Bedazzled

Why, oh why, oh why do so many UK motorists insist on having their fron fog light blazing in perfectly clear weather?

It is illegal. It doesn’t make your crappy old Ford Focus look big and clever. Not even if you’ve added fat wheels and a big, noisy exhaust. It distracts and dazzles other motorists, and, in the wet and dark (which is the norm in the UK for a good six months of the year) it produces a glare which doesn’t actually help to improve visibility. Fog lights are for use when it is foggy. There is a clue in the name. Turn them off you morons!

And, why do so many pedestrians have a death wish. Here is a clue – if it is dark and raining and I am dazzled by oncoming fog lights, why on Earth do you believe that I will be able to see you, dressed head to toe in dark garb, when you choose to cross that busy junction when the lights are still green?

Perhaps the pedestrians should wear fog lights!?!?

 

I Still Blame Jeremy Kyle!

So, the UK unemployment figure has risen to 1.86 million. Coincidentally, this is almost exactly the same as the daily viewing figures for the UK version of the Jerry Springer Show, the Jeremy Kyle Show. Go figure!

Why?

Why is it, I wonder, that when you have a male and female duo presenting the news, the man always sits on the left (as you look at the screen) and the lady sits on the right?

C, my media savvy better half (she used to work at Granada) also explained that, apparently, when choosing people to read the news, the producers try and select a man who resembles a stereotypical father figure and a “lady” who is the perfect mistress! Well, that puts a whole new perspective on the Bill Turnbull and Sian Williams thing on BBC Breakfast. She is pregnant. I hope it doesn’t come out ginga!

Motorway Mayhem

So, today is the fiftieth anniversary of the UK’s first motorway – the M6.

Now I know it seems strange that it was not called the M1. Apparently this is because motorways took their numbers from pre-existing A roads. So, the M6 is the M6 because it is near the A6. In any case it started life as the Preston By-Pass. And, anyone who has been to Preston would know that it deserves a by-pass and a fast one at that!

Anyhow, the M6 started life as a four lane (two in each direction), eight mile stretch of motorway with no speed restrictions. It is now over 230 miles long, stretching from Scotland to London, and is the busiest and most haunted stretch of motorway in the UK. And, I reckon that I have spent a significant proportion of my life (and near death) on it, and most of that in slow motion.

So, happy birthday M6.

ps. Did you know that there are now over two thousand miles of motorway in the UK with an average of 64,900 users per day (which begs the question as to why they are always going my way!). This makes the UK the busiest motorway user in Europe and yet we have the lowest number of motorway fatalities. I guess that is because we rarely seem to be able to drive at more than thirty miles per hour