Just heard on the radio that there is currently a 30 mile queue on the clockwise M25 from Reigate to the M4...
Lovely !
Sooo glad I decided not to be out today. Can't help feeling that the Scottish system of local bank holidays works a lot better. For example if Edinburgh is on holiday one week, then Glasgow has it's holiday on a different Monday etc. Better for the resorts and attractions too. Spreads the opportunity over a number of weekends.
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How German !
www.schulferien.org/
Sounds like they're already geared up for integration next September ;-)
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Well, I can vouch for that system having been in place for at least 50 years or maybe more. It just makes a lot of sense and eases the pressure on all manner of transport systems and it also means that for example, vistors from a 'shut' location to an 'open' destination can benefit from all of its facilities being fully open.
Quite a lot of useful things were invented in Scotland of course.
www.magicdragon.com/Wallace/thingscot.html
;-)
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Fri 24 May 13 at 16:31
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I couldn't see Chicken Tikka Masala or David Cameron in your list Humph.
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And some in that list are just plain wrong, lies in fact - And they boast about their education system! Tho I guess, in hindsight, it was compiled by a drunk with heart disease.
Last edited by: Zero on Fri 24 May 13 at 16:53
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Tee hee ! www.car4play.com/forum/post/index.htm?v=e&t=13836&m=315522
Don't you dare go borrowing the other one or I'll scream and scream and scream until I'm sick...
;-)))
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Fri 24 May 13 at 17:11
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I have just been motoring around various parts over, along side and under the m25. 30 miles is a severe under representation, at one point they were saying only about 10 miles of the entire road was actually moving. Its eased a bit now I can see.
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Traffic England says 90 minutes delay clockwise.
40 minutes delay anti-clockwise.
Should be clear by 6pm - they say!
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Delays on southern stretches of the M1 both directions all day. M4 has delays. M6 was closed for a while...etc...etc.
Heathrow non-functional most of the day.
Torrential rain this morning in Herts/Beds.
It must be a Bank Holdiay weekend!
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Its winter here. Forecast for the weekend is 24 degrees. I hate the winter.
I might go to the beach, it takes about 1h:30 with no traffic, up to 1h:40 on a holiday when the traffic is heavy.
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I spend my working life hacking up down and around the country. When it comes to Bank Holidays, my wife almost always asks if we can "go somewhere" in the car. When I grimace at the very thought she then decides it's urgent that I paint something instead. Can't win !
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M4 itself was slow but not too bad. My 26 miles home - par time 35 min, PB 29 - took 48. Colleague and I watched the red snakes grow on the traffic map of the M25; that's his way home.
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Lots of bikes and roof boxes being strapped to cars by harassed looking fathers round here as we speak. Wonder where they're all going?
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Gosh yes, you're probably right. Does make you wonder how our parents managed without roofboxes for a weekend away though? Well, it does me. We used to go away in my dad's Wolseley saloon for a fortnight with everything we needed in the boot and the dogs in the back seat with whichever combination of us happened to be there. I've spent many an hour with my face stuck in the side of a Retriever. Better than some options though I guess. You just had to pray he didn't turn round.
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It's a nightmare down here in Pembrokeshire. There were six cars ahead of me at the lights in Haverfordwest this evening, 50% up on the normal four on a Friday rush hour. I thought I was going to be stuck there all night.
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I thought Pembrokeshire was one of the places "they" go with their roofboxes?
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>> I thought Pembrokeshire was one of the places "they" go with their roofboxes?
>>
It'll be tomorrow onwards when the terrorists from the notorious Caravan Club descend. Although the shed tuggers are only a minor irritation compared to the camper vans, at least you can stick the van behind a decent motor if you chose to. Those mobile portaloos appeared to be powered by a detuned side valve engine from a pre war jalopy.
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"Shed tuggers"
Brilliant ! I shall steal that for future use on my BIL if you don't mind?
A bloke next door but one has just bought a motorhome thing. Massive it is. It can fit a sports car and a scooter in a compartment underneath it. Can't imagine it was cheap. He's welsh. Nice enough guy though despite that.
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Nice enough guy though despite that.
>>
despite what?...Shed tugger or Welsh?
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>> When it comes to Bank Holidays, my wife almost always asks if we can "go somewhere" in the car. When I grimace at the very thought she then decides it's urgent that I paint something instead.
Seems to me she knows exactly how to get you to paint something?
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>> M6 closed today
>>
>> Reason ?
>> www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/rush-hour-misery-m6-closed-police-4013566
My first thought was a wanabee jumper on the overbridge between n/b and s/b sites.
Police cannot win of course. If they'd let traffic flow past a potential van bomb and it went off with shrapnel etc they'd have been in front of IPCC before the dust had settled.
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>> >> M6 closed today
>> >>
>> >> Reason ?
>> >> www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/local-news/rush-hour-misery-m6-closed-police-4013566
>>
>> My first thought was a wanabee jumper on the overbridge between n/b and s/b sites.
>>
>> Police cannot win of course. If they'd let traffic flow past a potential van bomb
>> and it went off with shrapnel etc they'd have been in front of IPCC before
>> the dust had settled.
Exactly what the terrorists wanted. We bite every time.
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>> it's urgent that I paint something instead.
I have to say Humph, my first thought was: Great, sheltered place or conservatory (or even greenhouse), easel with cartridge paper, box of paints - children's watercolours will do fine - some sort of daub, deckchair, large drink in hand, hat over eyes...
Some of us are sadly slow on our feet I can't help feeling. And of course there's another possibility: you might turn out to have talent. I can easily imagine you the hero of Cork Street... "Naive discovery rocks art market... "
But never mind that, it's still in the future. If you play your cards right.
:o}
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Do people still sell artworks off the railings on Bayswater Road on Sundays? Or has that been banned due to obscuring natural light from passing polar bears or something too?
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Escaped from work early on the "Battlescar Galactic" (the scooter) and got onto Britannia Bridge just in time so that some judicious weaving got me through in no time. I passed close enough to a Quashqai to punch the mirror off - but resisted the temptation !
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Be careful on that thing. Don't snag your parka on any passing grown-ups...
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Nose to tail caravans in Ribblesdale today. Enjoyed my 18 minute walking commute to work this am, and 3 minute commute to the pub after work. Ditto for tomorrow, then off on Sunday, bbq with friends in my garden then local rattler, and back, for a curry on Monday. Car not been out the garage for 10 days. I really enjoy Bank Holidays these days when i dont have to drive anywhere. Amazing seeing queues at the local filling station tonight. Especially with the price they charge.
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Puts €50 of tolls doing 1053kms on French & Spanish motorways yesterday into perspective
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Left Devon at 0300 and did very well on the first leg.
Noticed the M5 was closed southbound at one point, near Bristol end of things (junction or two before if travelling northbound).
Police were turning stuff around, so presumably a bad one.
Second leg, after a stop, was busy, especially up past Loch Lomond and through Glen Coe. Wifey was happy, I didn't bother with any 12 car overtakes!
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>> Left Devon at 0300 and did very well on the first leg.
>>
>> Noticed the M5 was closed southbound at one point, near Bristol end of things (junction
>> or two before if travelling northbound).
>>
>> Police were turning stuff around, so presumably a bad one.
Yep, I live by junction 19, and as I passed over the M5 I though it appeared to be stationary rather than just very heavy.
Appears there was a casualty
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-22665323
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>> Appears there was a casualty
>>
I see it's being reported that she was naked. How odd, and sad.
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Could I just pass on a useful piece of advice please?
When your wife persuades you that nothing is more urgent today than to take the old barbeque to the tip, do please check that it isn't full of rusty rainwater and semi-congealed but still partly liquid festering grease before you turn it on it's side to put it in the boot of the car...
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I trust it was in your car Humph, and not the ole womans!
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>> Could I just pass on a useful piece of advice please?
>>
>> When your wife persuades you that nothing is more urgent today than to take the
>> old barbeque to the tip, do please check that it isn't full of rusty rainwater
>> and semi-congealed but still partly liquid festering grease before you turn it on it's side
>> to put it in the boot of the car...
You could always re-paint it. I understand you're quite handy with a brush.
;>)
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>> When your wife persuades you that nothing is more urgent today than to take the
>> old barbeque to the tip, do please check that it isn't full of rusty rainwater
>> and semi-congealed but still partly liquid festering grease before you turn it on it's side
>> to put it in the boot of the car...
Ah yes, but, as managing the barbeque is usually the mans domain, it should have been cleaned after use, no?
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>> >> Appears there was a casualty
>> >>
>> I see it's being reported that she was naked. How odd, and sad.
>>
Family and Police claiming that it wasn't the case, and that her clothing was ripped during the impact
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Off somewhere nice WP in this torrential Scottish rain??
Did you stop off for a pint at the Clachaig? Or do what most folks seem to be doing now and driving the "Skyfall" road and taking photos next to the boulder??
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>> Off somewhere nice WP in this torrential Scottish rain??
>>
No rain here.
I'm currently sat in brilliant sunshine with a large glass of red, looking down over a vista that consists of Loch Sunart and an uninterrupted views of various mountains.
Ardnamurchan Peninsula, cottage in the middle of nowhere, about 25 miles away from Fort William.
Bliss.
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Must be nice there....one of my Scots FB friends has stopped moaning about the rain for the first time in ages.
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>> Must be nice there....one of my Scots FB friends has stopped moaning about the rain
>> for the first time in ages.
>>
It's been very dry here for ages. When we drove through Glen Coe on sat, the waterfall was a mere trickle, although I spoke to people today who'd driven from the East coast to here, through Glen Coe and they said the weather was truly foul.
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I'm given to think of you as quite a nice chap normally WP, but at this precise moment I can feel a certain primeval hatred welling...
:-)
Nah, joking aside, it's blinking stunning up there even when the weather is "normal".
Enjoy !
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>> I'm given to think of you as quite a nice chap normally WP, but at
>> this precise moment I can feel a certain primeval hatred welling...
>>
>> :-)
>>
>> Nah, joking aside, it's blinking stunning up there even when the weather is "normal".
>>
>> Enjoy !
>>
We are, as we always do.
Probably mentioned if before, but it was a close decision as to whether we moved here or Devon when we moved from 'the smoke'.
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Rain? whats all this rain Shiesse.
Just taken the dog for a walk along the canal and stopped for a pint of ice cool Stella in the blazing sunshine! Bit breezy but delightful day
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Took the bikes out for a run yesterday - a 60 mile circuit to Porthmadog and then return via another route - towns were busy but the main roads were ok - with 3 figure seeds would have been possible if one didn't respect the law. GS was my steed - stunningly capable ride in all the conditions we met en-route........everyone says the 2013 version is even better, remarkable bike evolution seems to weigh the same as the old bike despite more tech.
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..."3 figure seeds..."
The mind boggles as to what the Welsh get up to on the Sabbath.
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Went out on the EVO7 again today, need to get some leg exercise, the one I had operated on is a bit rubbery when standing. Made my way to the Mersey Valley by various side roads, alleyways and parks. Had a gander at the new Metrolink works and a cup of tea with fruitcake at the Ark cafe.
Came back a different way getting a bit lost when I came upon a junction of 7 tracks in the woods. Took one of the wrong ones, of course, but it didn't matter. There were never woods there when I was a youngster, it was a big sewage farm !
Called in at the Co-op and did the last mile with bread/ice cream and cream in a bag on me handlebars........Grandkids coming for tea in the afto !
Nice day, just had a zipped woolly on but a light cagoul in the rack bag. Rained later but I was well home by then !
Did the Ardnamurchan run on the bikes in 2006. Pot of tea at the point and then back to the hotel in the Fort via Acharacle and the Road to the Isles....stunning run !
Ted
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Left here at 4 ish, cruised briskly into and across a bit of London, to Kentish Town anyway, then back via Richmond and Ham to see someone else, then back here. I drove all the way there and back in a 50,000-mile Kia Rio diesel, three years old. Felt tight and solid, very refined but only at certain speeds (60 in top it liked a lot), but loads of torque and well able to beat the traffic. I enjoyed it, but of course didn't try to get it sideways in the dry with herself and the owner aboard. I have the impression that that might have involved a bit of wrestling... but I thought it a very nice motor, good value obviously and very economical - he says it does 60mpg but let's say mid-fifties.
Bank Holiday traffic? There simply wasn't any. Quieter than a normal day thank the Lord.
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>> I thought it a very nice motor,
I did, but the driver's seat was far too low. And the Rio I was driving was rock-bottom cheapo specification, so no vertical adjustment available. The owner also has the seat too far forward and the back too upright for me, with the steering wheel set too high, praying mantis style. I could move the seat back and recline it, and drop the wheel an inch or two, but the position wasn't perfect. I like to sit high.
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>> I like to sit high
Here we go again Sire!
:-D
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>> Here we go again
Down boy, down! (waves choke chain menacingly)
My own car has a little switch on the side of the driver's seat which makes the seat go up or down an inch or two with a discreet whirr.
Seat as high as it will go, wheel as low as it will go: good vision and relaxed posture.
Seat low, wheel high: poor vision, tense posture, high probability of wheel inputs being slightly exaggerated, much harder work to do a tidy job.
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>>My own car has a little switch on the side of the driver's seat which makes the seat go up or down an inch or two with a discreet whirr
Wow! - even my Scoobie doo with all-the-toys hasn't got that little gadget.
subaru-review.com/image/cfbc3923
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Even old Mondeos have that !
;-)
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>> Even old Mondeos have that !
Their one redeeming feature.
..:)-
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The manual ones have things called "clutches" too GB. Quite easy to operate once you get the knack...
;-)
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>> The manual ones have things called "clutches" too GB.
All very well having a clutch even if its like an on/off switch, still needs a properly sorted engine under the bonnet.
:-)
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>> All very well having a clutch even if its like an on/off switch, still needs a properly sorted engine under the bonnet.
That reminds me that cars with auto gearboxes in the carburettor days had very different carbs from manual cars. They needed to be set correctly so that the idle speed wasn't too high (causing excessive creep and a big clonk when engaging D or R from neutral).
The one I remember was on a late coke-bottle Cortina. Once those things with all the little springs, cranks and stop-screws got really out of adjustment they were horrible to put right. Plus of course the mixture delivery at different throttle openings was different to suit the characteristics of the slush pump three-speeder.
These days of course the engine electronics do all that, and are often 'intelligent' and self-correcting to an extent. Thank goodness eh?
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>> Wow! - even my Scoobie doo with all-the-toys hasn't got that little gadget.
Just something else to go wrong Dog.
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I had a dream last night that my electric folding mirrors had had a hissy fit and were doing the hokey cokey!
Ya put ya right mirror in, ya left mirror out, in out in out they blimmin flap about.
:}
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My own car has a little switch on the side of the driver's seat...
What, no seat-shaped switches on the door panel? Do you have to adjust the steering and the head restraint by hand? And no 1-2-3-M buttons to store your settings? How do you people cope?
Peter, Humph - you're the only ones here that understand. Another custard cream?
};---)
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>> Another custard cream?
>> };---)
OOh get her! Ponce ponce... Actually WDB I don't really think electrical adjustment is needed, don't mind doing it by hand, just provided the adjustment is there. Seems odd to me that Subaru don't provide height adjustment since they are drivers' cars.
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>> don't mind doing it by hand,
>>
An honest admission, AC.
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>> Seems odd to
>> me that Subaru don't provide height adjustment since they are drivers' cars.
They do have height adjustment AC, but it's manual operation. Upmarket Legacy's like the 3.0 litre cars have electric seats including height adjustment.
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>> Peter, Humph - you're the only ones here that understand. Another custard cream?
>> };---)
>>
No memory seats in my car I'm afraid WDB, but then I'm the only one who drives it so they wouldn't get much use! I just have the basic electrically adjustable seats, which means up/ down and recline are powered. Forward / backwards is manual, as is the lumbar adjustment. I dream of powered headrests and wheel adjustment ;-).
I also miss the powered open/close mechanism for the cubby in front of the gearshift on my old S211 (no CD multichangrer...), but that too was 'Avantgarde' spec and also only had the basic version of electric seats. The only car I've had with fully powered seat adjustment was the Toyota Altezza I had while living in Japan!!
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No memory seats in mine either, but they do adjust electrically the same as Peter's. There is though a gizmo which drops the rear head restraints down at the touch of a button for reasons I can't begin to fathom but it does it, so it must be a good thing.
My favourite thing is the pair of switches just inside the ( electric ) tailgate ( that's good fun if someone is standing next to or walking past the back of the car when you remotely open it from across a car park, scares the skylight out of them usually ) Anyway back to the switches just inside the boot which auto drops the back seats down if you're loading something long into the car and the other piece of witchcraft which lifts the roller blind up electronically. None of it really necessary of course. A piece of string would work just as well I guess.
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>>a gizmo which drops the rear head restraints down at the touch of a button
You mean it doesn't do that automatically when you engage reverse, to give better rear vision?
It is a pain that you have to reset them manually!
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Ooooh now then ! it might do that too for all I know. I always leave mine down because I'm constantly flattening the seats. Must go and try that. ( Don't laugh, it might work ! )
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I can't help fantasizing that people with these memory-seat all-way adjustment devices probably have a 'Baby you can drive my car' setting that when pressed, slams the seat flat and straps the unlucky would-be driver firmly down, while extending a selection of whips, feather dusters and so on to the smirking, moustache-twirling front seat passenger with a well-bred chime...
Wicked of me I know.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Tue 28 May 13 at 19:29
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Well, I have heard you can get vibrating seats. Allegedly they're to keep you awake or something but my wife reckons they'd be much more useful than that if you were stuck on the North Circular...
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Assuming that's a euphemism I'm not familiar with, if you did get something 'stuck on the North Circular', how would you explain it at A&E?
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Well, I wasn't aware of it being a euphemism for anything other than the catatonic boredom induced by traffic jams but maybe you've hit on something. I shall try not to dwell on it further. As you were...
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Surely a woman would prefer a vibrating gear lever?
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I've driven a car with those massage seats, can't remember what it was. Very weird and to me pointless.
I also think it's jolly unfair that women - or some of them - can sit smugly in a traffic jam having multiple orgasms without any RR or BBD-style furtive activity even for one orgasm (or mere emission as it usually is).
Jolly unfair.
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I understand fully!
The old Mondeo had the best switches ever on the drivers seat and I could sit there like lady Muck twiddling them after 6'1'' mr pda had been driving. This one, the newer and supposed to be better model doesn't have them so I have to sit there groping in a very unladylike way, between my legs to try and find a bar then pull myself forward...that's progress apparently.
Don't even get me started on the tail gate...
I always use the back seat for stowing stuff when I'm out on my own as I can't reach the tailgate to close it being just 5'1'' tall.
Last week my DIL and I had a day out around some garden centres and at Wistow craft village, I decided as there was two of us we should be able to close the boot.
I forgot she is just 4' 11'' and the crowd sitting outside sipping coffee quite enjoyed our antics trying to jump up either side to reach the lid and then cross one hand over the other from front to back to get it within reach.
I have to add that most were retired *gentlemen* who should have come and offered to do it for us.
Pat
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A powered tailgate, or at least the one on my car, is of no use to the vertically challenged anyway because for some strange reason the button to operate it is on what becomes the highest part of it when it's open!! I'm sure there's a reason for that, but it seems counterintuitive to me...
Is there anywhere to attach a hanging strap, so you could pull the tailgate down into reach?
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Dog Woman is 5" 2' and has no problemo with the Scoobie doo, Lancer, Almera, mark 1 Focus.
Tailgate on the Mondeo must be blimmin high then.
Confuzed ov Kernow.
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"Dog Woman is 5" 2' and has no problemo with the Scoobie doo, Lancer, Almera, mark 1 Focus."
Yes, but the tailgates on the Forester and Focus estate (and Lancer estate, I think, not having driven one) were almost vertical, not the curved shape you get on the 'streamlined' style currently in vogue on larger estates. So, when I opened my Forester's hatch, it was just above head level (I'm 5'11") so still within arm's reach for a shorter driver.
If I have to reach up to grab the handle on the Legacy's hatch - which is both slightly curved and hinged further forward than the Forester's - I expect both Pat and Ms. Dog would have trouble reaching it.
Certainly, pop riveting a grab strap of suitable length onto the trim card inside the boot hatch is the way to go...
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I'm 6ft tall and can reach up to 7'6" quite easily so I would hazard a guess that someone about 5'2" could reach up to say 6' 6" with a bit of a stretch.
Why would/does the hatch on the Mondeo/Legacy etc. open higher than 6' 6", or does it?
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pat, fix a length of load securing webbing onto the inside of the tailgate, when the tailgate is up it hangs down and is easy to grab.....
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I know but........
We can put a man on the moon but not make a tailgate a normal sized woman can close?
It's designed by a man obviously!
Pat
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They should be designed with 2 settings, one for normal people, and one for the vertically challenged.
:}
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The tailgate on the E Class ( electric opening and closing ) can be stopped anywhere or at any angle on its upward journey so it can be left at whatever height suits the situation. I can reach it easily at its full extent but even I've used this facility in low roofed underground parking garages and so on where opening it to its full extent might have caused it to bash into an overhead service pipe or somesuch. Clever dem Jehmuns eh?
The tailgate on the Qashqai conversely has its corners at exactly the height of my eyebrows when open and I'm constantly headbutting it inadvertantly.
Last edited by: Humph D'Bout on Wed 29 May 13 at 10:05
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The Honda had a button on the keyfob which operated the tailgate, anyone could reach that!
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>>I like to sit high.
>>
We have noticed ;-)
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>> >>Went out on the EVO7 again today
>>
>> Que? www.flickr.com/photos/azamsai/2458272707/
>>
Might get one of them for the shopping, Bonz. Bit blingy for you and me though, I think ?
Teddy
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The Xantia and Berlingo both go beyond horizontal, former more so than latter.
The 'lingo has a grab strap in reach of anyone over five foot. The Xant just has a handle recessed into tailgate. Even at 5' 9" I have to jump slightly if its on a slope.
Miss B who is only just five foot has to jump higher!
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>>The Xant just has a handle recessed into tailgate. Even at 5' 9" I have to jump slightly if its on a slope.<<
Put the suspension into service low. That'll also keep the height correctors and linkage free moving.
Two jobs in one!
0)
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I have to walk round the back and unlock the tailgate and lift it.
I do have semi electric windows though. I wet the tip of my finger and push it into the cigar lighter socket as I start turning the winder. There isn't a system made that can open or close a window so fast.
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Bank Holiday Traffic - ....
