Night Drive
Posted: Sat 20 March, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Norfolk, Thoughts Leave a comment »Last night I had to do a late(ish) night drive – a delivery from Herself to some friends who are testing out some of her cake recipes. (Don’t ask) They’re in a village the other side of Dereham from us, and a drive of about 20-ish miles. Not much, but enough. Because the roads are seriously winding, the AA route finder estimates that the journey takes 57 minutes. For 20 miles. No idea how they work that one out, it as it’d mean (hey, no shit Sherlock) an average speed of 20mph. Suffice to say, I wasn’t driving at 20mph…
Running late, Herself had said she’d be there by 10pm, and I didn’t leave the house ’til 9.45pm. I volunteered to do the drive/delivery, as I knew I’d be faster than Herself, but also that if Herself came with me I’d knock her sick, as she doesn’t travel well…
In the end the delivery was made at 10.10pm. 25 minutes to do 20miles. That’s quite a lot faster than the AA’s expectation then.
I love night-driving – in fact it’s probably one of my favourite aspects of driving. There are bits that are dodgy about it for sure- and night-driving in snow or fog is no fucking fun whatsoever. Well it is, just in different, and not entirely positive ways – it certainly highlights both how stupid other people are, and how easy it is to zomb out in those situations. But anyway, night-driving in general is just fun – in my opinion, anyway.
Strangely I tend to drive faster at night where possible – I think it’s because you can effectively see round corners a bit, in that you can see approaching headlights a significant time before you can see a car. In daylight you’re reliant on line-of-sight a lot more, but at night there’s a bit of advance warning. Of course, I could still come a cropper with animals in the road, or some twerd driving without lights, or a stopped car by the side of the road round a blind corner. Or something.
All told, I made it both ways in one hour dead – including conversation time at the delivery point. And thoroughly enjoyed the drive – particularly with it being soundtracked by the new Massive Attack album, “Heligoland”. Excellent stuff.
Unbelievable 1
Posted: Thu 18 March, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Driving, News Leave a comment »Over the last two days there’ve been two news stories about some truly incredibly bad driving – they really do have to be seen to be believed.
First there’s the story of the person caught driving to the garage – with their bonnet up in front of the windscreen. How they were able to see at all is beyond me.
And then there’s the one (with video footage) of the truck driver pushing a car along the motorway. Not just pushing – the car is sideways-on, and the entire thing is happening in the outside lane. I didn’t think truck drivers were even allowed to use the outside lane…
Gob-smacking.
Mondeo Is Three
Posted: Tue 16 March, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Travel Leave a comment »Well OK, I’ve had the car for three years today, but it’s actually six years old.
In the time since I bought it, I’ve doubled the mileage on it (57,000 to 114,000) which means I’ve averaged 19,000 miles a year in the damn thing. Thank God last year was a lower-mileage year, or I’d be well over the 20,000 per year. At the moment I’m doing about 350-400 miles a week in it, which is going to break out to be about the same again this coming year.
In that time I’ve had one serious clonk (December ’09 with the fence) and three lesser ones (two involving deer, one just a smashed door mirror) as well as a range of scrapes that got documented a while back, although they’re all gone now thanks to the bodyshop farce after the December ’09 crunch.
Somehow I’ve managed to not get any points on my licence – not even ones for speeding, which is nothing short of miraculous – and I’ve done well.
The only downside is that I’m back to square one with the insurance, having lost my two years of no-claims back in December. Ah well. Swings and roundabouts, and all that.
I don’t know how much longer the Mondeo will go for – it’s started having issues and needing work, as I mentioned when it got the MOT last week. But I’ll keep it ’til it becomes either too expensive or too much of a pain in the arse.
Unplanned Acceleration
Posted: Thu 11 March, 2010 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Driving 2 Comments »I’ve found myself being repeatedly annoyed by the stories recently about people in Toyota cars suffering from “Unplanned Acceleration”, where the card supposedly won’t slow down. All of the drivers keep on saying that they were using the brakes but not slowing down, and I’ve always wondered why those drivers don’t just turn off the engine, or put the car in neutral.
I still don’t get why they can’t put the car in neutral and coast to a stop, but I do understand more about why they can’t turn off the engine or pull the key out. Put simply, it appears there isn’t a key. The cars involved all appear to have these keyless start buttons.
I’d never really thought of keyed ignitions as a safety feature, but it sure seems like it might become one…
[Updated, 13th March : This YouTube video shows how to fix the problem of ‘Unplanned Acceleration’ in epic style. Love it.]
MOT Passed
Posted: Wed 10 March, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Driving Leave a comment »The car finally passed the MOT yesterday.
It needed a new brake caliper on the back which wasn’t expected, but that’s how these things work out sometimes. ( I was going to say “Them’s the breaks”, but decided I couldn’t be arsed with the pun) I was quoted £280 to get the replacement caliper supplied and fitted, plus the £[whatever] for an MOT test.
The final bill somehow worked out to be £260 – including the MOT test and re-test (as it failed first time round due to the brake caliper) and also a check/fix on why my rear-washer wouldn’t work. (the bodyshop had fucked up and not reconnected the pipe somewhere along the line) I’m not quite sure how that works out, but I’m not going to complain…
MOT Time
Posted: Tue 9 March, 2010 Filed under: Domestic, Driving 1 Comment »Once more, it’s time for the car to get its MOT test. That means I’ve had the car three years now – how time flies.
No idea how it’ll do – pretty much all of it should be fine. And if anything’s wrong on the front nearside, I’ll be exceptionally displeased.
[Updated : Report back from the garage – I’ve got a knackered brake caliper on the rear, so that’s getting replaced.]