These are some of my commute-related pet peeves:
1. Slow traffic on country lanes. It’s just not fair. I do understand that tractors and buses and old people have to use the same roads. But, please – if you’re crawling along at 15mph, and there is a queue of people behind you stretching halfway to Devon, PULL OVER!!! In order to pass on a windy country road, you take your life in your hands. It’s just not fair to the other drivers.
2. Cellphones. I agree that it is probably dangerous to talk and drive at the same time. But it is even more dangerous to get a call, stop in the MIDDLE OF THE GODDAMN LANE, and have a conversation. So then someone else, like me for example, comes around the bend at 50 or 60 and has to de-tread their tires to avoid you. Get some sense.
3. Treating the road as your private parking space. I know a lot of the streets here were laid out before there were cars, and there is virtually no parking. But have some sense where you park. Phil and I were driving home one night, and the guy in front of us stopped at the intersection, got out, and ran across the street to the chip shop. WTF?
Love letter:
I know that I’ve gone on and on about how much I love it here, and how beautiful everything is. But still…I love being here, in my first year, and seeing the changes that every season brings. It is so green now. The hills and fields that you could see over during the winter are now obscured by the thick hedgerows and trees along the road. Driving down the country lanes is like driving through green and gold tunnels.
Such a beautiful country.
So – when you call me on my cell and I’m driving home, should I a: answer it one-handed whilst doing 60mph round afore mentioned country lanes, or b: stop in the middle of the same lanes to answer it?
Oh, just do what you normally do. Ignore the call, then call back fifteen minutes later and say “I couldn’t get the phone out of my coat pocket.” You will, of course be calling me as you drive…safety not being YOUR first concern.
:P
So there.
I see that once more the temporal vortex has somehow zipped across the Cheshire landscape…
The 15 minute call back was in fact about 30 seconds…as you were still on the phone leaving me voicemail! So neener, neener, neener!
Well, at least I haven’t looked at the fat lady in the car next to me, said “Man, that’s FUGLY!!!” in a very loud voice, only to realise that the window was open.
How RUDE! (a la Jar-Jar Binks)