Be Excellent To Each Other

Well I certainly wasn't going to go round his right side, and he should bloody well check his mirrors before moving off. There was about a 5' gap to his left, and he didn't seem to be going anywhere as he was chatting away.

Don't drive when there's traffic around, then.

Yeah, but you know they won't, yet you still keep giving motorists the benefit of the doubt.

You never learn, do you?

Not even slightly, by the sound of it.

So what on earth would you have done in that situation?

Yeah, the USA seems to respect it's speeding laws far more then we do. Are the fines harsher?

Beeped my horn.
Maybe taken the time to adjust the aircon.

The answer, of course, is to get one of these new Monster Bicycles. They're bikes with huge tyres and suspensions so you can roll over all the traffic.

Zombicyles.

It's double the normal speeding fine for speeding through roadworks in Iowa. There were some great adverts informing people of this. I assume it varies state by state, though.

Arg, stuck behind the desk waiting for relief, lunch break half an hour overdue, excitable autistic borrower printing out religious colour-ins one at a time, so by the time I've completed a needlessly complicated transaction with him and walked over to his side of the room and back there's another one being printed out ad infinitum.

NEED BREAK. HUNGER.

What kind of a road was it? Were there other motorists waiting behind him?

To be honest, that is what the horn is for: alerting other road users to your presence. You could see this guy wasn't paying any attention so a blast on the horn would at least make him look if he was about to suddenly drive off without looking.

Dunno mate, but the cops there routinely carry shotguns, which I guess is reasonable motivation to keep in line. Plus, Americans generally seem to be quite 'conservative' in their outlook on such things?

Me? I ragged the arse off the hilariously under damped, over sprung, over engined Lincoln Towncar I'd hired - 5.8i V8 with more torque than your average marine engine. Fishtailed and tankslapped like a bastard; it was just so bad you had to love it.

I didn't mountain bikes came with horns as standard. I doubt he would've heard Malabar's bell.

Oh, fair point, I thought he meant motorbike.
I've often strongly considered fitting a really powerful horn to my mountain bike, I must admit.

Sorry?

There you go not thinking again.

Mr Chris's top tip of the day - don't go running when it's over 30 degrees out. I have a severe headache now.

It's not the fines, it's the likelihood of being caught. There's hardly any trafpol on the roads in the UK any more so you can get away with gross speeding anywhere that there isn't a speed camera, basically.

It was a quiet backroad, no other traffic behind me.

I missed out the word 'realise', soz.

You'll get your internet back eventually Pete.

He'd have bloody felt it if he hadn't apologised so profusely.

Then I would've definitely overtaken him on the outside, as there would have been no danger of any other cars trying to overtake him at the same time. Obviously check behind you quickly before you do so.

Then when he pulls away, he should at least look in his driver's side mirror (or you'll already be round him by that point).

You could get a bus through there.

Um...

Huh, on the wrong side of the road, on a bend you can't see around?

Personally I'd have gone through the gap, and kept an eye on the driver for "about to pull away" body language as I approached.

Brilliant.

Is there an image there? It must be blocked for me.

It's only 22 here.

I've got a twitching muscle just about the bride of my nose. It's irritating and probably due to tiredness.

Does anyone know the best way to remove burnt on grime from a ceramic hob? I've tried hobbrite, but it's not really shifting it too well.

Overtaking him would be a strange option. It'd leave you open to not only his right side, but going directly in front of him and turning left? He may be more likely to notice you, but I wouldn't take that risk.

edit: yeah, Myp, there's an image. I didn't realise you couldn't see it. Use your phone!

Ok, I've seen the diagram now. Yes, I'd have probably gone on the left as well according to that, but slowing right down to jogging pace (6-7mph). I really hate passing traffic on the left, so only do it at extremely slow speeds.

Yeah, I slowed down to a crawl anyway, as I always would when approaching a junction, not least passing a car on its inside. Fortunately I'd unclipped my feet, else I'd have surely taken a nasty fall.

Having to put together a proposal bidding to build a website I disagree with. Balls.

Say what you like about Nick Griffin, he always pays his bills on time.

"Can you iron the duvet?"

"Why?"

"It's creased"

"oh"

Funny coves, wimmin.

You're going to have to expand on this! Sounds intriguing!

Do you never learn etc

Yes, it's still overtaking, otherwise 90% of the passes in every motor race would be "undertaking".

Haha, I know.

Also undertakers wouldn't be those blokes who work at funeral places.

Or that old wrestler.

Remember, its the Democrats/Gubmint/Obama/bankers that have destroyed the US car industry. Not the fact that many of the products on offer would have made British Leyland say "hang on, this is a bit crap, really."

Oh, totally. Current American cars are unquestionably rubbish, without one single exception that I can think of? (I suppose the latest Corvette could be considered as an exception, at least at US prices, but would you actually, like, buy one? With real money that could've bought you something nicely built and German?)

I'd argue that the British Leyland style mass unionisation of the workforce and ever increasing 'benefits' didn't exactly help either, nor did chronic mismanagement and lack of inward investment. It's not as though no-one could've seen this coming these last 5 years at least, probably much longer. It seems to me that there are a great many similarities between GM and BL; shoddily constructed cars, built by the disinterested and unmotivated, that no-one actually wants.

i just spent my whole afternoon playing civ2 and eating wine gums. Now... Beer

I want my weekend now!

It's that strange quiet tim eon the forum where everyone has buggered off home or is making tea.

So fuck you all

I agree, the five till six slot is always death. Shame really, as I'm usually still in work at that time.

And I'm not going to have any internet until I get back to work, on Tuesday, when I'll be too busy to use it.

...IT'S THE OFFICIAL START OF THE WEEKEND.