to a whole bundle of unsafe situations at any given time of day. I can see (and have seen) people doing this shit at 6am, at 4pm, at 10pm, and at 2am. It just seems to be the way things are in these situations.
Fun and games, fun and games.
47
Posted: Mon 5 November, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic 2 Comments »Blimey – I’m 47 today.
How time flies, and all that gubbins.
Sweet Sixteen. Well, Sixteen.
Posted: Thu 9 August, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts Leave a comment »I nearly forgot this – technically, I did forget, and have just post-dated the post.
But today D4D™ is 16. Yes, the first proper post on here was all that time ago.
How time flies when you’re having fun, eh?
Time Flying
Posted: Mon 30 July, 2018 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts, Time, Travel Leave a comment »Over the weekend, I had a thought about when I was living up in Manchester, and I wondered how long it had now been since I was living there.
The only easy way to be sure was to check on the D4D archives, and it turns out I left for Bracknell in December 2004.
Fourteen years ago, at the end of the year. That’s pretty scary – how time flies, and all that jazz.
Getting Quieter (Kind of)
Posted: Mon 9 July, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Thoughts Leave a comment »As I’ve said before, I’m intending that this quarter (July, August, September) will be a bit quieter than the last six months (OK, at least six months) have been.
It’s not going to be complete radio-silence, because I’ve still got stuff booked in, and things during the week. But there are empty weekends, and I’m trying to keep them that way.
I won’t deny, it’s a struggle. I see those blank calendar weekends, and they make me twitchy. I am really bad at not doing much, or not having stuff planned. I know I need to do less (and I’m intending that there are other things to replace those insanely busy weekends) so I’m working on it. And I’m getting there. Kind of.
The first week of July was a bit quieter – I didn’t travel much on the weekend, for one thing – although I still ended up being out and about more than I’d planned to be. (It turned out that other friends were helping out with a local event, so it was only fair to go and give a bit of support on that score!) My “I’ll turn up for an hour, and then fuck off” turned into five hours. So there’s still room for improvement on the whole “not doing much” – but at the same time, I didn’t do much except for talking to friends and so on.
It’s early days/weeks. I’m hoping it’ll work out – but we’ll see. This coming week I’ve got a couple of things going on in evenings, but then there’s nothing at all lined up for the weekend. That’s going to be interesting…
The Thermal Properties of Coke
Posted: Fri 6 July, 2018 Filed under: Cynicism, D4D™, Domestic, Thoughts, Weirdness Leave a comment »In the UK, we’re in the middle of a heatwave. Other countries would absolutely laugh at how crap we are at dealing with heat (and in their eyes, it’s “only” 30° C, after all) but for the UK it’s more than enough. As with snow, we’re a nation of mid-range and changeable weather, so we’ve never had any need to invest in infrastructure to deal with more ‘extreme’ (and again, that’s in the context of our weather, not other places in the world!) temperatures. We generally don’t have air-conditioning in houses and offices by default, nor the stuff for dealing with snow, winds, rain or anything.
Anyway, for us, it’s hot. And every time it’s hot like this, I’m reminded that Cola (whether diet or full-fat) is a strange, strange beast.
Obviously Cola is best drunk cold – as cold as possible. But it’s crap at staying cold. Leave it for ten to fifteen minutes and it’ll be warm.
On the other end of the scale, leave it in a car to get hot, and it’ll stay hot for hours. The full-fat sugary one is the worst for it, but even the diet ones do this, so I don’t think it’s a facet of the sugar content.
There’s no real point to this – I just find it interesting that it’s a liquid/substance whose thermal properties are different according to whether it’s hot or cold.
Yes, I need to get out more.
Half past 2018
Posted: Fri 22 June, 2018 Filed under: 2017/18, D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised Leave a comment »Somehow, we’re nearly halfway through 2018 already. It’s been a hugely busy and eventful six months, but right now I’m hoping for a bit of a break. (Yeah, we’ve heard it all before, I know)
At the moment, I’ve got very little scheduled in for July and August – and while I’ll still be going out and about, my current plan is to not be as hyper, at least.
There’s other things in the plan instead, which I’ll write more about as and when I get the chance (and as and when they start working out)
There’s another week of being chaotically busy to get through first, but the end is in sight, and that’s a good thing right now.