Got stuck behind a cloth cap in a 2 litre Honda today.
The "highlight" of this experience was being stuck behind when he was doing 10 mph around a big roundabout. Yes, 10 mph, possibly less than that. My speedo wont register below 10 mph.
First opportunity, overtook the pillock.
Doddery old gits / Sunday drivers like that shouldn't be on the road, frankly.
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Thought I'd give your Metro the chance of a lifetime. And I was lost.
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wellll young man, you don't want to do it like that, you want to do it like this !
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You want to try living in Worthing matey - drives you round the twist. Everyday is Sunday for most of the population - a nice little trundle along the front, double park, can't figure out how roundabouts work, what's an indicator? I'm in no hurry - young hooligan, look he's trying to overtake, better drift across the road abit, adjust flat cap, reposition upsidedown map and unwrap another boiled sweet. More tea Gladys?
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Ahhhh, do like slowing down these impetuous youngsters.
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That will be you one day, young man. You expect the right to use the road your way, then you have to extend the same right to him.
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That will be you one day, young man. You expect the right to use the road your way, then you have to extend the same right to him.
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You just said that 5 minutes before, Growlette.
Alzheimers, perhaps?
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Nor should ,lorries,caravans,bikes,motorbikes,old cars,buses,just selfish boys like you? At a guess i would say you're the chap who hogs the 3rd lane and refuses to move over for me? .He's too slow for you , but you hold me up.
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The trouble is - he doesn't know he's a doddering old git. He's entitled to be on the road, and probably has a good accident record - so he'll regard himself as "squeaky clean".
I used to despair at my dad's driving, as he got to about 70 (years, not mph). In his eyes everyone else was a road hog/mad/irresponsible - the anecdotes were endless (sadly, he's now motoring where it doesn't cost a penny). He never got to the doddering old git stage, but he would have done.
I'm very conscious of my own driving capabilities - particularly ways to spot the tell tale signs of "age creep" (I'm nearer 60 than 50) and I know that I'm not as sharp as I used to be. My eyesight is perfect (regularly tested) and my reactions are good.
If I'm honest, the thing I know that takes me longer and, is more difficult, is threading my way through towns and cities where I haven't been before (or if I have, it was a very long time ago). I now find that I need
a) Eyes in the back of my head.
b) A knowledge of the "psyche" of the twerps who designed the road sign/traffic management system.
c) A degree in psychology to anticipate the behaviour of the "young bucks" who know it all.
Perhaps the "doddering old git" really has no chance of coping with what we see as simple things - but he won't live for ever.
Until some mad scientist invents a system where we are all microchipped with self-diagnostics - and links it to a governmental process or human recall/euthanasia, then we are stuck with what we have, and have to make the best fist we can of surviving.
Never forget - this life is not a dress rehearsal!
Ian (doddering old git in about 15 years time?)
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If you really want to see the archetypal doddery old git (and I used to live in Worthing many years ago!) try Boca Raton, Florida. 85 year old blue rinses driving Cadillacs the size of boats.
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It was worse between Christmas and New Year almost everywhere. People visiting people and not knowing where they were going. Hangovers. You simply could not trust any other driver to drive properly.
HJ
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We all have our pet hates. Patience is a virtue and indispensable when driving. Pity I don't have more of it!
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No, me memory's OK, it's just the trembling fingers on the mouse. Had a day with HIM on the Hog on what passes for an expressway here. Forget doddering, old or otherwise, here we just have GITS! 20 kph in the fast lane, 180 kph in the slow lane. Trucks with no lights, or red ones at the back. Some with bent chassis, proceeding crabwise. All overloaded with people, cocmuts, pigs, sacks of rice, opld iron or any or all of those. Many vehicles have no signals, and those that do remain a mystery as to their purpose to their drivers. PUlling out to overtake immediately makes everyone in the next lane hot the pedal so as to close the gap and stop you getting in, conversely if they want to do it to you never mind whether there's a gap in front, they do it anyway, so you pull back or get pushed off. Watch the license plate, might be a SOMEBODY. If it has a CHevy Sunburban with blacked out windows tailgating it so close that nothing can get between that'll be his bodyguards, what's called "close-in" security. And don't get stroppy with anybody, they may have a gun under the seat. Shootouts over that's my parking space are not uncommon.
Rule of the road is I have to get in front of everybody at all costs and if they get in front of me I've got to get back where I was before they did it. Oh, I'm forgetting the buses, they handle those like Minis, and quite often swipe someone off the road by pulling in too quick. Drivers are often using shabu (amphetamine) so they can get extra pay for geting in front of competing buses to pick up passengers. Friend of mine went back to her home province for Christmas- an 18 hour bus ride. Same driver all the way, loo stops only.
Huh! and all you've got to whinge about is some old feller who's worked hard all his life, paid the taxes that enabled you to get an education, just 'cos he wants to cruise on a Sunday.
(stumps off to find more ice for the gin).
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Aaah! The joys of Third World Motoring!
If I didn't know you were in the Phillipines, I'd say you lived in my neighbourhood!
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I drive a 2001 Honda Accord 2.0i VTEC (age 27 - me, not the car)
Everyone expects to see it pootling along at 25mph, gives them a bit of a shock when I floor it and leave them looking a bit silly (especially if it's some snobby exec in his 318i or something similar) - Accords aren't bad at all if you wind them up a bit.
One thing I can't understand is why the SE Exec comes with a factory fitted kick-ass BOSE system including a bit fat sub on the parcel shelf - surely the old gimmers won't appreciate that? Or does it need to be able to go so loud to penetrate their deaf eardrums? Whatever, it's the first car I've ever owned that I haven't had to spend any money on upgrading the hi-fi kit.
It's a lot of very good car for the money you know.
Alex.
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A South African drug dealer with a Thai girlfriend who I met in Bali and who is into such things told me that shabu shabu is crack cocaine.
HJ
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How on earth did that come into the conversation?
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Dan J wrote:
>
> How on earth did that come into the conversation?
Read Growlette's last reply.
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I'd just like to point out that not all south africans are drug dealers.
(Neither are all motoring journalists smackheads, I'm sure :) )
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Mark (Brazil) wrote:
> Read Growlette's last reply.
I meant into HJ's chat with a South African drug dealer with a Thai girlfriend!
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maybe he wanted to know if sills are still the best place to hide stuff?
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HJ doesn't spend ALL his time hanging around Blackbushe auctions, you know!
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Shabu, is crystal methamphetamine hydrochloride and known as "the poor man's cocaine," widely available across Asia, cheap and the drug ofd choice for most users. Made in "factories", often Chinese run and coddled or part-owned by senior authority figures. Frequently used by long distance truck and bus drivers, night workers. Had to deal quite often with cases of usage on the job when I was HR Director for a well-known international logistics/distribution company whose operations were night-based.
Might wake up some of the Worthing dodderers.
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Shouldn't olde_pharte be contributing to this thread?
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Thanks, Growlette, for the complete explanation. A lot of bar girls and ladyboys are into shabu shabu in Bali. The main factory got busted early last summer, but may have merely been a "show bust". Do they used jamu in The Philippines? (Serves a completely different purpose.)
HJ
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OO, we are off topic and even The Boss is in on the act (guess that makes it OK). Jamu, as I recall is a herbal remedy used in in Indonesia supposed to increase energy and enhance passion, sort of like ginseng is used in Korea.
Probably there's something like it here, but haven't encountered it.
Yes shabu common with Bargirls (Guest Relations Officers or GRO's as we call them!) Ladyboys doubtless too. But bars here more regulated than those in TH or ID.
Nothing to do with anything, it's 0430 and I have just driven my bro-in-law to the airport (9 km). Time 11 mins. Time for same trip at 0830: 50-60 mins.
Just like the M4 really. Didn't see any doddery drivers, only two 40' container trucks (no lights) doing a good 80 kph in a residential area.
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OO, we are off topic and even The Boss is in on the act (guess that makes it OK). Jamu, as I recall is a herbal remedy used in in Indonesia supposed to increase energy and enhance passion, sort of like ginseng is used in Korea.
Probably there's something like it here, but haven't encountered it.
Yes shabu common with Bargirls (Guest Relations Officers or GRO's as we call them!) Ladyboys doubtless too. But bars here more regulated than those in TH or ID.
Nothing to do with anything, it's 0430 and I have just driven my bro-in-law to the airport (9 km). Time 11 mins. Time for same trip at 0830: 50-60 mins.
Just like the M4 really. Didn't see any doddery drivers, only two 40' container trucks (no lights) doing a good 80 kph in a residential area.
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Growler,
I have family in Boca Raton so am familiar with the local blue rinse motoring excitement.
Growlette is correct of course, age nails us all eventually, and we compensate by going slower and slower. It only seems like yesterday that I hurtled round the lanes of Bedfordshire in my split windscreen Morris Minor with modified engine and gearbox. 37 years on, I have a more cautious driving style, reminding myself that my two driving neighbours are 80 and 85 years old when I reverse out in the morning!
Cheers,
Julian.
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I don't want to worry the hotshot drivers tearing around worrying the good folks of Eastbourne and Worthing but I have it on good authority from an ex-colleague, who worked in Peru, that the glove box of the Morris Minor will hold a machine pistol (make not specified). Don't know about Protons or Daewoos and maybe HJ can comment on his Mum's Yaris.
Make their day.
David
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Final word: somebody somewhere, one of those numbers people, must have info on accidents by age bracket showing # type and frequency of Oldie-caused accidents. Could be they are a bit safer.
Maybe consideration could be given, not to stopping them using the roads, but putting licence restrictions on them, such as no after dark driving, not valid for motorways etc. I just think in towns everyone has to be a bit considerate, there is such a cross-section of road users.
As for Worthing and its complement of aging population, I had a mate there 40 odd years ago who was a Southdown bus conductor. He was severely disciplined for yelling out "Offington - Dead Centre of the South East!!" just before the cemetery stop by the Findon Road roundabout. Plus ca change etc etc....
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www.scotland.gov.uk/library2/doc05/ras-00.htm
Trouble is, as with most UK Stats, it doesn't consider miles driven. Therefore the accident distribution looks more favourable than it should.
However, this link contains many useful stats for the Scottish amongst us.
This one may be more topical for the ENglish, but again "miles driven" doesn't seem to be considered.
www.roads.dtlr.gov.uk/roadsafety/research02/04.htm
"Miles Driven" is not of interest for an Insurer, they only care about accidents/time, and for this an older driver is more attractive since miles driven is lower and therefore accidents/time is also lower.
Accidents/Miles driven is seemingly difficult to find.
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Many thanks to Growlette for the drugs info. Nothing for anyone to get worried about. Shabu shabu comes up in the penultimate paragraph of a novel I just sent to my publisher (got to do something else to stay semi-sane). Jamu also comes up in it. The info I have is that women in Indonesia use it to drive moisture out of their bodies, tighten up muscles, etc. Very good to get back into shape after childbirth. It also has a sexual purpose. But when girls rely on it to stay "sexy" they can become temporarily or permanently infertile.
HJ
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Thw breadth and depth of knowledge of folk in this motoring group is truly mind blowing.
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