by GothNinja | Jul 2, 2009 | Travel, Weather
This post should be read to the theme tune of Road Rage by Catatonia. 
You could be taking it easy on yourself
You should be making it easy on yourself
Cause you and I know,
It’s all over the front page, you give me road rage
Road Rage by Catatonia
Some mornings I really wish they hurry up inventing the personal teleporter.
So once again the temperature is stupidly hot, with the possibility of outbreaks of “Dave Syndrome“, and its time for the long commute over the welsh mountains to work. Now having to drive a long distance in this heat is not a nice experience in a car where the only a/c is opening the windows. So I did not start off with high expectations, and what little I had did not last long.
Irritant 1) Animals
I do not know if its the heat affecting them, or if there’s some big conspiracy in the animal kingdom to get me for some past upset, whatever the reason they are not behaving as you would expect them to. I first noticed this “oddness” when leaving my drive and as I pulled onto the road there was a huge fat pigeon standing in the middle of the road blocking it. So being Nice, I slowly drove up to it so it would fly away. Nothing! It just stood there watching me, as I had to maneuver around it since I did not want my car splattered with dead animal (It took ages to clean off the badger entrails). After the pigeon there was a rabbit, followed a bit later by a squirrel, then a baby rabbit, another squirrel, and finally a cat.
Irritant 2) Cars
Whats going on? Today there are something like one billion extra cars on the road (Give or take a Car). They are everywhere, Why? If it was Friday I’d say there were all taking the day off work to go away for the weekend to enjoy the heat. Yet here they all are! Junctions I normally just slow down for and get to turn instantly, I’m now stuck parked at for several minutes waiting for a gap in the traffic so i can pull into, Roundabouts are a similar problem. There’s also the knock on affect of slowness, since the roads are so full.
Irritant 3) Diversions.. (AKA Pointless Diversions)
This is also an irritant over stupidness and pointless red tape. On my route to work there is a junction I have to take. Its a simple T-Junction with a small filer road to make it easier for traffic to flow onto the road speeding it all up. Now they are currently doing some road repairs on this filter road, leaving the main junction clear. Yet, and this really is a good example of red tape. The filter road is closed, With loads of “Road Closed” signs, and “Diversion” signs. Now the turning for the junction is about 10 yards from the turning onto the filter road. This means the sign saying there is a diversion is next to the sign saying “<=- Diversion“. Then when you turn you have another 10 yards before you hit the sign saying “Diversion Ends“. The three of them are so close together you can jump from one to the other to the first in a small triangle. WHY?
Irritant 4) Road Works
Why? For the love of the Gods, Why? as soon as we get hot weather does every builder on the planet start doing work on roads, or on building close to roads causing traffic lights, or the road to be restricted to one lane? Is there a Memo that goes out? are they in the pay of petrol stations to waste our petrol by making us constantly stuck waiting to pass?
Irritant 5) JCB Diggers
OK. I don’t really have to say anything about these, it says it all, They are Big Yellow travel at 5 miles an hour and make overtaking on country lanes impossible, and tend to only drive during rush hour commute times…
So on another day where they claim “Its the hottest recorded day!” (I’m sure they only have records going back one week), I’m stuck inside a metal box slowly cooking on my long commute to work, All I need is some idiot to cut me up, or start tailgateing me and we’re having a bit of road rage!!
by CodeNinja | Feb 27, 2009 | Vehicles
An interesting thing happened to me on the way to work…
Start Car and leave home heading to the Insane Asylum, Stop off at petrol station and fill up on diesel. I notice one of my tires is looking a bit deflated, so after failed attempts at humor to make it feel a bit better i pull over to the air compressor for a “top up” only the machine is broke :o(
“No problems“. Say I.. Off we head to work, about a half mile from the office there is a garage, so I stop, and make use of their working compresser.
Jump back into the car, turn key. and watch as the Glow Plug light flashes on and off doing an impression of an indicator light. “Humm” think I, “thats a bit odd“, but try starting the car anyway.
chugga chugga chugga….. chugga chugga chugga….
Nothing? no starting. nothing…
Arse, open bonnet, realise I not know much about the modern diesel engine, but prod about a bit in the male belief that “it cant hurt!“. Jump back into car… Nothing.
Ok, I may be male, but I admit my limitations. Quick phone to the helpful RAC people. And caused some slight amusement. examples:-
Me: “My car wont start, the diesel light is flashing and it just doesnt start”
RAC: “Whats the correct term for that light?”
Me: “err no idea… I call itthe yellow coil light”
RAC: “Theres a proper name for it”
Me: “Hang on, I’m googling it now.”
RAC: “You said you were stuck on the side of a road?”
Me: “Got to love iphones!”
So the emergency call was sent out, and so I just had to wait the one hour estimated turn up time. So I amused myself talking to the fellow inmates at the asylum on NetIM (See reference to Jibber Jabber)
Ok, so RAC mechanic turns up. I get out of car and explain the problem, “yellow coil light flashes, and engine no work!” (I’m good with technical wordies me!). To demonstrate my point more, I attempt to start my car.
“Hummmmm, Odd!” says the mechanic, Who pops the hood, leans on the car looks at the engine “Humm” goes to the drivers side, and starts the engine on his first go. He then proceeds to stop and start the engine several times to check its working.
“This is my second call out today” He says looking thoughtful, “And both times the car has just worked as soon as I turned up!”
The mans a Borg. the one time he touched the car he released nanobots that repaired the damage. I will be recommending the RAC to everyone now.
CN
by GothNinja | Jan 26, 2009 | Travel, Work
Your there warm and comfortable in bed, semi awake, at peace with the world. Then.
AWOOGA AWOOGA AWOOGA
“Mutter, WTF!!! arrghhh… Whys my alarm going off on a Sunday morning.!“
Grab phone, silence alarm, and stare at phone in accusation, how dare it wake me up on a Sunday, Why do i have an actual sound of an alarm as my wake up noise, and more important, why is my phone saying its Monday??
“I was installing stuff on it last night, Have I reset the date/time? what have I done now? stupid thing!……. err hang, wasnt it Sunday yesterday, which means its Monday today. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!”
So far, Things are not looking auspicious for a good day. But look on the bright side, good foot forward, and on for the day!
Then there was the commute into work, which is normally a nice trip in, but not today. No, Today I get hit with several sets of roadworks, tractors, JCB’s and for half the trip fog making visibility down to 2 meters, so everyone travels at 10mph……….
I hate Mondays!
by GothNinja | Aug 17, 2006 | LiveJournal, Travel, Work
Think calm mellow peaceful thoughts…
I almost drove into a council office car park and beat the living hell out of someone this morning (I think they were getting this feeling as they kept staring at me in their rear view mirror)…
Worst case of Road Rage I ever felt, but they had deserved it if I had given into the dark side.
Driving along to work at 70ish on an clear road, and some idiot decided to pull out in front of me and do 30, but they waited till I was about 3 meters away from them before doing it, Not enough room for an emergency stop, a bank to the left of the road, and a truck driving towards me on the other lane…
How it did not escalate into a big crash I do not know…. Someone or Something was looking out for me.
I’m now sat in the office trying to think calming thoughts to stop myself driving back to the car park, and smashing up thier car, or looking up thier name off the parking permit in the window…
by GothNinja | Mar 7, 2006 | LiveJournal, Travel
Well I had a nice week off work, Sometimes you just need to get away from the office and the petty politics that always seems to be going on in the background. And as i was told I had to use up all spare holidays before April, I took a week off to chill. Which we all need to do from time to time.
It was a good week, I got some private stuff done, I got to go visit some old american friends who by pure fluky luck were doing a flying visit to the uk, I went out for a nice meal and pissup with my father and a bunch of friends. Ok i did not get to visit some places I had hoped to, due to getting snowed in. but on the whole it was a good week.
then came saturday morning, and the arrival of the post. Just one letter for me, a bunch of papers from liverpool law courts informing me i was being sued for £6500 + solicitors fees. “What would a sweet, innocent bloke like you get sued that much for?” I hear you cry. well for car hire! let me explain, many many months ago I was in a car crash, I actually crashed into a car that had just crashed into another car. As normal in such situations the insurance companies sorted it all out amongst themselves and everyone was happy. Or should have been. but the cheeky father of one of the girls involved the the crash is now suing me for 6 grands worth of car hire, for the short time his daughter was car-less. 6 Grand? What did he hire, a Rolls?
On a good point, they had messed up on the legal papers, with his solicitors getting my name wrong, details of the crash wrong, who was driving the car wrong, and many other things, so hopefully it will all get laughed out of court as it should be. Failing that I drive past his house on my way to work, And I know where I can get my hands on some dangerous reptiles.
Anyway, its not healthy to worry about things, you loose sleep, and it helps nothing. So to look forward to good things, Its fencing tonight, and there will be a full on shinai fight, so thats something to look forward to…
