Early Risers.

[jjb1970]

A fine article from the Air China in-flight magazine, I can't help feeling it's lost something in translation..........(I shouldn't laugh given my Mandarin is less than non-existent).

 

[PhilJ W]

When I visited the USA on a fly drive holiday I looked to the right instead of the left upon leaving a gas station, fortunately I'd only gone a couple of feet onto the highway when there was a blast on a horn and the other driver was able to avoid me. I was lucky the other driver was able to avoid a collision, a few years later there was a similar incident near Lakenheath when an American civilian worker from the air base done exactly the same thing though this time it resulted in two fatalities. Apparently the most common accidents to American tourists in the UK occur when crossing the road because they looked to the left before crossing.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[Gwiwer]

15 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

A fine article from the Air China in-flight magazine, I can't help feeling it's lost something in translation.

Nothing lost at all.  It's in perfect Chinglish 🤣

 

Which reminds me I have yet to de-mystify the instructions for fitting the idiot-cam to the Little Red Driving Box but could have done with it working today.  I approached a roundabout on a dual-carriageway in the left-hand lane in order to take the second exit - straight on.  I duly gave way to a car approaching from my right and was about to go when I suddenly had to give way to a car approaching from my left.  

 

The first exit is a supermarket access road and not a dual-carriageway.  The occupant of something big and black (make unknown) had turned right rather than circumnavigate the roundabout and found himself facing oncoming traffic in the right-hand lane of my road.  Which somehow seemed to upset him judging by the use of his middle-finger signalling system and a long blast of the horn.

 

I was busily concentrating on my immediate safety and didn't stay around to see how that one ended.  

[Gwiwer]

13 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

Apparently the most common accidents to American tourists in the UK occur when crossing the road because they looked to the left before crossing.

We were very careful in Paris to "reverse directions" and always looked left first before crossing.  We used marked crossing places where we could find them but Parisienne motorists didn't seem to stop for them regardless.

 

On the Quatre Latine side of the river by Notre Dame there is a contra-flow bus lane ................. 

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

I’ve had another productive day in the cellar today. All the walls have now been given 2 coats of paint, a task I managed to get done before dinner. After dinner, I refitted all the switches and sockets that I’d unscrewed from the wall, so I could paint behind them and wiped off any spots of paint that was on them. 

 

When I papered the walls, I applied the lining paper horizontally, hoping that the joins would be less noticeable and/or easier to conceal. This has worked quite well, but there were 1 or 2 small areas that didn’t work so well. So, I rectified these sections of wallpaper where you could see the join. Any gaps were filled with paint and then the excess scraped away. Any ridges were scraped flat with a new Stanley blade and then repainted. I had a look about an hour ago and I think another coat of paint over these joins will do, so that’s a small task for tomorrow. 

 

The next job will be to mark where the skyline and horizon will be. After that I’ll practice blending the 2 different shades of blue together on a spare bit of wallpaper, before I start on the walls. Once happy with that, I’ll practice painting clouds on spare wallpaper before starting on the walls. 

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[Ozexpatriate]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

When I visited the USA on a fly drive holiday I looked to the right instead of the left upon leaving a gas station, fortunately I'd only gone a couple of feet onto the highway when there was a blast on a horn and the other driver was able to avoid me.

And how Winston Churchill was almost killed* in Manhattan in 1931. He alighted a car in the middle of the road and looked the wrong way.

 

* Cracked two ribs and was admitted to hospital.

[Ozexpatriate]

8 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

@jamie92208 was wondering - after his recent model railway purchases - whether or not he should extend his shed again

Looks more like Teddy Roosevelt in a plod helmet alongside his 'bully' concept of a pre-Great War, "Maginot Line".

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Ozexpatriate

[Ozexpatriate]

Keeping to larboard and starboard:

3 hours ago, pH said:

I found the most difficult thing to cope with, both in Canada and on returning to the UK, was driving on unmarked areas like gas station forecourts.

Indeed so - also car parks and unmarked roads (with no traffic or parked cars as clues).

 

3 hours ago, pH said:

The car driving position and controls being differently arranged did help.

Not necessarily. I have a habit (in my infrequent driving on the left) of using the windscreen wipers every time I am about to turn a corner. This quickly gets frustrating.

 

I also have to remember to 'use the other eye' using peripheral vision to judge proximity to the center of the road.

 

[pH]

15 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Not necessarily. I have a habit (in my infrequent driving on the left) of using the windscreen wipers every time I am about to turn a corner. This quickly gets frustrating.

I meant that the driver’s seat was on the left, and things like the gear lever and handbrake to the right of the driver. I can get confused with the indicators and wipers on a left-hand drive vehicle. I think some Japanese-built cars keep them in the same position on the column on left-hand drive vehicles as on the original right-hand drive versions.

 

I once drove a left-hand drive, stick-shift car for a short distance on UK roads.  I made many attempts to change gear with the window winding handle on the driver’s door.

Edited November 9, 2023 by pH

[BR60103]

My father reported, after one of his trips to Britain, that he'd been constantly overtaken by traffic that he hadn't seen coming. He realized that he was looking up to the right for the rear-view mirror.

He did survive it.

 

[jamie92208]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I went on a day trip by coach to Belgium about ten years ago. When pulling out of one of the sites visited the coach driver made the same mistake and even his co-driver didn't realise he was on the wrong side of the road. I was sitting behind the co-driver and reminded the driver. Fortunately it was a quiet rural road with no other traffic.

Yes it's always the unmarked exits that cause problems.  We have two cars, one left and one right hand drive.  I drive them both about equally but very occasionally find myself heading to the wrong side of the road.  The difficult thing is judging the distance from the kerb/verge, in Beth's left hand drive car.  However most of the time there is no problem.  It's still relatively easy when we go back to the UK.  Most eurean crs have the indicator stalks on the same side regardless of the driving position. 

 

Jamie

[Barry O]

Ey up!

 

Wouldn't it be great if everyone drove on the same side of the road?

 

Managed to survive driving in the USA, Europe etc without too much trouble.  But indicator controls (and windscreen wiper controls) do cause a problem on occasion.

 

Today will involve a meeting with some like minded friends, a bit of meeting prep for tonight then delivery of a brief cricket presentation in Rotherham. Nowt like being busy! It was noticeably colder last night here. Clear skies didn't help but it meant  everyone could see stars and planets. Lovely!

 

Time to.. finish my tea and.. gerronwithit!

 

Baz

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Barry O
Spullung

[grandadbob]

Good morning all,

Damp start earlier but the rain has stopped for now.  Patchy cloud, sunny spells and the occasional shower forecast.  It will be a bit cooler today, 8°C rising to 11°C.

Thursday means one bin lorry only and a Sainsbury's delivery which will have 3 substitutions, one of which will be returned.  Boy, doesn't it get exciting around here?

Tea has been taken up to Herself and she is already on the rampage upstairs.  I'm expecting to hear the usual magic words shortly.

Not sure what's happening after breakfast, she may want to visit the garden centre.  If not I will visit The Shed for a while. After lunch I'm Zooming.

Ah, here we go, "Timetogettamoveon."

Have a good one and if you venture out try to keep your feet dry.

Bob.

 

P.S.  Never driven on the "wrong" side of the road, don't intend to start now.

Edited November 9, 2023 by grandadbob

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from a temporarily dry Charente.  It's sunny outside but cooler.  The fire stayed in overnight so the house is warm.  We just have to remember to keep putting a log on every so often.  The ironing basket is filling up so that's my first task today. Not a lot e, se to report apart from wishing our daughter happy birthday. 

 

Jamie

[TheQ]

One thing I thought I'd mention is on the flooding picture in the top right hand quarter of the photo is a bright green island . That's Heigham Holmes, these days a nature reserve open to the public one day a year on guided tours. Back during WW2 it was a secret SOE airfield from where many British agents flew into or or out of, the Nederlands,  Belgium, and Northern France.

 

The big piece of water in the top left of the picture, is Hickling Broad, in its left hand corner is the Pleasure boat Inn, it's been mostly closed since the start of covid and has been intermittently closed before. Ten years ago and before it was a successful pub that The King and his father the Duke of Edinburgh stayed in, in the 1950s. Strangely the Norfolk Wildlife Trust which owns the broad, has bought the pub in the last week, they are intending open it again, as well as using it as a information centre.

 

Oddly I never had a problem driving Saudi , but did coming back to the UK, normally when leaving our single track roads onto a main road, or leaving car parks. I was always worried on our single track roads, which don't have passing places,  just muddy field entrances, that I would turn into the front of a car that was correctly turning into one.

 

The little red driving machine © Gwiwer has the wipers and light controls the same side as the Landrover, but the previous blue driving machine had them on opposite sides. Always confusing.

 

Mooring Awl,

Just couldn't get to sleep, well after midnight it was achieved, I awoke just before 06:00, Ben the I'd like to go out Collie at about 06:30, fairly chilly outside,  although we had a small amount of rain and a lot of drizzle, it's not made any difference to the jungle, which was only mildly damp. It appears it might be sunny soon.

 

The trip to pick up the Landrover has turned into a shopping trip to a Lidl just off the route. I've been inspecting the emailed bill for the landy, nearly 6 Deltics. Basically a rear suspension rebuild and the fuel tank needed replacement.

 

Time to get a muggacoffee.

Edited November 9, 2023 by TheQ

[monkeysarefun]

20 minutes ago, grandadbob said:

P.S.  Never driven on the "wrong" side of the road, don't intend to start now.

I've only ever had to when I went to Tahiti. I didn't have a problem staying on the correct side of the road, mainly because theres  pretty much just the one road that circles the edge of the island (Moorea). The main issue I had was whacking my hand on the metal door panel of the Suzuki jeep we'd hired  whenever I went to reach for the gearstick.

[BSW01]

Good morning everyone 

 

Well surprisingly, it’s not raining, but there is a possibility of rain later, so it’s looking like another morning spent in the cellar, which will mean another step closer to finishing the cellar. Sheila is just finishing her breakfast and will then get herself ready for her Zumba class. So as usual, I’ve decamped to the dining room to keep out of the way. My chauffeuring services will be required, so once I’ve dropped Sheila at the church hall, I call and pickup the latest copy of RM, before heading back home. 

 

This afternoon Charlie is due to call round, so that a pleasant afternoon for us both in the workshop. I think I’ll paint a couple of pieces of wall paper and practice painting clouds this afternoon. 
 

Back later. 
 

Brian 

[NGT6 1315]

Moaning awl. Cool and cloudy outside.

 

The first and so far only time I had to drive on the "other" side was in Ireland a couple of years ago. I personally didn't find LH driving to be much of a problem, though I can understand how it might be for others. I did find traffic manners in Ireland to be significantly more civilised than they often tend to be here, though, which I suppose helped matters, too. Also, I did make sure we got a rental car with automatic transmission!

 

I decided to obtain a small suitcase here yesterday. I had taken only a travel bag with me originally but while en route to Gotha had found that to be too inconvenient.

 

Have a good'un...

 

 

[iL Dottore]

15 hours ago, TheQ said:

My dear boy, there's no way I'd do that to a doggy...

Quite right too.

I suppose the reverse is OK, though?

[TheQ]

This is our alternative route to home, the main route is a bit higher.

https://www.facebook.com/100006674794545/videos/pcb.2706077102891954/1050764666347689?__cft__[0]=AZVL5CpVoeTouaQeuGTltYFDY-A1aUYf-1uy4DOL5-63OXkxHxwBWq2uoHE1D77VRNXPxoxAlbcMDyZ3hZ6ayyIRF3l2uPhjvwN67c7SEdnyMWiRcAWLPJdTQFwZ7_c2-wK3m3aBiTZVDvYz2VXzv2iiQbMGT2k4Z4wwpa1hGYu2jNqVxFWCgQC7LabHXxPHeJU&__tn__=*bH-R

[iL Dottore]

Somehow the new TOC hasn't quite grasped what rail travel is all about....

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by iL Dottore
Better Image

[Flanged Wheel]

Safely navigated the roads to Suva (“the Queen’s Road”) without veering onto the wrong side. The only car-related incident was a slight grounding of the body when we were going up an unmade road to an archaeological site. There’s very little clearance anyway and by the time you have all four of us and our bags… No damage done though. Managed to acquire half a watermelon, three pineapples and a papaya from a roadside stall for a small sum - tropical fruit tastes so much better in the tropics. Add in a hike at the Sigatoka Sand Dunes National Park and you have a very pleasant day. Tomorrow will see us in the Fiji National Museum. 
 

Goodnight!

[iL Dottore]

Just delivered by the postie....