Normality (or a Semblance of it)

Posted: Mon 3 January, 2022 | Author: | Filed under: 2022, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Legal, Making Plans, Milton Keynes, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Now we’re through all the crap of the Festering Season™ and New Year, it’s starting to feel like a return to a version of normality. Past today, people will be back to working ‘normally’ (albeit with the current ‘Work from home if you can’ ethos and so on) and schools will be open again so we’ll be back to more usual levels of traffic and the like.

Personally, I quite like this limbo time – the drive in to the office is quiet, the office itself is deathly, and it all suits me pretty well.

That said, though, I’ve found this year (and last year) that a limbo time within a Covid-driven limbo time is… a bit much.  A step too far. I want to go back to a “normal” limbo rather than this weird fuckery.

Alongside all this, some of the other crap I’ve been dealing with in the background is finally approaching its conclusion, and while it’s not been openly affecting me, I’m also glad it’s nearly done. I’m being a bit enigmatic about it all because it’s now sub judice (and before anyone snarks, I’m the ‘victim’ in it, not the perpetrator!) but I’ll write a bit about it when I know more. The initial court appearance happens later this month, and once I know how the idiot pleads, I’ll be in a better position.

So… yeah, limbo appears to be (slowly) righting itself and becoming a bit more active again. I hope that continues to be the case…

One Speed Fits All

Posted: Fri 17 July, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, People, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

Recently I’ve noticed something odd on my journeys to/from the office that really annoys me. And it’s to do with speeding (as the title may have suggested)

Particularly on my way home, the drive contains a variety of country roads and towns/villages, so we fairly regularly swap between speed limits of 60 and 30mph, with one small stretch at 20mph. Which is easy, so long as you’ve got a brain, and some awareness. (And you’d pretty much hope that a driver has both)

But no. On a regular basis, I see drivers who decide to drive at about 40mph the whole way, regardless of what the limit actually is.  It means they’re either going ridiculously slowly, or stupidly fast.

It’s not really a problem as such – it’s just annoying, and I truly don’t understand the thinking that leads to this behaviour.   It’s all just bizarre, really.

Average 50

Posted: Mon 26 November, 2018 | Author: | 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.

 

An Unholy Clusterfuck

Posted: Fri 31 August, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Central Bedfordshire Council, Commuting, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, M1, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

It seems at the moment like there’s a massive conspiracy going on that makes access from my area to Milton Keynes into an absolute nightmare.

Last month, the Highways Agency started work on the M1 from J13 to 16, installing “smart motorways” stuff, and shoving in a dirty long 50mph speed limit, enforced by average speed cameras. (And there’ll be a post on those some other time)   That work is going on ’til March 2022.

Next month, Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes councils are starting the second phase of their joint project to make the A421 dual-carriageway between J13 of the M1 and Milton Keynes.  That’s going to have a 40mph limit on it, and will be in place ’til the end of 2020.

So for the next 18 months minimum, the two primary routes into Milton Keynes will be speed-limited and being worked on at the same time.

And then just to top things off, one half of the other primary route (on the other side of Milton Keynes) is undergoing resurfacing work for the next couple of months – which means that my only other primary route is going to be handling all the traffic that should be on that one.

Like I said, it’s all just seeming like either a sinister plot, or a massive organisational clusterfuck.  Both of which have the same results, when all’s said and done.

Calling 101

Posted: Thu 19 July, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Milton Keynes, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Every so often, I decide to play the role of “responsible human being”. Today, it turned out, was one of those days.

When I got in to work, I could see that three cars in the vicinity had been broken into (or at least had their windows smashed) so opted to do the ‘responsible human’ thing, and called 101 – the UK Police’s non-emergency number.  No point in doing an emergency 999, as no-one else was visible, and the damages could’ve happened any time overnight.

So 101 it was.  And while I get that it’s for non-urgent stuff and so on, but man alive, what an absolute faff.

The call goes through, and starts off with “Which police force do you require?”.  (Probably because I called on my mobile – calling from a landline would’ve localised things. I assume)  That’s fine, if you know who you need to speak to.  But if I hadn’t known that Milton Keynes is covered by Thames Valley Police, I’d have been knackered from stage one.

Then we go on to a recorded message from the chief of Thames Valley. Why? No idea.  I assume it’s part of the script of 101 – I’ve heard similar on other calls to different forces – but it seems (to me) to be utterly pointless.

And then we get the voice-response asking what you want to do. If you know the name/number you want to speak to, type it now, or press [whatever] to report a crime.

And then we get some piece of crap recorded message about victim support.

And finally, finally, when all that’s done, I finally spoke to someone – who was helpful, and made sense.  But what a horrific fucking faff in order to do something I didn’t even need to.

All told, it certainly makes it easy to see why people prefer to call 999, even for non-emergency stuff.  At least the response to it is quicker, and gets rid of all that recorded bullshit.

 

Illumination

Posted: Mon 23 October, 2017 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Finances, I Don't Understand, People, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

On Friday morning, while it was still dark, I started the car to go to the client office – and one of the headlight bulbs blew.

Bollocks.

I’m not a fan of driving with one bulb out, but in this case it was going to have to happen, so off I went, a bit more carefully than usual, as a bigger swathe of the road than usual was in darkness.

On the way home though, I dropped in to one of the local(ish) Halfords, and got a new bulb sorted and fitted. Yeah, in theory I could fit it myself – but seeing the struggle the lad had with getting to it (the space was extremely tight/narrow) I’d have had issues, so it makes sense to get them to do it. (Also, when he opened the packaging for the first bulb and dropped the bulb through the engine block, he just went to get a replacement – that wouldn’t have happened if it’d been me doing it!)

From start to finish, it took less than half an hour – even with the difficulties the lad had. And all for less than £20.

I really don’t get why so many people seem to have problems with getting bulbs replaced. Some people I see in the village have had the same bulb out for weeks, if not months. I understand that sometimes you just get used to the problem existing, rather than fixing it – but at the same time, working headlights are a pretty basic requirement, I’d have said.

And besides, if it’s only £20 all-in to fix it, really, I don’t get the point of not bothering. but maybe I’m missing something. Wouldn’t be the first time, after all.

Three Thousand

Posted: Mon 28 November, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving | Leave a comment »

It’s six and a half weeks since I replaced the Saab with the Kia. And I’ve just gone over the 3,000 miles with it this morning.

Bear in mind, this year I’m doing far far less miles than I usually do (short commute, etc. etc.) and it’s still only taken a month and a half to cover 3,000 miles.

There’ve been a couple of longer runs with it in that time, so I know it’s doing OK, and that everything is – so far – running smoothly with it. And no, I’m not going to curse myself with the Gods of Fate any more than that.  So far, I’m happy with the car. It’s nothing glamorous etc., but it is doing its job of getting me from A to B without needing recovery, garage visits and the like.

Anyway, that’s the basic warranty ( three months, or 3k miles) blown away – but of course, it’s still warrantied for another 17,000 miles, so that’s something to be happy about.

Suitable Vehicles

Posted: Sat 13 February, 2016 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Milton Keynes, People, Thoughts, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

At the moment, while my general commute is pretty short, I still see a lot of drivers, cars and idiots. As regular readers know, driving makes me think, so here’s the latest one…

Why do so many people buy unsuitable cars?

For example, what’s the point of buying high-end ‘performance’ cars, if you’re then going to drive them like an arthritic granny?  It’s something I see every day, people with high-end hot-hatch and performance cars, lumped in the outside lane, and not even driving at the speed limit, let alone over it. Last night’s was a huge BMW X5 Mpower, pootling along, not making progress and generally just getting in the way.

The same applies with vehicles that are too big for the driver, or that the driver simply can’t handle/drive. When I’m at home and the school run kicks in, there’s any number of chelsea tractors that can’t fit down the road to the school itself – and if they can get down, it becomes an incredible palaver to turn the sodding things round, or park them up.

I just don’t get the point of having vehicles like that – but maybe I’m missing something.

Sunrise

Posted: Wed 25 November, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Milton Keynes, Photography, Weather | Leave a comment »

One of the few good things about the way the days are getting shorter right now is that I get to see sunrise, which is always one of my favourite times of day.

This week has had a couple of stunners – Monday was beautiful (if bloody chilly) as I was driving to my current client’s office. As I was on the road, I couldn’t stop to take a photo. But sunrise through mist and clouds, silhouetting trees on the hill-ridge, that was a thing of beauty – and one of the few times I wished I’d got either a dashcam to save the image, or a camera linked to my field of view.

Today I was in my own office as the sun came up, and it was another stunner…

Sunrise_clouds

Hell, it even made Milton Keynes look pretty…

Weather and Maintenance

Posted: Tue 3 November, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Fog, Laziness, Milton Keynes, People, Thoughts, Weather | Leave a comment »

It’s November, so in the last few days we’ve seen the clocks go back and had some seriously thick fogs in the mornings and evenings. That means people are (or at least should be) driving with lights on and so on – and it also illustrates that plenty of them don’t have everything working.

As usual, I find it utterly gobsmacking how people can drive along – while maintaining the same speeds they’d drive at on dry roads with decent visibility – with broken headlamps, no lights at all, and no foglights.  (And, of course there’s then the ones who leave on foglights well into clear weather, or use them at night when there’s no need at all)

I lost count of the number of – usually pale/grey – cars with no lights at all, in visibility that could be measured in feet, at best. I don’t understand what goes through someone’s head, that whole “well, I can see fuck-all, but I’ll keep my lights turned off, because even though I can’t see, it’s Day Time, so I don’t need lights” kind of process.

Equally, I don’t get how people can consistently drive with a broken/non-working headlamp, and the massively-reduced visibility that gives. I know it happens, that they can just blow without warning – I’ve had it happen. But when it has happened, it gets replaced rapidly – particularly in Autumn and Winter. Even in the poorest days, you (or at least I) still make sure that the car is safe.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case with a lot of people, and it’s a mindset I just don’t get.

Ker-fut

Posted: Sat 4 July, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Car Repairs, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised, M1, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Yesterday nearly got very interesting indeed.

I’d had to drive over to Chesham for a day in the proper office, and on the way the car had started making some very dodgy noises, although it was all running OK.  From the noises, and when they happened, I was fairly sure it was an issue with the turbo.

As a result, I rang up the Saab garage, and booked it in for a checkup on Tuesday, which was the first day they had available.

On the way home, the noises were worse, so I was driving more carefully (and a bit slower) than usual.

I got to the Leighton Buzzard bypass (having avoided the M1 on a Friday evening – can’t think why I might’ve wanted to that) and whatever had been weakening let go, dumping a shitload of smoke and gunk over the road – which must’ve been interesting for the poor bugger behind me, to say the least.

I’ve managed to nurse it home – taking it slowly, accelerating without hitting the turbo ranges etc. – so it’s parked up outside the house, and I’ll be somehow getting it to the garage over the weekend (when the traffic is quieter, in case things go horribly wrong) in order to get it sorted on Tuesday. In the meantime, I’ve also reserved a hire car for next week, and we’ll see how things go from there.

I don’t yet know whether I’ll get it repaired/replaced, or look for something new – a lot of it will depend on what the costs are for fixing it, really. So I’ll know more later in the week, and work from there.

In honesty, I could’ve done without the hassle – but it’s something I can deal with without crippling me, and that’s no bad thing.

People-Carriers

Posted: Sat 20 June, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: BMW Drivers, Commuting, Driving, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

[Note : There may be some sweeping generalisations in this, but at the same time I’m trying to avoid them]

As has been noted many times over the years, I drive way too much, way too many miles (in comparison to pretty much anyone sane) and get to see an awful lot of crappy driving.  I’m not claiming my own driving is perfect – but with that number of miles I cover, nor is it bloody awful.

Anyway, as always there seem to be certain categories of drivers who are worse than others.

Invariably, the worst of all tend to be the drivers of BMWs and Audis, but there’s another class I’m seeing more of on the roads – the people-carrier vehicles, the MPVs and their ilk. In particular, there’s something about drivers of Citroen Picassos (I’ve always suspected that people only buy those because BMW don’t make a people-carrier – if they did, that’s what the fuckknuckles would buy) but it’s actually most of that vehicle type.

I don’t know why it is that certain types of vehicle seem to attract crap drivers, but it keeps on appearing to be so.

[I had a theme in there, but it’s now gone. Grrr]

Overtaking – On the decline

Posted: Thu 16 April, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Charm School, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, People, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness | 2 Comments »

Over the last few weeks of driving, I’ve been noticing more and more that other drivers seem to be quite averse to overtaking, even with miles of clear and visible road ahead.  I don’t quite know why it is – maybe it’s about how generally risk-averse we’re becoming – but it’s bloody annoying.

I do overtake – so long as it’s safe, and the road is clear. (That should go without saying, but still) But I now seem to be in the minority.

Of course, the irony is that when you’re then on a multi-carriageway road, every single one of those motherfuckers is sitting in the outside two lanes, overtaking fuck-all. But I digress.

The thing is, if you’re behind five or six – hell, even two or three – vehicles who aren’t overtaking whatever’s holding everyone up/back, then my own overtaking manoeuvre becomes difficult, if not impossible. So you just end up sitting there, because no-one else is prepared to do anything.

It’s an odd state of affairs – and sometimes bloody annoying. But there’s not a lot that you can do, except accept that it’s just going to be one of those days…

Service Reward

Posted: Fri 30 January, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Finances | Leave a comment »

As I said last week, the Slab passed its MOT with flying colours. So I decided to give it a treat – as well as the service it was due for, I sorted out a couple of things that’ve been annoying, and all is good.

Since I got it – and obviously before that too – one of the information displays has been pretty dodgy. It’s an old-type thing with a dot-matrix screen, and there were obviously some borked connections, so it never displayed the entire screen at all.  Depending on any number of random factors, it could be 75% working or 25%.  It didn’t affect the functionality of the car, but it got annoying on occasion.

Anyway, with having had to spend Not Much (actually, nigh-on Sod All) for the MOT, I asked about getting a replacement (or in this case, reconditioned) display module. I’d thought about it before, but didn’t bother at the time.

The service was done yesterday, along with the new display module, and replacement of various fluids that were OK-ish, but got flagged up as “could do with being replaced”. (Brake fluid and the like)

The display now is ace – indeed, it’s taking me some time to get used to it being as bright and clear as it is. The service had a couple of small bits that also needed doing, but it’s been worthwhile, and still Not Much for a car as comparatively old as the Slab.

Of course, with new bits and now it’s all sorted and taxed for the next year, something major is sure to go wrong with it in the coming month or so. That’s just the way these things go…

Jammed

Posted: Thu 29 January, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: BMW Drivers, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, M1, People, Thoughts, Weirdness | 1 Comment »

At the moment, I’m doing regular drives on the Northbound M1, which is currently subject to no less than 15 miles (Fifteen Miles! For fuck’s sake!) of roadworks in one stretch replacing the central barrier, and another stretch installing ‘smart motorways’, in a similar way to how the Southbound M1 was screwed over a couple of years back.

Through both of these stretches, we’ve got the 50mph speed limit and ‘average speed cameras’, which seem to also contain some kind of mind-control that turns the majority of drivers into zombies who can’t see an empty lane, but can see a speed camera and slow down for it. (The phrase ‘average speed’ is utterly beyond them, of course)

It amazes me how bad the driving standards are in these roadworks zones – it’s as though people stick to the lane they were in when they entered the roadworks, and aren’t able to move from it. They don’t move in (or even pull out to overtake) despite any available space, or someone else driving even slower ahead.

I don’t know what can be done to change it – it’s just a human nature thing, I guess – but dear God, it’s bloody annoying to be surrounded by that many dickwhistles.

Inept

Posted: Thu 20 November, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Customer Services, Driving, Getting Organised, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Following on from yesterday’s post about car maintenance, and giving the Saab a treat, there was one final thing that needed doing.

Over the last couple of months, the car’s been intermittently reporting “Key battery needs changing”. It did it for a week, then stopped doing so. Then every so often the message would return. (I know, that’s pretty much the definition of ‘intermittent’. Sod off)

Anyway, last week it got more consistent, and over the weekend it started not locking etc., which I figure is a pretty good indication that it’s time to sort it out. (Luckily I’ve got two keys, so it wasn’t a complete hassle) Having looked at the instruction book – yes, a man reading the instructions, what a rarity – and picked up the necessary battery on Sunday, expecting it to be a two-minute job.

Safe to say, it wasn’t a two-minute job. Following the simple instructions, the panel on the key simply wouldn’t open. I probably could’ve forced it, but what the hell would be the point of that?

So it ended up that yesterday I went to my Saab garage, and got them to do it instead. It cost me nothing (except the fuel to get there, of course) and yes, it took them less than two minutes all told.

On occasion it’s galling to be quite this inept – although they did say it’s something that a lot of people have issues with doing – but at the same time I’m fairly secure in my inpetitude, and in getting things done by those who know how to do so.

Basic Maintenance

Posted: Wed 19 November, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised, Work-related | Leave a comment »

This week, the Saab must think it’s been stolen – allbeit by someone who actually gives a damn about cars.

With the various odds-and-sods and issues of the last few months, basic car stuff had kind of gone by the wayside. I’ve been promising the car some attention, and so now normality has been somewhat resumed, it’s been time to do it. Plus, of course, the onset of winter conditions, which means it makes sense to ensure things are sorted.

Over the weekend, it got a proper clean inside and out (I don’t quite know how car windows get so disgusting on the inside, but they do) which made a world of difference. There were also new windscreen wipers – the last MOT said they were OKish and wouldn’t fail the car, but did need replacing. So with the colder/wetter weather (and with the next MOT due in a couple of months) it was worth sorting out.

Finally, it’s now sitting on new tyres – it’s a year since I did the last new set, and they’ve done nearly 30,000 miles in that time.

Of course, now it’s had another couple of hundred quid spent on it, it’ll now break down spectacularly in the next couple of weeks, knowing my luck.

Signage

Posted: Fri 29 August, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, Literacy, M1, M25, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

At the moment I seem to spend far too much of my available non-work time on the road, so I notice stuff around me.

Over the last couple of weeks one of the motorway gantries on my route (the ones with speed cameras on) has been out of action, so there’s been a small – but noticeable if you pay attention – yellow sign saying

Camera not in use

Today though, I noticed that it has changed, and now says

Camera now in use

And lo, there we go, seeing it flash on speeders.

It just struck me as interesting, the simple alteration of one letter that means so much, and changes the whole thing – and I wonder how many people notice/realise.

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…

Interesting Start

Posted: Tue 5 August, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: A428, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, News, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

On the way to work this morning, I was confronted by road closures and the after-effects of this crash.

Fairly serious – and the damage all looked pretty grim – so I hope all are OK in it.

[Update : As it turns out, they weren’t. One fatal (a motorcyclist)]

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.

Location Fixation

Posted: Fri 16 May, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 2013/14, Bankruptcy, Change, Commuting, Depression, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Housing, Own Business, Project 42, Thoughts, Time, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Over the last couple of months, I’ve been thinking a lot about location – where I live, where I work, where I want to live, all that. I’ve been in the current house for two years now, and I know I’m getting a bit twitchy.

The current tenancy doesn’t expire ’til November though – due to an initial six-month one, followed by 12-month ones. As a result, I’ve had plenty of time to think about it, look at the pros and cons, and – I think – I’ve now pretty much made a decision.

As has been noted on many occasions, I’m not all that good with permanence – I like change, embrace it even. It suits me. So two years in the same place is enough to make me twitchy, to start to feel that itch in the back of my skull.

It’s not too bad at the moment though. I’ve certainly had it far, far worse than this. If I were still in the same job as well, the options would be different – I’d be needing to move on in both cases. As it is, I’ve been back on the contracting since July, and it’s kept things decently varied – which means the house side of things can relax a wee bit.

There are places I’d like to move to, some new locations and some old. (Or at least close enough to qualify as revisits) They’re more about reflecting how much life has changed in the last few years, most particularly the ability to drive, which opens up whole new vistas.

For example, I’d like to go back to the North-West, live around the Peak district somewhere. I wouldn’t live in Manchester itself again, but there’s loads of places around it that I really like. It’s still a front-runner when the move does happen.  The same applies for the South Coast, and Dorset in particular. It’s an area I love, but didn’t really get to appreciate as much as I could’ve done, because I didn’t drive. So yes, that’s also a front-runner.

There’s other places too. A revisit to Bath and/or Bristol wouldn’t be out of the question – particularly when not combined with an insane commute, ideally – and there’s new locations too. I’d consider most places, but Nottingham and Derby have always been good to me, and there’s a whole heap of other places. (Plus a long-standing idea to sod off to somewhere like Cork)

However, right now there’s also a bigger plan in place. Rebuilding after the bankruptcy, seeing what comes next, as well as looking at work and finances and what the hell I want to do/be when I grow up. There’s ideas on that score, but I need to have the time and inclination to do something about them. Time I’ve got. Inclination? Less so, right now. But that’s a post for another day.

I could move, sure. But practicality-wise, where I am right now is pretty much perfect for me right now. It’s not a long-term location, but for now it’s good. I’ve got all the transport links I need – my commuting radius for work covers an insane amount of miles. It makes my contractor life a lot easier. Location isn’t in many (if any) of those calculations I have to do. For me, right now, that’s an important factor, and outweighs pretty much everything else.

Financially, it’s easy. If I move North then the odds are that my rent would drop. But for where I am, for what I’ve got right now, I couldn’t do much better. I’d like some extra space, an extra room or two – but it’s not something that’s necessary right now either.

All told, while I would kind-of like to move, I don’t need to move. And staying put has its advantages too – location, money, blah blah.

That means that – in the lack of a good reason for moving other than “But I want to” – I’ve decided I’m going to plan to stay where I am for the next eighteen months. The six months from now for the current tenancy, and then extend it by another twelve.

Of course, the landlord might decide to sell up or something, or work may throw up something that makes me have to move. Neither option is likely, but they could happen. But short of those kind of eventualities, I’m going to face up to things, and not move.

By that time – November 2015 – I’ll have been in this place for three and a half years. Then I think it’ll be time to move on – or at least move up. If my work is still keeping me based in a way that the current location is still OK then I’ll just look at moving to a bigger place locally. If things change or work isn’t a limitation (I can work from pretty much anywhere, after all) then it might be a big location change too. We’ll see.

The Next Step

Posted: Sat 3 May, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 2013/14, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Project 42, Thoughts, Words, Work-related, Writing | Leave a comment »

This last week, I’ve been working from home – which is something I usually enjoy, but it’s not been overly assisted by feeling like rubbish, and somewhat demotivated.

Alongside that, for whatever reason, the cats have been super-demanding and really whingy, which has pissed me off more than it should.

All told, it’s meant I haven’t got as much done this week as I should’ve done, so it’s time to do things differently.

I’ve been aware of ‘co-working’ spaces/offices for a few years now, but never really felt the need to make use of them. I did look at them quite seriously when I had the possibility of the long-term ‘working from home’ gig earlier this year (which fell through) so I had some decent contacts.

As it turns out a couple of new ones have opened up quite near me in Milton Keynes. One in particular is ridiculously priced (as in ridiculously low) so I’m going to give that a go this coming week. Four days for £30 all in. I can live with that.

Of course, I still need to find out what the catch is. (If there is one) But if it works out and I like the place, it might be worth my while to make use of it for longer (depending on what other projects come up, naturally)  Looking at the costs, it could cost me £80 for the whole of May, which is pretty insane…

We’ll see how the first week goes. But this could be the start of the next step up the ladder, having a place to work from for myself…

Parking Mad

Posted: Thu 24 April, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Customer Services, Cynicism, Driving, Parking, People, Thoughts, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

At the moment, the BBC has a documentary series on about Traffic Wardens (Parking Agents, Collection Agents, whatever else you want to call them) called “Parking Mad” and it’s been pretty interesting.

What I find most interesting is the people who don’t pay their parking fines, then get all snotty and sweary about it when the costs for it go up and up.

No matter how paranoid you are, I think the great majority of parking wardens just give tickets to people who’ve overstayed their tickets, not bothered, or are parking like cunts in the first place. I’ve spoken to a fair few over the years (I’m a twat for talking to just about anyone) and haven’t ever really come across a bad one. I’m sure they exist, don’t get me wrong – I just don’t believe every one is a bastard, or hates every other driver.

So if you’ve got a ticket- and again I emphasise that this is In My Experience Only – the odds are that you’ve fucked up and done something wrong. The ticket is going to cost you £30 to pay in the next 28 days, or £60 after that (and with extra costs the more they have to do to recover it) – so just sodding pay it. It’s a fee for fucking up.

I think I’ve now had four parking tickets. Two in Cambridge (where I’d be the first to admit that I pushed my luck anyway, and/or forgot to renew the ticket at the end of its duration) and two in London when I was commuting, and had a brain-fart about paying the ticket. The London ones were a pain, because you couldn’t buy the ticket before 9am- not from the machine, not online. I *know* it was a plan to get more people to forget to pay it, and thus do the tickets. But in six months, I forgot a grand total of twice.

I just don’t get the point of not paying a ticket – you know you’re going to lose anyway, so you might as well get it paid while it’s cheap.  Even if I were going to protest it, I’d pay while lodging the appeal. (Unless it’s better to not do so – I don’t know, never had to do it)

The programme seems to specialise in these ball-bags who park like twats, make a mistake, and then blame everyone but themselves. Of course, they don’t pay, and then bitch even more when the bailiffs come round (or stop them in the road) and charge £500 for what could’ve been dealt with for £30.

I’ve said many times that there’s whole heaps of stuff about people that I simply don’t get. Parking tickets are just one more facet of that lack of knowledge/understanding.

Squish

Posted: Fri 11 April, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: A428, Animals, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, People, Thoughts | 3 Comments »

Maybe I’m more aware of it this week, with Death of the Mau, but on my drive to and from work I’ve noticed a lot more dead animals by the roadside this week.

Uncommonly, the great majority seem to be badgers (of varying sizes and ages) which I always find very sad.  At least these are on dual-carriageways, rather than the completely-intact bodies I sometimes see on the edge of other roads. (I’m never quite convinced that these aren’t actually from farmers/people gassing them, and using the roads as a convenient excuse/reason for dead badger, and disposal thereof. But I’m horrifically cynical)

In my opinion it’s always sad to see dead badgers – they’re awesome creatures – but particularly seeing younger ones depresses me.

I suppose it’s that time though, with semi-mature ones making way for new litters and exploring the world, and also post-winter-sleep. (I know they don’t ‘hibernate’ as such, but they certainly appear to slow down significantly over winter)  All the same, you’d hope that a driver would notice a bloody big black-and-white creature lumbering across a dual-carriageway. (I know they don’t, because they have issues noticing other cars, let alone animals. But still, we can hope)

People Carriers

Posted: Fri 4 April, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, BMW Drivers, Charm School, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, Travel | 1 Comment »

As has been noted before on here, I do a fair amount of driving on any given week, mainly for commuting. It’s about 400-500 miles per week at the moment – although I’ve had greater mileages, and lesser ones.

One of the things I notice during those drives is how drivers do seem to group up, and that certain groups are infinitely worse than others. There’s always the usual culprits – BMWs, Audis, and White Vans, but there’s another one I notice more over time. MPVs, or people carriers.

I don’t know if it’s because BMW et al don’t actually do people carrier vehicles, but it does seem that MPV drivers are on a par with BMW drivers. In particular it seems that Citroen Xsara Picasso (now renamed the C4 Picasso, I think) are a breed of shit drivers. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve seen these vacuous bell-ends approach roundabouts in the wrong lanes, cut across lines of traffic, cruise across busy roundabouts, stick their cars into the flow of traffic, weave across multiple carriageways, and generally act like cunts.

So yes, welcome to the ‘shit drivers’ group.

  • BMWs and Audis
  • White Van drivers
  • MPVs – and Picasso drivers in particular.

More Gof

Posted: Fri 14 March, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: A428, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Fog, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Today has been an excellent example of why (sometimes) it’s a good thing for my commute to be getting me in to work earlier than usual.

Despite it being even foggier than yesterday, and a pig of a drive (still unlit idiots, or people shitting themselves at not being able to see) it was a smooth run, and I got in on time.

Other colleagues coming in for ‘normal’ times though have been absolutely screwed. Apparently two trucks collided in the fog on the dual-carriageway near the infamous Black Cat Roundabout, which led to epic screwage of all relevant traffic in the area.  (Even better, soon afterwards the other end of the same road was equally screwed up by a truck shedding its load all over the entry roundabout. Well played…)  It’s taken them two to three hours to do the drive that takes me 45 mins on average.

Hopefully it’ll all be sorted by the time I head home. It should be – there’s plenty of time yet – but all the same, it’s been a useful example.

Lit

Posted: Thu 13 March, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, A428, BMW Drivers, Commuting, Driving, Fog, People, Travel, Weather, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

This morning’s drive in to work was foggy – foggy enough that you could see maybe three or four car-lengths ahead, and not much more.

So it left me quite gobsmacked to see how many drivers today weren’t bothering with their foglights – and in some cases without any lights on at all.

Considering how every pisswit fuck-knuckle in Christendom seems to put their fog lights on when it’s misty – and then leave them on for three damn days afterwards – it’s pretty amazing when you come across cars today (and particularly bloody silver ones) with no lights on at all.

What on earth are these drivers thinking? (And yes, I know, they’re not thinking)  After all, it’s not like they can see any better than I could – I just don’t get the mindset of “Oh well, other people will be able to see me, even if I can’t see them”

I don’t mind people being stupid, inconsiderate, and fuck-witted. If they want to die on the road, that’s fine with me. What I do mind is the other people affected by those decisions. And that’s just cuntish.

Travel Time

Posted: Thu 13 March, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Thoughts, Travel | 1 Comment »

Over the past year, much has been made of the HS2 train route, and how it’ll improve transport links in the UK. It’s absolute balls, as most common sense would tell you.  Mind you, what *would* be useful would be a route going across the country, rather than up-and-down it.

An example…

My current contract is in Cambridge, and I live near Milton Keynes. Road-wise it’s an OK run, takes me 45-60 minutes each way.

But by public transport? Oy, fuck me, what a nightmare. For fun, I had a look.

Milton Keynes -> Cambridge isn’t a direct route (because there’s no ‘across’ rail line) Instead, I’d have to go :

  • From Milton Keynes into London Euston
  • From Euston to Kings Cross
  • From King’s Cross to Cambridge.

Now that is madness – it’d be 3 hours in the morning, and at least two on the way home. (Weirdly, trains seem to run better on the return journey)

And then you get to the real madness. The price. Because it’s a ‘via-London’ route, and at ‘peak time’ the cost was always going to be high. But it turns out that a day return comes to £73.70. Yep, just under seventy five quid. Per day. I don’t pay that for a week’s fuel.

And if you think I’m lying – here’s the screenshot from Trainline.com…

mk_to_cambridge

Flickering

Posted: Tue 4 March, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Cyclists, Driving, Health, People, Stupidity, Technology, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

As I’m now working in Cambridge, I’m seeing a lot more cyclists. And a question occurred to me…

If a cyclist has one of those flashing/strobing LED cycle-lamps at a high-flash-rate, and they ride towards a driver prone to epilepsy through strobing (which isn’t something one would normally/usually expect to encounter while driving) who is responsible for any damages etc. should that driver suffer a fit at the wheel?

I’ve seen four or five cyclists already with these super-bright LED lamps set to a *very* high strobe rate, and it just made me wonder…

Ominous Omens

Posted: Tue 25 February, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: A428, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

On my commute, there is one road that is always a pain in the tits – the A428 between St Neots and Cambridge. It’s single-carriageway (i.e. one lane in each direction) and thus is the main sticking point on the entire journey (the rest of which is dual-carriageway).  Because it’s also the quickest/shortest link from Cambridge to the A1, it’s prone to use by a lot of heavy vehicles – trucks, lorries, and even cranes.

On the journey in this morning, there were a lot of cones by the side of the road, all laid out and ready to be deployed. Oh bollocks.

It turns out (not that you can tell from the Highways Agency website, which is unutterably fucking shit, and a nightmare to get information from) that there’ll be work going on there for the next month. They don’t say what’s going to be done, or whether it’s limited to non-stupid hours (it won’t be) but it may just make the commute a bit more interesting.

I’ll know more tonight once I’ve done the drive home, and see how it all goes. Alternatively, it’s going to be a case of finding alternative routes for the next month…

Changing Hours

Posted: Fri 21 February, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Change, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Insomnia, Sleep - or lack thereof, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

At the new contract, my hours are somewhat different to usual. It actually works out pretty well – both for me, and for the business – but it’s rocking my body clock a bit in this first week.

Based in Cambridge, I’m working 7.30 – 3.30. We work with development teams around the East Indies, so when I’m starting work, they’re just finishing – it means we can do meetings without extra hassle.  It also means I’m avoiding all the really crap traffic (although this week is somewhat non-standard, as it’s half-term, and I suspect it’ll be a bit different leaving during ‘school run’ hours in the afternoon)

However, starting at 7.30 with a 45-minute commute means I’m leaving the house at 6.30-6.45, and getting up commensurately earlier. It’s not a massive change, but it’s enough that I’ve noticed it this week. I’m sure I’ll get back into the swing of things though.

In fairness, I’ve left home at earlier times than that though, for far longer commutes (in both time and distance) and getting home much later as well – although I have somewhat got out of the habit of those over the last couple of years.

It suits me for now though. I’d rather do 11am-8pm or similar, which would actually suit my body-clock, but that’s not on offer this time round. We’ll see though.

Commuting

Posted: Sat 1 February, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Getting Organised, Public Transport, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

This week I’ve been working in London, near to Farringdon station.

I’ve been commuting in by train from Milton Keynes, which is fine in general, although it’s a pretty busy route.

However, today (i.e. after the main bulk of the work has been done) I’ve had a look, and it turns out I could have actually been going from a more-local station, and getting in direct to Farringdon. It’s nearly £10 cheaper too – which is a bit of a bummer, even though I get the travel costs back anyway.

The actual travel time isn’t much different, interestingly. I assume this route stops at more stations, thus negating the speed of the MK to London express route, and then use of Underground etc. However, if it’s direct it’s a lot easier.

It’s something I’ll remember for future contracts, I think.

Getting Old?

Posted: Thu 30 January, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Getting Old(er), London, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

This week I’ve been commuting into London on a daily basis – and for some reason it’s left me knackered. More importantly and relevantly, I don’t know why.

As has been written about before, I’ve done a lot of stupid commutes (both distance and time) and in truth the current one isn’t actually that bad – a drive to Milton Keynes train station, train into Euston, and then tube to Farringdon. It’s about 75 minutes door-to-door each way, so nowhere near the worst I’ve done.

Maybe it’s just that I’ve become more used to shorter commutes over the last eighteen months or so, I don’t know.

I’m still doing OK, and I’m sure I’d be fine with doing it longer-term as I get used to it again, but it’s just a bit weird that it’s leaving me knackered at the moment…

Micro-sleeps

Posted: Thu 9 January, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, News, People, Sleep - or lack thereof | Leave a comment »

If you ever wanted to be really scared by a statistic, try this one from this story from the BBC about ‘micro-sleeps’…

Of 1,000 drivers it interviewed, 45% of men admitted to micro-sleeping while driving, as did 22% of women.

A micro-sleep is an episode of light sleep lasting five to 10 seconds. The brain goes to sleep involuntarily and it is more likely to happen in a monotonous situation. People wake suddenly, often with a sharp jerk of the head.

I know I’ve driven behind people before that I’m sure were doing this – but maybe it’s more prevalent than I thought. Jesus.

Extreme Commuting

Posted: Fri 27 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, News, Travel, Work-related | 2 Comments »

The BBC today has an interesting piece about so-called ‘extreme commuters’ – those who travel more than three hours a day in order to get to/from work.

As regular readers know, I’ve been doing idiot commutes on-and-off for the last twelve years. I do have periods of commute sanity (the current phase has lasted most of the last two years) but I’ve also done plenty of long commutes. My own record has been a train commute on a daily basis from either Manchester to London (and back, of course) or Bath to London. The main section of that was roughly 1.5 hours for the Bath one, or 2ish for the Manchester one, and with additional time at each end for getting door-to-door.

More recently, the two long commutes have been from Suffolk to London, and Suffolk to Luton. The London one was two-and-a-bit hours door-to-door, and the Luton one about 90 mins each way.

What interested me the most (and to some degree defuddled me) was the person commuting by car and train from Trowbridge to Hook. According to the story, that takes 2.5 hours door to door. I’m bemused, because I know that just driving that route takes between 1.25 and 1.5 hours door to door. The train journey takes longer, and also includes two changes of train. Frankly, fuck that for a game of soldiers.

I know there is the minor advantage by train that you can get some stuff done. But for me, I’d rather get in and get the stuff done in the office.

Anyway, it’s an interesting article, but as always you kind of wonder about the decisions people make, and want to know more than is covered in the piece itself.

As for me, well, I’m quite sure that at some point in the coming year I’ll do some kind of daft commute again – although from where I am now, journeys to London etc. are nowhere near as much of a struggle as they were from Norfolk and Suffolk. But there’ll be something daft to do, I’m sure.

Those Tyres

Posted: Tue 17 December, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Customer Services, Driving, eTyres, Getting Organised | 2 Comments »

As you probably already know, over the weekend, I got my car fitted with two new front tyres by eTyres.  (This is relevant later)

What I didn’t know – and what Blue Witch pointed out in her comment on that post – is that actually, this isn’t the best plan when the car is a front-wheel-drive car. Basically, it means that the tyres with the best grip are on the driving wheels, and you’ve no way of knowing if the rear tyres are losing their grip, particularly in snow, ice, or heavy rain. So on a front-wheel-drive car, the tyres with the best grip should go on the rear tyres – meaning eTyres should’ve swapped things round, replaced the rear tyres with the new ones, and put the used rear tyres on the front wheels. (The eTyres fitter even confirmed that the rear ones will be OK for a good while yet)

Indeed, as BW then pointed out by email, eTyres even carry this advice on their own website.

Yesterday morning I emailed eTyres about this…

I recently ordered two new tyres from eTyres, order ref [xxx] to replace the two front tyres on my front-wheel drive car.

I have since been referred to various manufacturer information that says that on front-wheel drive cars, it is safest/best to have the new tyres on the rear wheels, and in a situation like mine, to move the used-but-safe rear tyres to the front, replacing the rear tyres with new tyres.

Can you explain to me why eTyres

  1. Do not inform their customers of this
  2. Why their tyre-fitters do not recommend/do this ?

This isn’t a one-off – earlier this year I did the same thing with eTyres on a different vehicle (also front-wheel drive) and had no advice on how this work should be done.

This is also the recommendation of Kleber Tyres and Michelin – see point 6

I’m interested to know why eTyres apparently ignore such advice, and potentially endanger their customers as a result.

As yet, I’ve had absolutely no response from the useless fuckwhistles. If I haven’t heard by the end of today, I’m going to call up and make a pain in the arse of myself that way…

Type A/B

Posted: Sat 30 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Introspective, People, Personality, Thoughts, Travel | 1 Comment »

Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing (again) a lot of driving, and the next week or so isn’t looking any different. (For example, next Friday is looking to be 350-400 miles on its own, with another 250-300 on the Sunday, minimum)

As always, when I drive I tend to be a Type-A personality, wanting to stop the sodding about and just get there. That’s par for the course with me, just get the job done and get on with it. And yes, that’s kind-of related to that laziness I mentioned in yesterday’s post.

However, when/if I get stuck in traffic jams or behind vehicles I can’t get past (road conditions, traffic, whatever) then I’m far more of a Type-B personality, and don’t get  stressed or annoyed about it. It’s a situation I can do nothing about, I can’t go anywhere or change anything, so I just have to accept it until I can change it.

It is (I understand) a bit of an odd state of affairs to be quite so middle-of-the-road on these personality types, where I can change from one to the other without apparent effect.  I don’t mind though – it means I’m less stressed-out than pure Type-As, and more effective/productive (usually) than the pure Type-Bs.

Besides, it’s not like me to be the stereotypical anything, so it fits in quite well with that aspect as well…

Wrapped Up

Posted: Wed 27 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, People, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Sorry, I know there’ve been a few ‘commuting-related’ and/or ‘driving-related’ posts this week, but for some reason it’s just how my brain’s working.

Anyway.

As things get colder and darker while commuting, as well as the things with headlights, I’ve also noticed another weird  thing of late – particularly among colleagues when arriving/leaving the office.

They’re all wearing their coats (and in at least one case, a hat as well) while driving. And I don’t get that. Most of these people are driving at least 15-20 minutes, and in some cases much more. There’s other people I’ve noticed doing the same, but they work for different companies etc., so I’ve no idea how far they drive.

OK, they might be getting into a cold car. (I suppose) But – to me, anyway – it’s better to warm up the car a bit, let the heater do it’s thing, and appreciate a warm car. Then when you’re getting out, put on a coat/jacket/whatever to keep that warmth in while you’re walking to the office.

Surely if you keep the coat/jacket on while driving, you don’t feel the benefit of it when you do get out into the cold? And you keep the car colder, because you don’t need the heater on, so it’s all a bit counter-productive.

Or have I (as usual) missed something relevant?

Maladjusted

Posted: Tue 26 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, People, Thoughts | 2 Comments »

As the nights have drawn in, obviously I’m driving home in the dark.

It amazes me how many people drive with either one headlight out (and in some cases both, which utterly baffles me) or really badly adjusted lights.

There also seems to be a newer trend for people driving on dual-carriageways and motorways with their full-beam headlights on, and refusing to dip them.

To me, lights at this time are just one of those essential things, and I try to make sure that they’re as safe and sorted as possible. I just don’t really get why so many other drivers don’t seem to think that such things are important.

Making A Commitment

Posted: Fri 22 November, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Driving, M1, M25, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

(No, not that sort of commitment – chiff that!)

Anyway. Having been a contractor for [far too] many years now, I find I still really don’t understand the people who take on a contract that’ll involve a large commute, and then bitch about it, or try and change the pay/conditions of the contract because of that commute.  If/when I take on a commute, I know what kind of distance I’m going to be travelling in order to do it. I’ve usually checked out the drive/travel – at worst I’ve a pretty good idea of where I’ll be going, how I’ll do the travel, and what it’s likely to entail.

A current colleague is coming to the office daily from Essex, via the M25. It’s a 70 mile journey each-way, using the M25 and M1, and should take about 90 minutes. I’ve done longer journeys as a commute (both in mileage and travel time) and it’s roughly the same time/distance as I was doing from Suffolk to London a couple of years back. (That was actually a longer one because I then did about 45 mins on Tube travel as well)

At least once a week this colleague bitches about how bad his commute is, how troublesome, and what a nightmare the traffic is. I know he’s tried to get himself paid for travelling time, or reduce his working hours in order to level out the commute time.  So far, the company has resisted changing anything, because he knew (or should’ve known) what he was letting himself in for – and I really can’t blame them.

With a contract, if you sign up for it, you should see it out at the terms/rates you agreed. I always do. The only time that changes is if the company is crap, or the conditions are not what you were told at the time. If they’d promised to pay for accommodation or whatever, and then didn’t, that’s a reason to change terms/rates. If the job/place isn’t what was sold at interview, fair enough, change things. If the job is simply not quite what you’d expected, grin and bear it.

Contracts are finite things. I can handle pretty much any commute or working conditions for three or six months. If you can’t, you either a) shouldn’t be contracting, b) should figure out your locations and commutes better, or c) should learn to shut up and put up.

Getting Darker

Posted: Thu 31 October, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Change, Commuting, Depression, Domestic, Driving, Time, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Last weekend, we switched back from BST to GMT, which is just another major clue that winter is just about here. (If you’ve missed the storms/gales, fireworks, X-Factor, Strictly, autumn leaves, shorter days etc.)

Thankfully, the gaining of an hour doesn’t usually affect me too much – the loss of one in spring usually hits me a bit harder, but still not all that much.

However, it appears to have somewhat confused the cats, who really don’t know what to make of it all. Food times have been disrupted, as well as everything else.

What does affect me the most, though, is the fact that I’m now leaving work and driving home in the dark. I don’t mind night-time driving, but still I find the darkness affects me just because it reduces the amount of available sunlight I get during the day.  Indeed, the next time I’ll be even close to driving home in daylight is at the end of February.

As with previous years, I always found that the thing that affected me the most with getting home in the dark was getting back to an unlit house. Particularly when I was in Manchester, that return to a dark and empty house was very unpleasant, and since then I’ve always made a point of having at least one light on a timeswitch, so it’s on when I get home.  It’s a ridiculous thing, but it makes such a massive difference in my head – very strange.

Redirected

Posted: Mon 21 October, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Central Bedfordshire Council, Commuting, Customer Services, Cynicism, Domestic, Driving, Work-related | 2 Comments »

This morning – and for the next two days – it turns out that Bedfordshire Council (Sorry, Central Bedfordshire Council) are resurfacing the road outside my house. (Again)

As work is (apparently) due to start at 8am, and go on ’til at least 6pm – i.e. the entire time I’m usually away from the house – it’s not too bad. However, it would’ve been nice to be warned about it in advance, which would’ve meant I might have parked elsewhere, for example.

It’s obvious that the warnings haven’t gone out at all, as there were also school buses and bin lorries trying to get down the now-closed road while people were working on it.

I don’t mind too much – it just means I find and use a different route to/from work today and tomorrow, which is always entertaining. But I can only imagine how many unwarned people there are who are going to be noticeably affected by the lack of warning/notice/signage about this over the next couple of days.

Not, mind you, that I expect anything less from the twunts that run the council…

 

Crashtastic

Posted: Mon 14 October, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Travel, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

I don’t know why, but today already seems to be populated by car accidents

  1. In the village, a van has gone straight over/through one of the traffic-calming pieces of road furniture, ripping it apart and also tearing off the front axle.  (I’d love to see the insurance claim on that one!)
  2. On the way to work, two roundabouts had vehicles pulled over into inside lanes, with people exchanging details
  3. A slide of my own on another roundabout while being followed by a police car – fortunately small and controllable, but enough to think “Oh shit!”. (I know I was going slightly too fast, but trying to get out the way of aforementioned police car while I had nowhere to go due to fuck-knuckle bastards not moving in the other lane)
  4. I did manage to destroy a low-flying slow-moving pigeon with my windscreen. Hell of a thump, no damage, and no way to avoid it, due to a Mercedes very close behind me.

So far I’m fine, and it’s just been stuff around me, but it’s still weird.

[Updated : with regard to #3 above, another colleague comes the same way and also saw someone slide slightly at the same place, so I’m now thinking more that there was something on the road at that point than that I was being a dick]

A few years back this little set would’ve convinced me that the world was out to kill me today. I’m a bit less paranoid about that kind of thing now, and more believe in “shit happens”, but all the same, I think I’m going to be driving quite carefully on the way home…

Having Time

Posted: Tue 8 October, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 2012/13, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Health, Travel, Weigh Less, Weight Loss, Work-related | 2 Comments »

With the job change, I’ve just regained about 2½ hours a day. My commute has gone from 45-50 minutes each way to 20-25, which gives me the best part of an hour straight away.  However, I was getting to Cambridge 45-60 minutes early, and leaving 45 minutes late in order to avoid the really slow/shit traffic on the dire sections of road.  So that’s another 90-105 mins regained too.

With that time, my primary aim is to get back into doing something healthier, the cycling, maybe some workout stuff as well. That’s the plan, anyway.

However, despite the new workplace being a lot closer, I’m not planning to aim (yet) for cycling to work and back. Even the shortest route is a ten-mile journey, and some of the roads are pretty dodgy.  I might explore a bit, see how things, go, but for now that’s firmly in the “see what happens” side of the list.

When all’s said and done, I’m just glad to have the time back, alongside having a better contract that’s making me happier too. I don’t mind idiot commutes (as regular readers know anyway) when it’s a job I’m enjoying, and when I’m happier with how work is coming along. When it’s a shit job though, the crap commute just exacerbates everything, makes me even less happy, knowing that I’m wasting even more time, that the entire thing is just a faff, and one I can’t be arsed with. It also turns out that when I’m down about my work, it also has a lot of knock-on effects on other bits of my life, as well as my self-image/ego/whatever, which I plan to write more about for tomorrow.

More Change

Posted: Mon 7 October, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Following on from last week’s post about change, today is the start of a new job.

The previous contract was OK, but really wasn’t working for me for lots of reasons, mainly related to the work involved. (as I’ve said before, it turns out I really don’t like working with pure data, I find it boring and uninspiring)  Coupled to that, I didn’t overly like the company, or the way they did things.  The final bit was the commute (and yes, this is me, the King of Idiot Commutes saying this) which just pissed me off. The route from home to Cambridge is just shit at busy times, being all single carriageway, and prone to absolutely solid traffic the entire way along it, so I’ve been leaving home earlier, and leaving work later, spending the ‘spare’ time reading, as the workplace won’t let me do flexi-hours.  If the job itself were fun, interesting or challenging, the commute and extra time wouldn’t be an issue. But because the job isn’t/wasn’t fine, that commute just became the final straw.

So anyway, I got a call two weeks ago about a job that was closer to home, much more my type of thing (eCommerce portals, creating stuff from scratch, integration with existing processes, etc etc.) and based in an office on the grounds of one of the local stately homes. Spectacular stuff.

They interviewed me by phone last Monday, and offered me the job by the end of the day.  I’m starting today, and I haven’t even met these people yet. That’s kind of scary, but it’s also pretty cool, being hired for my skillset rather than how I look in a suit.

Whatever happens, this means I’m getting back about three hours a day in travel time, getting paid about the same, and getting my life made easier and happier.  It really is a no-brainer as far as all that is concerned.

We’ll see how it goes – all I know right now is that I’m just so pleased to be finished with the previous one.  And I’ve kept my 100% record on successful interviews for this year, which is even better.

Missing the M1

Posted: Thu 26 September, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Charm School, Commuting, Driving, M1, Work-related | Leave a comment »

I have to say, because of this I’m very glad I’m not commuting via the M1.

It wouldn’t have affected me directly, but from the traffic reports, the closures and rubberneckers were screwing things up for everyone else, so I’m pretty pleased that I was commuting in the opposite direction, away from the M1 entirely…

Oops - trucksplat

Oops

Traffic Bulletins

Posted: Thu 12 September, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Weirdness, Work-related | 2 Comments »

On my commute, I have the travel bulletins set to be on, which means they interrupt whatever else is playing. (radio or CD) That’s fine – the travel reports are occasionally useful (although more often not) and can give me some warning if the roads are screwed. Mind you, most of the time they don’t do the warnings until I’m already in the jam – although that’s a separate issue.

What does grate though is that my commute appears to be in the footprint of no less than three local radio stations, so I end up getting all of the broadcasts, at roughly the same time. Which usually means that I miss the one I want.

It would be really useful to either

  1. Be able to ‘mute’ certain stations from the travel report  or
  2. For the stations to have an ident at the start, telling you which station’s broadcast you’re listening to. Then I could quickly cancel the ones I don’t want, in time to hear the one I do want.

Of course, it would also be useful if the presenters weren’t sometimes complete dickknuckles, and manage to screw up the use of the “Travel Alert” button like they did this morning. At some point they’d obviously missed pressing the button, so when they pressed it at the end of the bulletin, it was actually the ‘start’ trigger. Which meant it was screwed for the entire morning. Bell-ends.

Driving Thoughts

Posted: Thu 5 September, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, BMW Drivers, Charm School, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, Fog, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

A small selection of questions and thoughts from the drive in to work this morning…

1)  Look, if you’re driving so slowly in a car that trucks are pulling out to overtake you, maybe you should speed the fuck up, or get off the bloody road.

2) It’s foggy. So why are so many people driving

  1. without any lights at all or
  2. without their foglights on?

Usually it only takes a tiny piece of mist and they’re all in use, but this, with visibility of fuck-all-squared, there’s loads of people without lights. What the hell?

(And on a side note, bloody hell, I’m glad I’m not involved in this lot in Kent!)

3) Relatedly, why is it that once the fog clears up, you fuck-knuckle bastards leave your sodding foglights on ?  They’re there for a reason, remember to turn the cocking things off when they’re no longer necessary

4) Why is it that so-called “professional drivers” (articulated trucks, delivery stuff, coaches etc.) usually end up being the most dangerous ones on the road?

5) If that’s how you drive, Mr Driving Instructor, then I truly fear for the skills of your pupils.

6) If you can’t steer/handle a shopping trolley, it really scares me to know that you’ve arrived here by car, and will be driving home. Jesus.

 

Exhaustive

Posted: Wed 4 September, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Green, People, Thoughts, Work-related | Leave a comment »

I don’t know why I’m seeing this more often – it’s not like I’m driving more, have had it happen to me, or anything similar – but while I’ve been commuting the last couple of weeks I’ve noticed that a lot of cars seem to be having problems with their exhausts.

So far there hasn’t been a day where I haven’t seen at least two or three with fumes coming from the exhaust, and at least one a day with major-league smoke and crap.

Maybe it’s more about being on slower A-roads that make the engines work harder, I don’t know. It’s just an oddity that I seem to have noticed a lot more this last couple of weeks.

New Job, New Commute

Posted: Tue 27 August, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Business, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Public Transport, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Today I start my new contract, over in Cambridge.  The commute is kind of weird, I’m going in the opposite direction to last time I travelled that route.

As long-time readers of D4D know, I’m not averse to the odd idiot commute. This one is actually pretty sane in comparison, although I suspect I’ll have to spend some time finding the ideal route. There’s a couple of sections – primarily from St Neots to Caxton – that are vile, although honestly I suspect all the routes are much the same when it comes to heavy traffic.

As it is, I’ve gone from the 20 mile journey to Previous Place (well, Previous Long-Term Place) to a 40 mile journey to the new one, so my commute has doubled. Although, weirdly, it’s pretty much the exact same distance as the drive to the office of the short-term contract – just in the opposite direction.

Apparently for a lot of people a 40-mile journey to work is too much, but for me it’s nothing – it’s still less than half of what I was doing when I was living in Norfolk and Suffolk, and working in London. And it’s nowhere near my record commutes – although they were by train rather than driving – of  Bath->London (115 miles each way, each day) and Manchester->London (200 miles each way, each day)  although I will never do a journey/commute/contract like that again. It pretty much killed me when I did it fifteen years ago, I can’t see it would be any different now.

Still, in that context, a 40-mile journey is absolutely nothing. I’ll spend some time figuring out best routes, best times and the like, and settling into the new schedule. But really that’s all just part of a new contract for me.

I’ll write more about it once I’m more settled into the routine, and know more about what I’m actually doing.

Pulling Out

Posted: Tue 23 July, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Driving, People, Stupidity | 2 Comments »

On my route to work – in particular, although I’ve noticed this phenomenon in many road/junction situations – there are a couple of junctions from which people can pull out onto the main roads, which are (of course) much faster.

I’ve noticed of late that there seem to be a significant number of drivers who either don’t look before pulling out, or look but who are incapable of actually judging the speed of oncoming vehicles. To whit, my oncoming vehicle.

I’ve actually lost count of the number of times this year where I’ve been hacking down the main road at 60, and these ball-bags just pull out in front of me, necessitating my needing to significantly slow down.

Even worse, they pull out and then just pootle along at 20 or 30 mph. I know it takes time to get up to speed – but seriously, so should they. And if you’re going to do a manoeuvre like that, you damn well make sure that you’re going to be speeding up in pretty fucking short order. (Well, I do!)

I don’t understand the logic (or lack thereof) in doing this, of pulling out in front of someone who’s already on the main road. All I can assume is that it’s either a) some innate need to be ‘first’, even if that means running the risk of being killed, b) they’re wanting an accident which would be “not their fault” in order to claim and replace their vehicle, c) an arrogance that their driving will force the other driver to slow down, d) they’re just fuckwit bastards, or e) all of the above.

Regardless, it just pisses me off.

Commuting in Half-Term

Posted: Wed 29 May, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, M1, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Currently, the schools around where I live and work are on a break for half-term , and the effect this has had on my commute is just ridiculous.

During term-time, a “good” commute is 35-45 minutes door-to-door in the morning, and a “bad” one can be an hour plus. The difference in departure time to change from a good to a bad one can be less than ten minutes.

Today, my door-to-door morning run – even with still fairly heavy traffic on the M1 – was 22 minutes. That’s nearly half the time it takes during term-time.

I know more parents drive their kids to school “these days” (and yes, I also know what an old fart that makes me sound like) but the difference in traffic-flow really is surprising, even with that knowledge.

 

Bastardry

Posted: Mon 15 April, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Charm School, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, People, Stupidity, Travel | Leave a comment »

Over the last year, one particular section of my daily commute has made me realise two things

  1. People are really fucking stupid
  2. I’m a complete bastard, and still get amused by watching stupid people screw things up

The road section is this one – Junction 13 of the M1.  The particularly bad section is at the top – I come off the Motorway at the bottom right of the photo, have to go all the way round the first roundabout, over the motorway bridge, and straight over the second one to head towards home.

Map of J14 of the M1

Junction 13 of the M1

However, rule #1 above says that people are really fucking stupid. This means that

  • At least once a week, I see people on the first roundabout wanting to turn right (i.e. the same way I go), get confused, and drive back on to the M1, instead of taking the next turn off.
  • Pretty much every day I see people in the wrong lanes on the first roundabout, being in the left-hand lane to turn right, right-hand lane to turn left or go straight-on, cutting lanes across the roundabout, etc. etc.
  • Probably three times out of five, I’ll see people come off the other roundabout, and be totally confused about where to go next. That turn-off has two lanes – the left one to go straight on, the right one to – yes! – turn right. The number of people I follow who are in the wrong lane, and completely bemused by the junction is just unreal.

Of course, with option two there is also the – very minor – justification that it’s a confusing or badly designed junction (and in my opinion it is a bit shit) but it actually isn’t that bad. Slightly obscure, but not bad – so long as drivers read the signs and the roads.  Which is, of course, the underlying problem.

And rule #2 is that I’m still a bastard. I can’t help but laugh at the fuck-knuckles who drive back onto the M1, and also (to a lesser degree) to the ones who fuck up the second roundabout.

I’m not perfect when it comes to driving – and I’d never claim to be – but at least I can read the road and don’t screw up the simple things.

Congestion Lane (Again)

Posted: Thu 28 February, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, M1, People, Travel | Leave a comment »

Last night, I finally saw the M1 Congestion Scheme in full effect – vehicles in all four lanes, using the whole thing properly.

The only problem?

All the signs were saying “Hard shoulder for emergency use only”, so the scheme wasn’t *actually* active at the time.

Some days I really despair.

Hire Car

Posted: Sun 10 February, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Getting Organised, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

While Mondeo was knackered, I ended up getting a hire car from Enterprise for a couple of weeks.

As it turned out, they gave me a brand new (as in 9 miles on the clock) Renault Megane, which was interesting.  Not great, but interesting.

Personally, I really didn’t like the car – I found it deeply underpowered (dangerously so, when it came to overtaking) although once it got up to speed, it stayed there. I’m actually really surprised by it, having looked at the spec and the pricing.

From the look of it, the engine isn’t much less powerful than the one on the Mondeo – so frick knows what it’s doing with it, because the acceleration on it was dirt-poor. When overtaking, you could actually watch the digital speedo click up mile by mile, and by God it took it’s time.  The fuel-consumption was also well below the advertised/specced 40.9mpg – the best I got was an indicated 36, which is the same as I’m getting on the Saab.

Finally, it’s been a long while since I felt actively nervous driving a car, but this one managed it. In particular, the drive back from Stockport on Tuesday was decidedly nerve-wracking.  The weather was vile, and the car itself felt like a skittish little lightweight tin can, with no protection or security.

I’m glad I’ve tried the car, but I’m also massively pleased to have given it back.  I certainly wouldn’t consider buying one.

 

 

On the Shoulder

Posted: Thu 27 December, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Stupidity, Thoughts, Work-related | 2 Comments »

One of the developments in the work that’s been going on with the M1 has been a new congestion relief scheme.  It’s been piloted on other motorways (mainly around Birmingham) and has now made its way to junctions 7 to 15 on the M1.

The plan is surprisingly simple, but takes a lot of work beforehand. Basically, the hard shoulder becomes a fourth lane in times of need, and new ‘refuges’ off the hard-shoulder are put in for cars that actually have broken down.

It’s a good scheme, and since going ‘live’ in early December it’s worked well, except for one assumption that has turned out to be rather flawed.  And that assumption is this : that drivers actually read motorway signs.

I wrote a couple of weeks ago about drivers who can’t (or won’t) think ahead and so fuck up traffic for everyone, and this is a similar situation.

Basically, when you can use the hard shoulder, the road information signs read “Congestion. Use hard shoulder“.  You’d think that was pretty simple, and easy to understand. But no, most drivers appear to not see it, or not understand it.

How do I know? Because I do use the hard shoulder, and blast past the drivers in the other three lanes. (When I say ‘blast’, I’m usually going 60 – it’s just the other three lanes are stuck and doing 40) It’s perfectly legal, because I’m not jogging between lanes, just sticking to my inner lane and going past slower traffic.  But when I do, a good 40% of the drivers flash their lights at me, implying (I assume) that they think I’m doing something wrong. Which implies that they’ve not read the signs, that they think the hard shoulder isn’t for driving on.

It’s not common yet, which could be the other reason people don’t get it. Whether it’ll catch on, I don’t know. But I do know it works pretty well so long as you can read the damn signs.

Forward Thinking

Posted: Fri 14 December, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, People, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Last night, my drive home (less than twenty miles, all on motorway) took nearly two hours. The cause? A truck with a blown tyre, needing to get it replaced. Because it was an offside wheel, Health and Safety now apparently means that the inside lane needs to be coned off and closed as well, ensuring a safe (or at least comparatively so) workspace for the people replacing the tyre. And I’ve got to be honest, that’s one job I wouldn’t fancy.

I understand that need though, and it doesn’t annoy me. It’s one of those things – it’s not like the trucker planned it to happen, it’s just a facet of the number of miles trucks do. Shit happens.

But while that was the cause of the delays, it wasn’t the reason for the delays. The reason is something that does piss me off – shitty drivers (and particularly the so-called ‘professional drivers’ of trucks, coaches etc.) who don’t move out of the closed lane ’til the last possible second.

In this case, the ‘lane closed’ warnings were in place for eight or nine miles beforehand – and the delays went all that way back. And all of that distance, people were sticking into that lane that they knew was closed – that the signs were reporting as closed. I kept on seeing ‘professional drivers’ bombing down the hard shoulder as well, trying to avoid the stuck traffic. I truly hope those cunts got hauled in by the police and/or Highways Agency, but I’m willing to bet they didn’t.

The only time these (primarily truck-driving) fuck-knuckles moved out of ‘their’ lanes was once the cones were pushing them out, so they had to come in to the next lane, and squeeze in at the last second. It buggers things up, because the people already in that lane then have to move out, or brake and pause to let the fuck-knuckles in, and every time that happens, the jam behind gets worse.

If people moved out in plenty of time, paid heed to the road signs, and worked with the flow of traffic, the entire thing wouldn’t be anywhere near the hassle it proved to be last night.

Oh, who am I trying to kid? It’s never going to happen.

Little Things

Posted: Tue 27 November, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Thoughts | 1 Comment »

Yesterday morning, the 20-mile commute to work took nearly two hours. The M1 was absolutely rigid, the residue of earlier accidents – and the other side was stuffed as well due to shitbag idiots rubbernecking at the accidents.

About the only high point was that for the entire time, I was right behind a Mclaren MP4-12C (one of the ugliest car names in Christendom) which is a thing of beauty. It’s the little things that make a day easier.

But it was another example of something that’s always left me a bit bemused – in the UK (and probably most other countries too) just what is the point of a supercar / hypercar like the Mclaren? By the time you get to the UK’s legal limit, you’re lucky if you’re in third gear, and the top speed (205mph) is nearly 3 times the legal limit.

I can see the point of owning things of beauty – but to me, it’s also about using that thing, letting it fulfil its potential.

I guess I understand the concept, I just don’t really get the point.

Driving in the Fog

Posted: Thu 15 November, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, BMW Drivers, Commuting, Driving, Fog, Work-related | 1 Comment »

This morning, as with several others recently, there was a really thick fog during my morning commute.

Personally, I don’t mind driving in fog – it’s not something that worries me. What does worry me, though, are the other drivers. I’ve driven on empty roads in fog which is fine, and I’ve done night drives in fog which are also fine.

But a rush-hour drive in fog is something else – it’s like people just activate the “fuckwit” button in their heads, and away we go.  Even worse, those fuckwits partake in polar opposites.  You either see people with foglights on when they don’t need to be (for instance, if you’re sat in a jam of slow-moving traffic, you don’t need your sodding fog-lights on) or with no lights on whatsoever. (That’s one that utterly boggles my mind – particularly the drivers of silver cars with no lights)  You either see people driving at 20mph or 80mph.

I don’t know why fog affects people this way – or maybe it just accentuates normal stupidity – but it makes the roads an interesting experience.

Odd Name Choice

Posted: Sun 14 October, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Business, Commuting, Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts | Leave a comment »

Travelling on the M1 today, I saw a truck for a company called “Fly By Nite” (a courier company)

Now in my mind, “Fly by Night” (regardless of the spelling) is synonymous with something really dodgy – usually smuggling, and the like.

So it seems like an odd choice for a name, but maybe I’m wrong.

Would you use a company where the name was (in your perception) dodgy?

Driving Time

Posted: Sat 25 August, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Getting Organised, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related | Leave a comment »

Looking back over the D4D™ archives, I realised that I’ve now been driving for just over seven years – since 11th August 2005, to be precise.

And that means I’ve had the car for 5½ years, too – since March 2007 in fact. In that time I’ve done 121,000 miles, a surprisingly round average of 22,000 miles a year. I’ve had really two years which have exploded that average – the year I was commuting Norfolk->Cambridge on a daily basis, and the last twelve months with the daily Suffolk->London round trips, followed by Suffolk->Luton round trips.  With things being a bit more stable (and nowhere near as distant) I’m hoping the next 12 months will have a much lower average.  After all, my current commute works out as  sub-10,000 miles for the year, which is pretty novel by itself.

Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun?

Removing Bridges

Posted: Mon 2 July, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Change, Commuting, Driving, People | 2 Comments »

Over the weekend, the M1 near me (well, my entire commuting route) was closed to facilitate the removal of a bridge that is now un-used.  It’s all part of the works on that stretch of the M1, and I’ve been watching as it all changes.  Luckily I wasn’t going on that road over the weekend, or the detour would’ve been impressive.

The new bridge opened in May, and the last month has been spent removing all the sliproads to the old bridge, leaving it all isolated. By Friday they’d got rid of everything except the span of the bridge crossing the M1.  And this morning, it’s completely gone, including the centre stanchions, and the massive block they stood on. It’s actually pretty impressive, seeing the speed it must have been demolished and removed.

Indeed, if you went past it for the first time today, you’d never really know there’d been a bridge there at all. There are no indicators of its existence at all.

Personally, I think the new junction is currently quite dangerous, although I think that’s also heavily related to the fact that people driving to the 50mph average speed limit turn into complete fuckwits. We’ll see how it works out as time goes on, the roadworks are removed, and normality fights to re-assert itself again.

M1

Posted: Mon 25 June, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, People, Stupidity, Work-related | 3 Comments »

Since moving, pretty much my entire commute now consists of the M1. It’s only two junctions-worth, thankfully, but all the same, it’s the M1.

The worst bit of this – for the next year, anyway – is that those two junctions I travel are in the process of having lots of work done on them, which leads to an ‘average speed limit’ of 50mph along the entire stretch.

Sadly, this “average 50mph” seems to remove driving skills in the massive majority of drivers. It means they sit in their lane, regardless of anything else going on around them. I’ve lost count of the number of people I’ve seen sat in the outside lane, with two empty lanes beside them.

I don’t know what causes it. It just seems like their brains lock down into “50mph, and don’t change anything”.

Needless to say, it’s infuriating.

Anchor

Posted: Thu 14 June, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Advertising, Commuting, Driving, Sweary | 2 Comments »

I got sent this today, and loved it enough to want to share…

Don’t drive like a …

What’s next, I wonder ?

Don’t drive like a tw@ ?

Fogtastic

Posted: Thu 15 March, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Thoughts | 1 Comment »

I’ve written before about moronic drivers who leave their foglights on once conditions clear up – leaving them to dazzle other people.

This week, though, there’ve been a couple of days with heavy fog – and it turns out that there are  also plenty of moronic dickheads who don’t feel they need foglights at all. Or lights.

Sometimes you really just have to wonder about people.

Unrewarded Idiocy

Posted: Tue 13 March, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Commuting, Driving, People, Stupidity | 4 Comments »

On my commute this morning I saw one of the more incredible things of late.

In the outside lane of the M1, two drivers had managed to have a small collision in the traffic. Nothing major, from the look of it, a few scratches, maybe a resprayed bumper or somesuch. But there was nothing major – no broken bodywork, no wheels askew, or anything like that.

The drivers had stopped to exchange details, as one should in an accident.

In the outside lane of the M1. As one shouldn’t, in an accident or at any other time.

Some people are just too stupid to deserve to live.

Tactical Driving

Posted: Wed 7 March, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, BMW Drivers, Charm School, Commuting, Driving, MOTB | 6 Comments »

Over the last few days I’ve been taking part in a fun new game I’ll call “The Tactical Driving Game”.  It’s also called “the 505 game”, because it’s currently taking place on the A505.

Basically, find a route with several speed cameras on it. The A505 between Baldock and Royston is good for it, and I’d imagine that the A1 around Elkesley is another gem.

While driving at normal speed, end up with some titbag trying to intimidate you into shifting and letting them past.

Pull in when you get a chance – but particularly at certain spots along the road.

Titbag then goes blasting past, attempting to intimidate/impress with their speed/acceleration/car.

And *flash*, off goes the speed camera.

It’s a joy, I tell you. A joy.

Epic Mileage

Posted: Thu 9 February, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Domestic, Driving, Travel, Work-related | Tags: , , , | 1 Comment »

Nuts, I thought I’d posted on here when my car’s mileage went over the 100,000 mark. However, I can’t see it. It’s somewhere around April/May 2009 though, from the look of it.

Anyway, today, with my daft mileage kicking up all the time, my car’s clicked over the 160,000 mile mark.

Looking back, I got it in March 2007 when it had a mileage of 56,000.

So in just under five years, I’ve added 100,000 miles to it. Which isn’t a bad average, considering the stupid mileage I’m doing at the moment. I’m quite surprised, actually, that the average is that low. There must’ve been some times where I did a lot less than 20,000 miles a year – although off-hand I can’t quite think when that would’ve been.

Ah well.

Commuting – a new Journey

Posted: Wed 8 February, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, People, Travel, Work-related | 1 Comment »

As regular readers know, I’m pretty renowned for doing stupid commutes. Last year I worked in London for six months, commuting daily, which we worked out (from mileage claims etc.) to have resulted in 19,000 miles of travel ’til the end of 2011, purely for work.

The London run was a 70 mile drive one-way, so a 140-mile round-trip, plus the 10ish miles on the Tube each way. Amusingly, it took an hour to do the drive, and an hour to do the time on the Tube.

Since then I’ve taken on a new contract, this time working in Luton. The driving time is a bit less – about 2 hours in the morning, 90 minutes in the evening – for a few more miles, about 80 each way all told.

Everybody else insists I must be slightly mad to do the driving I do, but I really don’t mind it. It’s a longer distance sure, but it regularly used to take the same time to travel by bus from home to Oldham when I worked there. It used to take even longer when I was commuting by train between London and Bath, or London and Manchester. (And yeah, those runs were seriously insane)

In general I’m less stressed when it comes to commuting by car than when I’m reliant on public transport – people piss me off too much for me to want to travel with them now when I can avoid them.

I probably still am stupid for driving/commuting as much as I do, but it suits me, so I’m happy with it.

Pushing the Odds

Posted: Mon 26 September, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Work-related | 4 Comments »

Since starting the current contract at the end of May, I have now covered 12,000 miles just in commuting. In short, I know the relevant route enough I could almost sleep-drive the entire thing. Indeed, I have dreamed the commute on a couple of occasions – and believe me, that is no fun at all, because you wake up and have to do the entire damn thing again.

By the end of this contract (at the end of October) I’ll have covered 15,000 miles, just on the commute. And that’s just the driving section – although admittedly the driving part is by far the largest.

12,000 miles is – apparently – the annual mileage for the average driver in the UK, which goes some way to explaining the idiocy of my current commute.

Anyway, one thing that is coming more and more to mind is that I’m probably really pushing my luck when it comes to not having any form of accident involving another vehicle. (Which neatly avoids the time I spagged the car into a fence) I’ve seen the after-effects of plenty, and come damn close to seeing a few happen in front of me, but as yet – touch wood – nothing’s actually happened.

I hope that I can maintain that status through the next month…

 

Different Worlds

Posted: Fri 2 September, 2011 | Author: | Filed under: Commuting, Driving | 1 Comment »

The more driving I do at the moment, the more convinced I am that travel news on the radio is involved with a totally different planet to the one I’m on.

A case in point :

This morning, the radio announcements were full of bits about the M11 being slow-moving between Junctions 5 and 4. Really slow, totally rigid, etc. etc. And when I got there? A totally clean run through – not even a delay or a dab of the brakes. Nothing.

It’s totally bizarre, and more than a little bit annoying.