Inherently Useless
Posted: Wed 20 August, 2014 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…
Stone Down
Posted: Fri 11 July, 2014 Filed under: 2013/14, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Health, Weigh Less, Weight Loss Leave a comment »In other news, I’ve now lost a stone in weight this year.
That puts me on a weirdly OCD number (ending with two zeroes) although still at the high-end of “Functioning fat fucker”, with a way to go.
I’m happy with the progress though. I’d like it to be quicker (wouldn’t we all?) but at least it’s progress.
Progress
Posted: Wed 7 May, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Old(er), Health Leave a comment »For the first time in about ten days, I can breathe clearly today. This is A Good Thing.
For the first time in about a month, I can also move without twinges of the muscles in my back, and without wincing. This is A Joy.
I do wonder if I’m not a bit run-down at the moment – things seem to be taking longer to repair than usual, and to be slightly more fragile than they have been.
Or maybe, as BW said a while back, I’m just getting old(er). Not Old old, but approaching middle-age, and all that rot.
I don’t know – I’ll see what happens over the rest of this year. I’m hoping for things to be a bit calmer (although my calm is most people’s ‘chaotic’, as we all well know) but we’ll see.
Time Marches On
Posted: Tue 25 February, 2014 Filed under: Domestic, Getting Old(er), Thoughts Leave a comment »A brief inkling of time’s march came to me over the weekend.
Looking back, I realised that the twin babies I shared a house with in Oxford (well, with their parents, technically – but that’s outside the scope of this) are now 21.
Twenty-bloody-one.
(And by further use of That There Maths, that also means I must’ve been Twenty-One at the time. Which had kind of passed me by. How time flies)
High Milage
Posted: Mon 9 December, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Getting Old(er), M1, Thoughts Leave a comment »Over the last month I’ve done a fair number of miles, including two trips to the North-East, one to the North-West, and one to the South-West, as well as a couple to closer parts of the country.
Indeed, by my rough reckoning I’ve done about 1,700 miles this month on those journeys, as well as my usual 600 of commuting – and as regular readers know, that’s one of my lowest-mileage monthly commutes in recent years. Indeed – having just checked – it’s the shortest commute since I worked in Oldham while living in Manchester. (And that took longer to do by far, as it was reliant on public transport)
The next few weeks will be quieter though – I’m done for long-mileage trips for the next month or so at least, which is no bad thing.
The Slab has done well on it all though. When I got home last night, the odometer read 99,500 exactly. The 100,000 mile service is booked in for just before Christmas, so the timing on that should be pretty spot-on, all things considered. Even if I go slightly over by then, it’ll still be within the next 1,000 – all told, no bad thing.
The only thing I really miss on Slab from Mondeo, it turns out, is cruise-control. I never used to use it much, but it does come in handy on long motorway drives where your leg doesn’t move much from one position on the accelerator. It meant I could engage the cruise-control for a couple of minutes, stretch and move my leg, and stop my knee from totally locking up. Instead, getting home last night I must’ve looked like a pirate getting out the car, for the first couple of minutes it really wouldn’t move well at all.
Fire Works
Posted: Thu 7 November, 2013 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Getting Old(er) Leave a comment »This year, the cats have been OK (in general) with fireworks again. There seem to have been more of them in the village than last year – although it’s still nothing like the warzone that Bracknell became throughout October to January. Still, at least I don’t have a moronic and hyper Hound to deal with.
Personally, I don’t mind fireworks. I like seeing them – not really surprised, with a birthday of November 5th. I know that animals aren’t overly keen, but my lot have been OK. They stay inside more – which is fine with me, considering how vile the weather’s been – and can crowd me a bit for security (and yes, I do think that might be why the Bengal is sleeping on my bed at night) but it’s all good.
Driving home from work on Tuesday I even got to see some of the fireworks from local displays, which is always pleasant.
Life really is a much more peaceful experience without Hound, it has to be said.