I used to be an avid follower of the BBC, before I was unfortunate enough to work with them.
If you had told me that one day the BBC would regard someone crashing into a fuel station window having mixed up accelerator/brake in Germany worthy of reporting in England, I might not have believed you.
What an utter WOT. The BBC might not be worthless, but they do seem to be trying to prove that they are trivial.
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The BBC is the worst form of broadcaster, except for all the others - which are so much worse.
I like them and loathe them in equal measures.
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I have sat in meetings which are significant to the world of UK Broadcasting and tried to deal with matters of import, only to watch the BBC wait to see what other broadcasters thought simply so that they could vote against it.
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This is the BBC staff at their best!
www.thepoke.co.uk/2017/09/08/cant-hear-time-classic-bust-bbcs-nicholas-witchell-many-times/
Just a pity it did not go out live.
Last edited by: sherlock47 on Fri 8 Sep 17 at 16:16
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"The BBC might not be worthless, but they do seem to be trying to prove that they are trivial."
There are countless cases of pensioners careering out of control in scenes like that shown in the video clip. If the BBC wanted to do some serious investigative journalism, they should take a look at why this is occurring. In the cases that have happened locally, a frequent common factor appears to be a recent change from a manual to an automatic gearbox.
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>> In the cases that have happened
>> locally, a frequent common factor appears to be a recent change from a manual to
>> an automatic gearbox.
>>
If that is indeed the case, as anecdotally it appears to be, then there is a case for revising the rules about driving licences for manual/automatic cars.
The underlying assumption is that an automatic car is easier to drive than a manual, so the more restrictive licence, to drive an automatic, does not cover manual, but conversely a manual licence permits the driving of an automatic.
Surely it ought to be the other way round - after a lifetime of driving a manual a switch to an automatic appears to be more difficult, not easier.
Perhaps both licences should be restrictive, and in either case a supplementary test should be required in order to drive the other?
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I'm just catching up on here because we've been doing a bit of a scenic tour of Belgium and France for the last couple of days, driving on the right in a LHD car but neither of us ever have a problem with that.
However, I do agree with Cliff.
I was so against having the V70 simply because it was only available as an auto. I have driven so many auto lorries but always Scania's, which were always 'semi' automatic which meant I had a clutch to start and stop.
I had never really driven a fully auto car for 30 years or more and I hated it then.
When we tests drove the V70 in Cambridge town centre I fell in love with it within the first 5 miles and found that auto boxes are now very different to how I remembered them and I was sure I would get used to it.
Three months down the line, I still have to concentrate so much with the auto side of it.
I'm used to driving by the seat of my pants, changing gear when the sound of the engine tells me to and I still listen for this instinctively.
I need to see it is in reverse instead of feeling it is.
I got in it a week ago to go to work while my mind was on something else and couldn't work out why it wouldn't pull away off the drive....I had my left foot on the brake!
I hated my semi auto lories when I first had them feeling ashamed of the noise they made in traffic screaming (I felt) to change gear.
Luckily the V70 is quiet so I do try and ignore my instincts and returning a fuel figure of 53.2mpg overall for the last few days it would appear the car really does know better than I do:)
I know I will get used to it but I would love a manual V70.
Pat
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What happened to the V90?
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Typo:)
I meant V90 of course....it's been a fun packed few days!
Pat
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Glad your enjoying the V90 still. Even though it's an auto.
Brother got his XC90 T8 on Friday - must find out how it is. He does not intend plugging it in though - it's just a cheat for BIK for him. If I'd got the Passat GTE all three brothers would have either hybrid or fully electric (other has a Tesla Model S).
Last edited by: rtj70 on Sat 9 Sep 17 at 21:01
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>> If you had told me that one day the BBC would regard someone crashing into
>> a fuel station window having mixed up accelerator/brake in Germany worthy of reporting in England,
>> I might not have believed you.
Woah. This is not your average crash, this is a pretty determined, multiple, dramatic shop window attempt, with a lot of available images to clip together.
Few news editors would turn up the chance to put this on the screen.
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>>This is not your average crash..............
I guess our threshold is different.
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Was it not an example of HJ's left foot braking in autos then ;-)
Didn't watch the link until now.... what was their motivation to crash through the window of the petrol station!?!!? They had multiple attempts so it was no accident.
Last edited by: rtj70 on Thu 7 Sep 17 at 23:37
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>>They had multiple attempts so it was no accident.
>>
However:-
"Police said the 77-year old driver probably confused the accelerator with the brake pedal, and could have also mixed up the forward and reverse gear."
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Have you watched the video?
If it was a confused (old) driver.... they tried driving forward and they were stopped because of the shop front. So reversed... hit a car/van behind and then had another go at crashing through the shop front.
I wonder if it was someone that knew they needed help/care and the system had failed them and so did this to get the help they needed.
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>>Have you watched the video?
>>
See my OE.
"If at first you do not succeed, try, try again."
I only reproduced what was apparently stated by the police.
Confusion and or panic can have strange results.
I had a car completely written off ( not just cosmetic damage) by a car two vehicles behind shunting me into the car in front all at well under 20mph.
I was stationary and I had an old dear drive straight into me at low speed when all that was required was a slight turn of the wheel to safely pass me by.
Several concrete panels in a boundary wall of the garden of my daughter flat were smashed and two seven foot posts were damaged when a car hit them.
The car was in a council car park and it must have been a parking mess up.
I suspect when trying to reverse out of a parking spot with the front wheels against the kerb, first gear was selected in error. When the car did not move, more gas was used until it jumped the kerb and two feet later smashed into the wall.
Expect the unexpected ?
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>> I wonder if it was someone that knew they needed help/care and the system had
>> failed them and so did this to get the help they needed.
>>
I must make a note of that. I had been thinking that after 50 years of driving perhaps I should have a quick refresher lesson from a driving instructor. But simply driving through a petrol station window seems much more straightforward.
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>> what was their motivation to crash through the window
>> of the petrol station!?!!? They had multiple attempts so it was no accident.
Perhaps the driver thought it was a drive through.
Why did the van drive off after being hit? You would have thought the driver would have tackled the person who had just reversed into them.
Or was it all staged?
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>>I used to be an avid follower of the BBC, before I was unfortunate enough to work with them.
If you had told me that one day the BBC would regard someone crashing into a fuel station window having mixed up accelerator/brake in Germany worthy of reporting in England, I might not have believed you.
What an utter WOT. The BBC might not be worthless, but they do seem to be trying to prove that they are trivial.<<
Likewise. Lazy and arrogant used to characterise their approach. Now it's just so much worse. Enough to make you weep.
Just out of interest, how can an expert in computing be so certain they know what a decent news editor would do? I was such a news editor but I wouldn't venture an opinion on computing.
Last edited by: Mike Hannon on Fri 8 Sep 17 at 11:03
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Not an expert in computing. I only know what I've picked up, I've never been paid to be a technician.
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I'll venture an opinion on anything ...
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>> Just out of interest, how can an expert in computing be so certain they know
>> what a decent news editor would do? I was such a news editor but I
>> wouldn't venture an opinion on computing.
You are an old news editor, back in the day of role of news print, black and white hot metal, this is now the connected digital media age.
This computer expert has a social media channel with over 2 million hits, over 2000 subscribers, and over 700 clips. This computer expert gets advertising and viewing statistics on every item in the channel.
I think that justifies my opinion.
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>> This computer expert has a social media channel with over 2 million hits, over 2000
>> subscribers, and over 700 clips. This computer expert gets advertising and viewing statistics >> on every item in the channel.
>>
Mot bas when you consider it is largely based on videos of things that were sold for scrap at least 50 years ago :-)
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one persons junk is ..........
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>>This computer expert has a social media channel with over 2 million hits, over 2000 subscribers, and over 700 clips. This computer expert gets advertising and viewing statistics on every item in the channel.
I think that justifies my opinion.<<
Well I don't. Quantity doesn't equal quality but that's just the sort error a techie would make, isn't it?
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>> Well I don't. Quantity doesn't equal quality but that's just the sort error a techie
>> would make, isn't it?
And thats just the sort of comment i would expect a media dinosaur experienced only with filling a limited number of sheets of news print to make. You know absolutely nothing about editing dynamic short term news and entertainment web pages to a global unlimited audience, not the slightest idea of the type of clip that attracts hits, view time, retention, click through, shares.....
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>> Quantity doesn't equal quality
Sadly I think its the sort of error that most people make these days. In all areas.
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>> >> Quantity doesn't equal quality
>>
>> Sadly I think its the sort of error that most people make these days. In
>> all areas.
Its a natural consequence of instant production technology.
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>Just out of interest, how can an expert in computing be so certain they know what a decent news editor would do?
And as for knowing what a decent news editor would do, there's a reason why I am not one. NAFC. Editor-ing is a black art as far as I am concerned. I can do a job of critiquing the result, but the journey or the vision required to get there? No chance, not my skillset at all.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Fri 8 Sep 17 at 12:47
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In fairness to Mike, the role of "editor" has changed, expanded into lines of media far removed from the origin of the role.
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>> That's me told then.
Enjoy your retirement ;)
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I posted the clip not as a reason to beat up the BBC but I thought it a little unusual because it was not just one attempt at "parking " if that was the intention but further attempts at higher speed from further away.
The normal commonly suggested " he/she hit the gas instead of the brake"
does not seem to apply.
Brain fade, long term panic or ?
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The population of the EU is just over 500m.
So, some pensioner hitting a garage shop in Germany could be pure accidental chance with no possible rational conclusions.
Beyond 0.0002% of EU citizens will crash into a garage shop window.
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I was filling up on a forecourt in Kent circa 1990 when someone made a similar mistake and knocked a pump over, they then got out left the car running. I ran over and switched the engine off and then made sure I was well clear. It was an auto Honda, an Accord IIRC, and it was a case of accidentally hitting the accelerator rather than the brake.
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Re the driving test, today's autos are complicated with paddle shift, sports modes etc, though the difference in the tests is all about the clutch which I think offers more appreciation of howva car works. I reckon allbshould HAVE to learn in a manual unless a disability dictates otherwise.
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Last year some old boy managed to put his auto through the front window of the local greengrocers. He panicked, reversed out at speed, hit two parked cars and reversed through the front of the estate agents next door, taking half the front wall down.
Six points on his licence ISTR.
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n old boy here killed two women at the community hospital down the road. he was 89 and I presume he had an auto. He dropped his wife off in an 'ambulances' only area. Attempting a three point turn to get out he squashed the two against a wall. I think it was a Focus.
My daughter was first paramedic on the scene. The one her partner went to help was already dead. They lifted the head of the other to put a collar on but the back of her head was missing....no chance of recovery. He must have gunned it to cause that sort of damage rather than a few broken legs. Daughter said he hadn't a clue what he'd done. His wife came out and was only concerned about how they were to get home.
His case, double death by dangerous is pending atm. I have never confused the pedals but my foot has slipped sideways off the brake onto the gas now and again. With a 2 litre auto, I find it prudent to have a hold on the handbrake when reversing. The two ladies were local to me, were long term partners and had an adopted daughter. Tragic ! He's 90 now...don't know whether he'll get any bird....certainly a life ban !
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"Last year some old boy managed to put his auto through the front window of the local greengrocers. He panicked, reversed out at speed, hit two parked cars and reversed through the front of the estate agents next door, taking half the front wall down."
That is a familiar pattern. There just happened to be a video available of the old boy at the petrol station in Germany and our dumbed-down Beeb showed it.
When the subject of old drivers threshing about has been brought up on here before, I have mentioned three cases that I know of locally where the driver had recently started driving an auto. One drove into an ornamental pond at the hospital, another drove through the front door of our Tesco Express, and another wrote off half a dozen cars in a small car park. All were low-speed shunts, no one was injured; there was doubtless much embarrassment; there was no amusing video to show and publicity did not go beyond our local press.
I am only surprised that insurance companies haven't looked at this a little more closely.
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Yeah, Ive noticed that before, you do have to keep a special eye on old geezers in black Volvo estates...
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When the day comes that I feel I know longer have the faculties to drive a manual my licence will go back. I think switching to an auto for that reason is asking for trouble, once the skills you've had all your life start to significantly decline it is time to throw in the towel completely.
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Many older drivers switch to an auto simply because of the physical effort involved in operating a clutch pedal.
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>> Many older drivers switch to an auto simply because of the physical effort involved in
>> operating a clutch pedal.
>>
I think that is the main reason plus there is less to remember as the car knows what gear to use.
In anticipation of my knees getting even more creaky and driving sons Mk1 Focus with a heavy clutch I switched to an auto about 20 years ago.
I still regularly drive my daughters old Yaris but have no wish to return to a manual box for my 90+ % urban lowish speed driving.
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>> Many older drivers switch to an auto simply because of the physical effort involved in
>> operating a clutch pedal.
>>
That may well be true. I'm not saying older people or anyone with a weak knee shouldn't drive automatics, just that perhaps they ought to be able to demonstrate competence.
I have only ever once driven an automatic, and that was 30 years ago. I found it completely counter-intuitive. I was experienced with all sorts of manual boxes, including non-syncromesh crash boxes, agricultural, column change, overdrives, high/low range, etc, but I just could not safely cope with the automatic. I was fine until I needed to slow or stop, and then I would panic at the lack of a clutch pedal and stab the wrong pedal.
I'd need prolonged practice and proper instruction before I would ever dare try again.
If I ever found my leg couldn't cope with a clutch pedal I'd fit a hand-operated one.
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>>I was fine until I needed to slow or stop, and then I would panic at the lack of a clutch pedal and stab the wrong pedal.
Doesn't make a lot of sense.
You're not using the clutch until after you've already started slowing down.
Leave your left foot on the rest, and use accelerator and brake with your right foot.
If my missus can master it in 2 minutes you maybe need to do one of these...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini%E2%80%93Mental_State_Examination
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>>
>>
>> If my missus can master it in 2 minutes you maybe need to do one
>> of these...
>>
>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini%E2%80%93Mental_State_Examination
>>
Thanks for the tip Lygonis. I didn't realise I had Altzheimers in my late twenties. It's amazing I've managed so well since then.
Perhaps I've made an Earnest Saunders recovery, and might be ready to try the automatic test again. Stand back everybody!
Seriously though, in my case I think the problem was too much technical knowledge coupled with an intensely visual appreciation of mechanisms and memory generally. So I "see" the gears turning and meshing, the springs and clutch release mechanism allowing the plates to slip as I press the pedal, and disconnecting completely when the pedal reaches the floor so the engine can idle.
I see none of that with an automatic. I sort of visualise a paddle wheel churning a bath of oil so turning another paddle wheel, so the drive can slip almost 100% at idling and then get more positive as the speed increases and the oil is flung harder. And I appreciate the principle of epicyclic gearing, friction bands, etc. I even once dismantled a Parsons marine gearbox and saw how an epicyclic gear can achieve reverse. I even made a primitive one in meccano.
But my picture went blank when panicking as a road junction approached, I needed to slow down, I was worried about stalling the engine, and I was wanting the gearbox to change down to a more appropriate gear. Then I stabbed with my left foot in panic and stopped suddenly. It was a friend's car and I was happy to hand over and never repeat the experience.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Sat 9 Sep 17 at 08:55
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Yep too much knowledge,
If like me you simply know that you just have a "stop" and a "go"pedal you would be fine.
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>> Many older drivers switch to an auto simply because of the physical effort involved in
>> operating a clutch pedal
Is that true? Let's find out...
Zero? Humph? is it?
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I'm an auto driver. My last three cars have been. Doubt whether I'd go back to a manual. My wife's MX5 is a manual - doubt whether there much of an effort in changing gear in that, in fact it would it would be criminal to by an auto MX5 unless you really had to.
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>> Zero? Humph? is it?
Is what?
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>> I have only ever once driven an automatic, and that was 30 years ago. I
>> found it completely counter-intuitive.
>> I'd need prolonged practice and proper instruction before I would ever dare try again.
>>
Start booking lessons now, because when ICE cars are banned, there wont be any cars with gearboxes.
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>>
>> Start booking lessons now, because when ICE cars are banned, there wont be any cars
>> with gearboxes.
>>
So no problems because automaic gearboxes won't exist either.
They are now talking of having a combined accelerator/brake pedal pivotting in the middle - up = go, down = slow.
It seems an obvious development. But not such fun as a nice smooth heel-and-toe down change into a non-synchromesh gear.
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>> They are now talking of having a combined accelerator/brake pedal pivotting in the middle -
>> up = go, down = slow.
A similar system used here by Nissan.
www.autoexpress.co.uk/nissan/leaf/100747/new-nissan-leaf-prototype-review
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My new motor has an auto mode "L" which brings much more engine braking (therefore regen), and really almost negates the need for brakes except until the final few yards. On the forum people are saying the brakes on Amperas get changed mainly because they are rusty rather than worn out. Having driven manuals for most of my driving life, this car is a beaut to drive and I don't thin,k I'd go back to a manual by choice.
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My first auto was a 1993 Cavalier. The salesman said going on the majority of customers, I'll either now continue driving autos or will be back in less than 3 months buying another car with a manual gearbox.
I fell into the first category and haven't owned a manual gearbox car since. The only time I drive a manual now is when I use the pool cars or vans at work, and I hate it.
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>> Yeah, Ive noticed that before, you do have to keep a special eye on old
>> geezers in black Volvo estates...
Fairly harmless really, with only 168 horses (tho several tons admittedly). I'd be more concerned if someone gave them 340 horsepowers.
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>> I reckon all should HAVE to learn in a manual unless a disability dictates otherwise.
>>
The whole situation needs a serious review.
Lets start with cars are treated by many ( majority) as white goods.
Having passed the test all that is now needed is to put correct fuel in it.
Not interested in learning skills other than how to go faster .
Oh and maybe tax and insurance.
MoT, if it is remembered, will tell me if anything needs fixing like brakes and tyres.
The vast majority ignore " funny noises " as they will go away.
I have a steering wheel, a go pedal and a stop pedal and a thingy for forward or backward so what else do i need ?
So from that base what next??
Meanwhile strange electronic things keep getting added to distract me :-(
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I find it hard to grasp why anyone who can drive would have any difficulty in using either a manual or an auto. I generally have autos and my wife usually has manuals. We both drive either and don't have to think about it at all. Similarly with RHD cars and LHD models hired abroad. Just get in and drive them. It's not like driving is especially difficult is it?
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Bought my first automatic in the late 1970's, only bought automatics since then.
I always get a manual loan car when mine is in for a service, and just drive orf like I've been driving manuals for years.
The ole woman passed her test in an automatic, has never driven a manual, so wouldn't be able to for all the tea in Tesco's. She wouldn't want to either.
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Well I guess going from auto to manual might take a while to achieve the necessary coordination going from manual to auto is unlikely to be much of a problem for the average driver. My first experience of an auto was in a hire car that I picked up from the airport in Canada 15years ago.
Don't recall it being a problem.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Fri 8 Sep 17 at 22:33
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>> It's not like driving is especially difficult is it?
No, not really. At least, insofar as driving is defined as simply driving the vehicle. If it starts to include awareness and safety, then it would appear to be b***** difficult and quite beyond many.
I switch auto/manual often and I cannot remember ever making a mistake with that factor. Certainly not this side of 19.
I also switch LHD/RHD often, and I can remember the last time I made a mistake with that - 1988, which might be the only one as far as I can remember..
The difficult one is driving the wrong-handed car - e.g. an LHD on an RHD road. I think it must because I am so used to switching that I adapt to the layout of the car rather than the road.
Whatever it is, when driving a wrong-handed car for the road, I concentrate a lot
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There's no doubt that passing the driving test is much too easy, there should be much more on technical knowledge, dynamics and control. That someone can drive a car without knowing which wheels are driven is ridiculous. And I know it's a bit of a cliché though it should be considered as less of a right and more of a privilege.
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I'm not sure you really need much technical knowledge to drive a car. I know a number of people who have virtually no interest in the mechanical side but are perfectly safe and competent drivers.
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>> The difficult one is driving the wrong-handed car - e.g. an LHD on an RHD
>> road.
I find that one, or at least RHD in a LHD country, straightforward. Off the ferry, onto the road and away. The danger is pulling away from a stop on a deserted road.
On the two occasions if driven LHD hire cars the controls fall to hand easily enough, even a manual gearshift. I find myself having to fight an instinct that says I'm abroad so driving position should be 'nearside'.
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>> >> The difficult one is driving the wrong-handed car - e.g. an LHD on an
>> RHD
>> >> road.
Every year I drive a L/H drive hire car in europe, Every year I drive my own R/H drive car in Europe, probably rack up at least 5000km a year in so doing. Never have a problem, not even a sniff.
I always catch my self driving on the wrong side of the road back home in the UK about two weeks later tho.
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Once upon a time, long long ago, I was driving through a Canarian village [probably Arona in Tenerife].
I did a u turn at the end of said village and a rather irate Canarian in an old Seat 124 came hurtling towards me beeping shouting and waving his arm about ... turns out I had positioned myself on the wrong side of the road.
8-)
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>> I always catch my self driving on the wrong side of the road back home
>> in the UK about two weeks later tho.
Me too!!
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Freud compared the mind to an iceberg, with a small conscious section above the water and a large subconscious section below. Some people have more of an "above water" personality than others, and thus concentrate and think about even relatively mundane actions, much more than most. This has advantages and disadvantages, in that those who do display those latter characteristics tend not to "forget" to do things in the right order or whatever, but they also get quite stressed about things others wouldn't, in the very seeking of that "perfection".
I confess to being quite OCD, if that's the correct diagnosis, about driving. Maybe the bit of my iceberg that I use to manage it sticks up more than average. Who knows. But, I hear people say they've made a long journey and can't remember parts of it. I can honestly say, I've never, despite a lifetime of long distance driving, ever had that experience. I sometimes wonder if I "suffer" from a mild form of specifically automotive autism !
Vaguely interesting theory, if nothing else eh?
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>>I hear people say they've made a long journey and can't remember parts of it.
I have done that. Its not that I didn't know where I was or that I was driving without awareness, its just that I drive that particular road at that particular time so much, that unless something actually happens it doesn't stand out in my memory.
I cannot imagine that it can happen if one is driving an unfamiliar route.
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Well, at the risk of going into a psycho-analytically deep discussion, I do sometimes wonder if I have a sort of "condition". Although my my wife simply describes it as a typically male characteristic. In so far as I become very single minded about things, task oriented if you like, blocking out almost everything else when a certain activity is in hand. It happens when I'm mountain biking, I'll remember, or notice every nuance of change in the terrain, plan and move about my bike in preparation to tackle whatever the trail produces, whether it be as an obstacle or an opportunity, but concurrently completely fail to notice the nice view, or what "that woman we passed was wearing" until I come to a halt.
Similarly when driving, I'll be very conscious of that immediate scenario, but again to the point of sometimes forgetting where it is I'm actually supposed to be going, and what I'm looking to achieve when I get there. In a zone so to speak.
I've never consciously felt tired when driving, again despite many years of long days and nights at the wheel, but I can absolutely collapse into a deep sleep within minutes of getting through my front door. I genuinely can't relate to mis-fuelling for example. I can't imagine how that would be possible when doing something like that, how it would be possible to be so distracted from the task in hand, but I'd also be totally capable of not recognising a close friend in the queue at the petrol station because that wasn't front of mind.
The human mind is an odd thing isn't it?
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>>>> The human mind is an odd thing isn't it?
A fascinating thing.
>>I genuinely can't relate to mis-fuelling for example
That depends. I 'mis-fuelled' my wife's diesel. Well, I put the worng fuel in it, but I absolutely intended to put petrol in it. I didn't pick up the wrong pump, I consciously chose the petrol one. It just didn't occur to me that her car was diesel.
>>I become very single minded about things, task oriented if you like
So do I. But once that task is done there is no need to remember every step of it, and unless there was something memorable, then I won't. Why would you? If there was a new tree root, or a new hole, or I'd had to dodge a rabbit, that I would remember, but if I had ridden that path 100 timers and this was exactly the same as the last 99, then however hard I had focussed while doing it, why would I remember the detail? Indeed, what detail would I remember?
>>forgetting where it is I'm actually supposed to be going, and what I'm looking to achieve when I get there
There we differ. I never lose sight of the goal. Not ever. One needs that goal to be able to make adjustments. when they are required.
>>I can absolutely collapse into a deep sleep within minutes of getting through my front door
I can sleep anywhere at anytime within moments. Noise, light, activity, silence, light, dark, don't care. I could lie down on the carpet by my chair right now and go to sleep within minutes. That one thing has served me so well over the years you cannot imagine.
I have fallen asleep at the wheel. Its not something you would risk twice.
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>>
>>
>> I have fallen asleep at the wheel. Its not something you would risk twice.
>>
I've come terrifyingly close. It does make the blood run cold when you realise.
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>> >> I have fallen asleep at the wheel. Its not something you would risk twice.
Nope, never, not even come close. But, I have discovered that I've been so tired on occasion that I physically couldn't get out of the car once the engine was off. It's like a switch in my brain. Task complete...shutdown.
Similarly with the objective of the journey, once at my destination, I become focussed on the task I've come to complete to the exclusion of more or less all other thoughts.
Recognising your own weirdnesses does though, if nothing else, allow you to compensate for them I suppose.
;-)
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Sat 9 Sep 17 at 17:46
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I do remember once, on a particularly difficult project in Asia, being unable to sign my name when requested to do so. Now *that's* tired.
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> I can sleep anywhere at anytime within moments. Noise, light, activity, silence, light, dark, don't
>> care. I could lie down on the carpet by my chair right now and go
>> to sleep within minutes. That one thing has served me so well over the years
>> you cannot imagine.
I'm the opposite even when I'm exhausted I struggle to drop unless it's ideal conditions and even then it can be a struggle. Changing straight from days to nights or the reverse is particularly bad one sleepwise for me.
I remember once on starting a 6-6 night shift reaching down to pick up something up. I hit the concrete floor but don't remember I must have been asleep before I hit the floor. I woke up about, I guess about 45 mins later. That was a bit scary if I'd have been higher up, which I was just about to do.
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Sooty, I cannot imagine how bad that must be. I can sleep on demand, which is just as well because when I get too tired I cannot function.
Many is the time I've locked the office door and grabbed 30 minutes on the floor under my desk. I've have been successful a couple of times just because I could do that and to others seem like I was working 24x7.
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A friend of mine used to do that, and he thought no one knew either. The snoring was however, a bit of a giveaway...
;-)
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The more tired I am the less I am likely to sleep. I've gone to bed exhausted and lain awake with no hint of sleep coming. The only cure is to get up, make a cup of tea and have a cigarette, which does seem to do the trick.
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>>The snoring was however, a bit of a giveaway
I've wondered about that, because I certainly do snore. But nobody has ever said anything.
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>> Sooty, I cannot imagine how bad that must be.
Yeah it's pretty annoying, but like many things you learn to live with it. Being able to lie down is always a help. I remember legging it to the back on a cargo plane to sleep on the ramp, I slept until woken for the kai shan (sp?) dive approach. Which was interesting.
I've also managed to kip on an aircraft (dc10?) in the footwell of 3 seat aisle luckily no one else was in that set of seats. The crew couldn't care less.
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Another pensioner shopping in his/her car - No FM2R
