New Environments
Posted: Mon 21 May, 2007 Filed under: Animals, Domestic, Getting Organised, Thoughts, Travel 1 Comment »Over the weekend – and on other occasions recently – I’ve been taking Hound out for walks around the place we’ll be moving to, and I have to say, it’s going to be a massive difference from either Bracknell or Attleborough.
The new place is really quite rural – we’ve got fields within 50 yards of the front and side of the house – and we’re precisely one house from the end of the village. When I take Hound out round the fields, there’s no traffic noise, and hardly any noise of other people. All you get to hear, really, are the occasional tractor, a lot of birdsong, and the occasional peacock. (There’s a colony of them somewhere in the village) When we’re walking, we usually get to see pheasants, partridges, loads of rabbits, and various less interesting birds. On occasion we’ve already seen jays, hares, and a green woodpecker.
In some ways it seems amazing to me, the way I’ve changed in the last couple of years, having lived in Manchester for five years, then moving to a far smaller town (Bracknell) at the start of 2006, then to a market town (Attleborough) at the end of ’06, and now to a village that has – at most – 100 houses all told. And all in the space of eighteen months.
Truth be told, I don’t mind at all. Manchester was great for the life I had at the time, particularly being able to go to concerts pretty much when I wanted, with no real need for planning, and for general access to stuff, it was never somewhere I could see myself staying long-term. If I’m honest, I think even five years was a bit of a shock, and went past the expected timescale for being there. As for Bracknell and Attleborough, they’ve both always been more ‘stepping stones’ than places to make into a home. Again, I didn’t mind – I’ve never had a problem with being a bit transient, and knowing I was going to be moving on again.
In fact, in some ways the new place is more of a change for me than anywhere else has been. It’s more permanent – it’s the first place I’ve owned (well, joing owner, but you know what I mean) as opposed to renting, and because of that it means I don’t have to see things any more in six-month installments. We’re making massive changes to the place, and that’s good – it’s a lot of work at the moment, (as my back is telling me this morning) but we’re definitely getting there – and in the long run, it’ll be worth it.
As always, there’s still a long way to go. But with the current changes, things feel like they’re beginning to settle into the way they should be, and into the way I/we want them to.
And of course, with walks like that all round us, and the expanse of garden in the new place, there’s no way Hound’s going to object, either.
Invisible
Posted: Mon 14 May, 2007 Filed under: 1BEM, Cynicism, Driving, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness 5 Comments »One thing I did notice this weekend while driving, thanks to the shitty weather, was how certain cars just disappear in particular types of weather. (And yes, yes, I know, every time I do a long drive, I do a post about driving standards – or lack of them – afterwards. Live with it) With road conditions the way they were – heavy rain, lots of water on the road surface – there was a massive amount of spray in the air, and I realised that white and silver cars just disappear in those conditions.
On the way up, I saw the aftermath of an accident where a silver-grey car (unsurprisingly, a BMW) had obviously been driving with no lights on, and another car (amusingly, another BMW) had come up behind it at speed, and just stoved in the entire back end of the car, run straight into it. I’ve no idea about injuries – by the time I went past, it was only the police directing drivers round the wreckage- but it was impressive.
On the return journey, in the really heavy rain and spray, I was amazed by how many people still didn’t have even sidelights on, let alone headlights and/or foglights. Yes, OK, it was daylight – in theory – so lights didn’t need to be on, but the visibility was so bad, it was worth having lights on so you could be seen, even if they weren’t necessary to see. And the majority of the cars with no lights on were – you guessed it – white or silver. And they just disappeared. You be going along, knowing there was something ahead because of the spray, but you couldn’t see the car at all.
At some points, I even used the fog lights – although I had enough of a memory-span to remember they were on, and turn them off when visibility improved again- because the range you could see dropped right down to about 30 feet max. at some points. And still drivers didn’t turn their lights on. Bizarre. I swear I’ll never understand the mentality of some drivers.
Driving Progress
Posted: Mon 14 May, 2007 Filed under: Driving, Getting Organised, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Happily, the drives to and from Manchester this weekend were smooth and problem free, despite the weather being utterly fucking horrible both times. On the way up it was fairly wet, with some semi-heavy rain in parts, but it wasn’t too bad. On the way home, though, it was nothing short of torrential. In fact, it only really cleared up when I got to Cambridge.
Both journeys also involved small traffic jams caused by accidents in the foul weather, (I’m going to write a bit about that later on) and caused delays of about ten to fifteen minutes each time. But I managed both journeys in under four hours. Going up, that four hours was from Cambridge, because I’d chosen the wrong time to try and set off, so it took three quarters of an hour just to get out of the city (which normally takes about ten minutes), but then it was just a smooth journey.
The return leg was the full Manchester – Attleborough run, which TomTom reckoned would be 3hrs 50, and pretty much was – it was four hours dead once I’d stopped off and topped up the car at the end of the journey, which made for pretty good speed.
What did interest/please me, though, was my own endurance, and how I’ve got used to driving without really noticing it. Eighteen months ago, when I’d just passed the test, and we went up to Manchester, I could only manage two hours of driving before seriously needing to take a break. If I’d driven any longer than that, I would’ve been dangerous – that’s only happened once, where I’ve driven too far, and been utterly knackered by the end, to the point that once we did swap over, I just went to sleep in the car for an hour, which is something I do about once every five years.
This weekend, though, I was able to do a four hour stint without a break, and with no serious issues at all. OK, by the time I got home last night I was tired, and had a mental blank for about ten/fifteen minutes when I got in, but that was it, no really lingering effects at all. More importantly, my right foot – which, on that first long journey, ended up being cripplingly painful for the entire weekend- was absolutely fine, no pain at all, even when we then went out for a (roughly) four or five mile walk on the Saturday.
Really, I just find it interesting to see how much I’ve got used to driving – particularly since buying the Mondeo. I’m comfortable in it, which makes a lot of difference when it comes to these things, but also I just don’t find that type of drive stressful at all. Yeah, sure, the roads are full of tosspots (usually driving BMWs) but they don’t worry me at all. I kind of just take tosspotism into consideration.
In fact, I might actually be coming to like driving – which was something I really didn’t see happening, back when I passed. Progress indeed.
Away
Posted: Fri 11 May, 2007 Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Travel Leave a comment »I’m away this weekend, seeing friends up in Manchester. Which means that right about now (ah, the joys of being able to post-date these posts!) I should be somewhere on the M6, and I’ll be back home on Sunday.
By the time I get back, I’ll have gone over the 3,000 mile ‘guarantee’ period from when I bought the car, which is pretty good going too.
In the meantime, there’ll be a couple of updates on here, but just one or two per day – yes, I’ve been very sad and organised…
Motorway Energy
Posted: Wed 2 May, 2007 Filed under: Green, Travel 2 Comments »There’s an interesting idea talked about here, creating a windfarm in the middle of a motorway (sorry, freeway) that uses the draught created by passing cars to generate power.
In this instance (in New Jersey, USA) they reckon it could power a light railway, thus enabling more commuters to get to work in a greener fashion.
Dropping Calls – Redux
Posted: Thu 19 April, 2007 Filed under: Cynicism, Travel 1 Comment »About a month ago, I wrote about people who can’t cope with calls being dropped while on the train.
There’s one person who regularly gets the same train as me on the way home, and she drives me barmy.
Every bloody day, she’ll spend the journey talking on her mobile (fair enough, doesn’t bother me), but every bloody day when we get to Thetford, and the Land of No Coverage, she loses the call, and looks in absolute amazement at her phone, as if its never happened before.
You just have to wonder whether she thinks the cellular network will upgrade itself if she just keeps on trying…
One Month On
Posted: Wed 18 April, 2007 Filed under: Domestic, Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Having looked back, I’ve just noted that actually, I’ve had the new car for just over a month now. Scary, the way time flies when you’re having fun.
Oh, and it’s now done just under 2,000 miles – not bad, all things considered.
I’m still pleased with the car (despite the additional scratch) and so far it’s performed well on all the things that’ve been required of it. Over the next couple of months there’s going to be a couple more long journeys, as well as a whole bundle of shorter ones between current place and new one, and all that guff.
But yes, so far it’s turned out to be a pretty good buy. (Just wait- now I’ve said that, things’ll start falling off the sodding thing)