Posted: Mon 26 September, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Driving, Work-related |
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…
Posted: Fri 2 September, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Commuting, Driving |
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.
Posted: Thu 1 September, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Driving, London, Work-related |
During my regular commute at the moment, I drive down the M11 into London. This involves one of my most-loathed junctions ever – the M11/M25 junction.
If you hit it at the wrong time, it can be snarled up beyond belief, for miles on either side. It’s a hateful piece of road.
You can begin to see why from the Google Maps image of it…
View Larger Map
It’s just a nasty piece of work. If you’re sticking to the M11 coming from London, you have not one but two lanes trying to get onto it from the M25, and everyone tries to get out into the outside lane. It’s totally common to see people wedging their cars into gaps only slightly larger than the cars themselves, and it leads to tailbacks and frustration.
Then once you’re (finally) past the two lanes, all the idiots decide that they’ll stay out in the outside lane, and add their stupidity to the mix too.
All in all, it’s a piece of road that I loathe with a passion.
Posted: Tue 5 July, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts, Travel, Work-related |
At the moment I’m commuting to London on a daily basis, which is a bit of a killer. It’s an hour (ish) on the M11 down to Woodford, then catch the tube from Woodford to central London. All told, pretty much two to two-and-a-quarter hours, door-to-door.
Parking in Woodford though is – to say the least – weird.
The car-park on Chateris Road is owned and run by Redbridge Council, and it’s pay-and-display. I use RingGo to sort out the parking, and that makes things even easier – use the iPhone App to pay using my linked credit-card, and job done. £4.80 per day to park – that’s it.
Because the weird thing about the management of this car park is that the ticket machines don’t actually work at all ’til 9am. They won’t accept money, they won’t do anything. You can’t even pay online or by phone until 9am. I tell people this at least three times a week when they’re trying to get a ticket.
It’s the weirdest and most customer-hostile method of operating that I’ve ever seen. Although, on a more cynical note, I wonder if the reasoning is that if people think the machine’s broken, and don’t pay for a ticket, maybe it makes more financial sense (to the council) when they end up with parking tickets for £30 or £60, instead of paying the proper £4.80.
Posted: Fri 4 March, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Driving |
Over the last month or so, my car’s been playing up – any time it went over 2,500 rpm and the turbo kicked in, the entire thing went to crap: Losing power, slowing down, finally cutting out. It was booked in for a service and MOT anyway, so for the time ’til the service, it was OK so long as I didn’t go over the 2,500.
In honesty, I thought that either the turbo was knackered, or one of the pipes to/from the turbo had split. I’ve had that happen before, and the symptoms were the same. I’d done some internet searches, based on the idiot lights and the circumstances, and that seemed to be the conclusion. Well, either that or the engine was completely fucked, which I was pretty sure wasn’t the case, as it was fine until turbo time.
Anyway, Tuesday was the day of the service and MOT. I was surprised when the garage called me back and said it needed a couple of things doing – but nothing about the engine. Instead it needed a new exhaust, and a new bonnet catch.
With the new exhaust, all is fine again. I’d never thought it needed that doing – I knew it must be about ready to have a new exhaust bit, as I’ve had the damn thing four years now, but it didn’t connect in my head – there was no noticeable extra noise when running or anything, just that power loss.
I’ll know for the future, of course.
But in the meantime, yeah, I feel like a bit of an idiot – but also very pleased that the problem was easily fixed – and considerably cheaper than a new turbo / engine.
Posted: Fri 18 February, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Driving, Parking, Stupidity |
Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Particularly when most of those words are swearies…
Cock in a Saxo
Posted: Sun 6 February, 2011 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Driving, Parking |
Ah, it’s been a while since I’ve posted one of these…
As always, the hatch-markings appear to designate a parking space
AJ10WUP, you park like a fuckwit.
