Discuss Any Subject Here

[Ed Rooney]

2 hours ago, Sally R said:

 

 

OK, I better stop binge watching groundhog videos now!

 

Thanks for those videos, Sally. Those American hedgehogs look larger than the ones I remember in Oxfordshire. 

[Cecile Marion]

Interesting videos! "Chunk" in the gardening video was about the size of the groundhog I saw outside the Baltimore train station. 

[Bryan]

On 02/06/2021 at 22:41, Russell Watkins said:

 

The RAC's view: "The Highway Code advises drivers not to undertake – although it is not a punishable offence in itself."

 

Here's an interesting clip from BBC News - for those who can access it.

 

I've a tale to tell about undertaking and it was me doing the undertaking.  Crawling along in the inside lane and towing my caravan with near gridlock conditions, the outer lanes slowed below my speed so I continued trundling along rather faster than the middle lane - as you are allowed to do in those circumstances - when ,  lo and behold, a car suddenly swerved over into the slow lane right in front of me, either not looking before moving, or maybe fancying a whiplash claim on my insurance.  I jammed on the anchors, feeling that I  must hit him, and/or the outfit jackknife.  Fortunately neither occurred, but it was a very close call and I lost rubber from the tyres.

 

Another tale . I was driving along a main road  that had narrowed to a single lane, coming out of a 50 mph zone. Joining the road from the left was a 30 mph road. The two  merged into a dual carriageway. I was about to drop over into the inside lane when a car shot out from the 30 mph lane and undertook me. He must have been doing at least 70.  Needless to say he went on weaving through the busy traffic, a boy racer, or buffoon.  Had I not checked my mirror, disaster. 

 

Undertaking is a recipe for trouble. Overtaking a road hog in the middle lane always use the outer lane.  Two wrongs don't make a right.

 

I've been driving for over 50 years, fortunately never had a serious accident, but many narrow escapes.  It's taken a while, but I've learned to put safety first.

[spacecadet]

23 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

In German, dachshund means 'badger dog.'

Thanks, Ed. The penny drops. I always thought it was "dach", because they were so close to the ground. But it means "roof" anyway, not "floor", so it was just my bad German😀

Edited June 4, 2021 by spacecadet

[Ed Rooney]

That sounds very likely, Mark. Hmm. 

 

In Germany, Bryan, with those motorways with no speed limit and in Italy where they make their own?  Brazil is where I've encounter the wildest drivers.

[spacecadet]

14 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

 

In Germany, Bryan, with those motorways with no speed limit and in Italy where they make their own?  Brazil is where I've encounter the wildest drivers.

A lot of autobahns do now have limits, especially around cities, but if not, you have to play the game if you don't want to be stuck behind all those Belgian lorries.

The upside is that Germans' lane discipline is excellent and they don't drive too close as long as you move back to the slow lane promptly. The Belgians, not so much........crossing the border, the only marker is an EU flag with the country name so you might only know by the increased density of red number-plates.

We started driving to Germany in 1998. Then, you still drove in a c-bend around the defunct customs posts on the E40, but without stopping. A couple of years later, they'd straightened out the bends, but the buildings were still there. In about 2004, they went too.

And to think that the Single Market was in large part Margaret Thatcher's idea. Sigh.🙁

Edited June 4, 2021 by spacecadet

[Ed Rooney]

 

Mark, I probably should have kept my comment to myself; it's been a long time since I've driven in any country. My experience with dachshunds is more recent. 

[Russell Watkins]

3 hours ago, Bryan said:

Here's an interesting clip from BBC News - for those who can access it.

 

I've a tale to tell about undertaking and it was me doing the undertaking.  Crawling along in the inside lane and towing my caravan with near gridlock conditions, the outer lanes slowed below my speed so I continued trundling along rather faster than the middle lane - as you are allowed to do in those circumstances - when ,  lo and behold, a car suddenly swerved over into the slow lane right in front of me, either not looking before moving, or maybe fancying a whiplash claim on my insurance.  I jammed on the anchors, feeling that I  must hit him, and/or the outfit jackknife.  Fortunately neither occurred, but it was a very close call and I lost rubber from the tyres.

 

Another tale . I was driving along a main road  that had narrowed to a single lane, coming out of a 50 mph zone. Joining the road from the left was a 30 mph road. The two  merged into a dual carriageway. I was about to drop over into the inside lane when a car shot out from the 30 mph lane and undertook me. He must have been doing at least 70.  Needless to say he went on weaving through the busy traffic, a boy racer, or buffoon.  Had I not checked my mirror, disaster. 

 

Undertaking is a recipe for trouble. Overtaking a road hog in the middle lane always use the outer lane.  Two wrongs don't make a right.

 

I've been driving for over 50 years, fortunately never had a serious accident, but many narrow escapes.  It's taken a while, but I've learned to put safety first.

 

Don't worry, I wasn't telling you what I do (37 years driving experience, and like you, no serious accidents).

 

I was merely saying that overtaking on the inside is not actually an offence. So it's not actually a "wrong" though some may think it's misguided.

 

There's also a big grey area between 3 or 4 lanes of congested congested traffic moving slowly and the lane outside you moving slower than you, often because it's occupied by a bunch of lane 2/3 hoggers. 

[Bryan]

4 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

 

In Germany, Bryan, with those motorways with no speed limit and in Italy where they make their own?  Brazil is where I've encounter the wildest drivers.

 

Possibly the scariest place I have driven Ed, two lanes with trucks doing 50 and cars over 100.  I think that the advised maximum then was 80, but that didn't seem to deter folk. We decided to drive through the night to avoid the worst of the traffic - bad mistake, heavy rain, poor visibility, and people driving far too fast for the conditions. My wife said that she had never been so scared in a car.  Mind you Italy is also pretty dodgy, but in different ways......

 

France used to be scary too, but some years ago they clamped down on drink driving and excessive speed. Not been there for a while, but have enjoyed many a trip. Away from the cities, many of the roads are wonderfully quiet.

 

My feeling is that the standard of driving in the UK has declined in recent years. Fewer people bother to signal when leaving a roundabout or on changing lanes while the aforementioned undertaking has crept dangerously into the picture.  Then we have white van man 🙃 a law unto himself.

Edited June 4, 2021 by Bryan

[Russell Watkins]

1 hour ago, Bryan said:

 

...while the aforementioned undertaking has crept dangerously into the picture. 

 

Do you encounter this a lot, Bryan?

 

When I was driving a lot (before lockdowns), I rarely saw it.

Edited June 4, 2021 by Russell Watkins

[Bryan]

14 minutes ago, Russell Watkins said:

 

Do you encounter this a lot, Bryan?

 

When I was driving a lot (before lockdowns), I rarely saw it.

I have the misfortune to have to drive the M62 between Leeds and Manchester fairly regularly Russell.  When we travel It's generally very busy and over the bank holiday weekend exceptionally so.  I almost always spot signs of motoring madness. On the last occasion, a caravan - being towed at well over the regulation 60 mph - overtook me and then pulled in sharply, so close that I had to head for the hard shoulder to avoid a collision. I'm not one to use the horn, but that did call for a blast. Not sure what these people are on. It feels much safer on the  sections where there are regular overhead speed cameras and speed limits imposed depending upon the traffic density.  The normal scenario is a slow lane full of trucks and both of the outer lanes busy. You get the cowboys weaving between the lanes.   We did pass the remnants of a collision, with several damaged vehicles on the hard shoulder. 

 

Ideally I would drive with the cruise control set to the speed limit, and would love to have an empty road and be in the inside lane, but it is rarely thus.

[Russell Watkins]

1 hour ago, Bryan said:

I have the misfortune to have to drive the M62 between Leeds and Manchester fairly regularly Russell.  When we travel It's generally very busy and over the bank holiday weekend exceptionally so.  I almost always spot signs of motoring madness. On the last occasion, a caravan - being towed at well over the regulation 60 mph - overtook me and then pulled in sharply, so close that I had to head for the hard shoulder to avoid a collision. I'm not one to use the horn, but that did call for a blast. Not sure what these people are on. It feels much safer on the  sections where there are regular overhead speed cameras and speed limits imposed depending upon the traffic density.  The normal scenario is a slow lane full of trucks and both of the outer lanes busy. You get the cowboys weaving between the lanes.   We did pass the remnants of a collision, with several damaged vehicles on the hard shoulder. 

 

Ideally I would drive with the cruise control set to the speed limit, and would love to have an empty road and be in the inside lane, but it is rarely thus.

 

I meant specifically the overtaking on the inside. In general, I'm not sure if I've seen an increase in that particular behaviour. There have always been idiots that weave between lanes.

 

I know that stretch of M62 well and agree that it's a challenging drive, both eastbound and westbound. 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Russell Watkins

[spacecadet]

18 hours ago, Ed Rooney said:

 

Mark, I probably should have kept my comment to myself; it's been a long time since I've driven in any country. My experience with dachshunds is more recent. 

Ed, please promise you'll never keep your comments to yourself. We need them.

[Mr Standfast]

My phishing thread was locked! Ooh errr!

[MizBrown]

2 hours ago, Mr Standfast said:

My phishing thread was locked! Ooh errr!

 

I was wrong, but think they are doing something sloppy if you had been with them since 2003, and changing email addresses meant one account was closed and another opened.  The other person who got a similar email was asked to correct his information on his contributor's page. 

 

One of my tech writing jobs required a clearance.  So my government gathered a ton of information about me, my family, former employers, and lost that with my fingerprints to some hackers.   Live Journal lost or sold its client passwords (Russian owners, so they probably sold them) to some people who tried to extort Bitcoins from me, twice.  I tend to be more suspicious than not after that. 

 

 

 

 

[Bryan]

I've recently come across the radio true life drama series Death in Ice Valley. It dates back a while, but is available on BBC sounds and was on the BBC world service so presumably available worldwide.  It's a rather slow delivery, which I found irksome at first, but I've now got into it and am listening my way through the available episodes. Recommended if you can access it.  Includes interviews with police, witnesses, forensics experts, ex KGB officer etc etc.