Re: The all-new all things driving thread

[Butterfield]

Should we launch a (least) favourite public toilets thread?

I've detested public toilets since I was a child, including school toilets. I would much rather do a w*e outside than go through that dreaded door of dung, dysentery and debauchery.

[cosmictanya]

Good idea.

[Fangirl Three]

It's the long drive south again today. If I stay on the M6 I'll stop at Southwaite and Corley, if I have to take the A50 it'll be Southwaite and Derby with Burton.

For several months the Southwaite toilets were being renovated and you had to use an array of toilets in trailers outside instead. Thankfully that has now finished.

[Fangirl Three]

I opted to stop at Derby services proper rather than Derby with Burton services. They flatter to deceive a bit - they have sliproads like a service area, and quite a large car park, but inside it's just one big room with a Starbucks self-service machine and some tables and chairs. And the toilets only have 3 cubicles. It's back to Derby with Burton for me in future.

[Fangirl Three]

My little car has been at the garage, getting its MOT and some attention after all those trips between Glasgow and Essex. I've just been told it's ready.

[The Call of the Wendigo]

[Fangirl Three]

It cost exactly the same as last year, despite the fact that I've driven 4x further this year than I did that year.

I mentioned this to the garageman and he said that long motorway journeys were less wearing on the car than lots of short ones. And he reminded me that HMRC allow 45p/mile for depreciation and maintenance for the first 10,000 miles a year, but only 25p/mile above that, to reflect this very fact.

[Fangirl Three]

I notice the service apparently didn't include fixing the remote function on my keyfob

I had the most awful journey today, I was a mere 20 miles from my destination when signs warned of 1 HOUR'S DELAY ahead of me on the M6. So I immediately turned off, and wound my way through lovely Lancashire countryside, up hill and down dale to Blackburn and round the obstruction.

But when I was within 1 MILE of my destination, I ran into an appalling traffic jam in a place very appropriately named Grimsargh. 1 MILE! And it took me 25 MINUTES to get from there to my night's rest.

[The Call of the Wendigo]

[Nightjar]

The name Grimsargh is inciting in me a great deal of mirth.

[Fangirl Three]

The M6 was blocked again today so I tried out the A69 across from Carlisle to Newcastle. It wasn't as bad as I'd feared, but I was lucky with the traffic. There were no lorries to get stuck behind. I might not be so lucky again.

When I came out at the other end on the A1 I was at junction 75 - so far north it was making me dizzy. The signs were like

THE SOUTH
Darlington 53

- even places which are terrifyingly far north, were miles to the south of me.

However I battled through and after about 200 miles of A1/A1(M) I found myself at my Cambridgeshire destination. I think it might be the first time I've followed one of those Services signs with a bed on it to a place where I was actually going to sleep. In a bed.

[Butterfield]

I've only found out recently that you can now buy - higher end, mostly BMW it seems - cars that you can park in tight spaces with a remote control! As someone who has never been confident doing awkward parking manouvres these gadgets and gizmos are very much of interest to me for the future as they make their way down to much cheaper cars.

[Butterfield]

When I came out at the other end on the A1 I was at junction 75 - so far north it was making me dizzy. The signs were like

THE SOUTH
Darlington 53

- even places which are terrifyingly far north, were miles to the south of me.

I remember staying in a house near Fort William and nearby was a signpost which pointed to Glasgow being about 110 miles - to the south!

[cosmictanya]

Yes, that's the astounding thing with being in one place - other places are in different directions.

As for remote controlled parking, I hope it never takes off. My ability to park in the most unlikely and tight spaces has always been one of my most renowned skills. Friends often demand I take over the driving seat to park their own cars in spaces they don't believe any car could get into.

Reliance on ever more elaborate technological shortcuts to do the easiest and most everyday things for us (and our subsequent uselessness when the relied upon thing breaks down) is going to be the death of humanity. I do not approve.

[Fangirl Three]

With that remote controlled parking, I'd be afraid it would break, or the battery in the fob would go flat, and I wouldn't be able to extract the car again.

I've got to drive to Lancaster today. The old-fashioned way with direct human control.

[Fangirl Three]

There were Sunday roadworks on the southern parts of my usual route, so I took the very unusual step of taking the M11 and M25 to get to the M1. I saw that view of the City from Mount End with the skyscrapers glinting through the haze. I haven't been so close to that London for 5 years.

At J40 I tried out the old A638/A644 divertaroo round the back of Dewsbury to get to the M62 without going through the busy part. It worked fine. There were loads of speed cameras though. I'm no speeder but I nearly got caught out twice.

I then further ventured onto the M66 to avoid going round the top of Manchester, and had a very pleasant run under dark skies and among green moors to Blackburn and then another previously un-navigated road, the M65.

[Fangirl Three]

My car isn't well. When I locked the doors in Morrisons car park this morning the central locking kept flipping back and forth while the indicators flashed manically!

Eventually it stopped, and luckily it stopped with the doors unlocked.

I think it might have been to do with me accidentally slamming the key fob in the car door earlier.

I've booked the car into the Glasgow car hospital first thing tomorrow.

[The Call of the Wendigo]

[Nightjar]

They tyranny of the key-fob strikes again.

[Nightjar]

In fact, I think that a "tyranny" is the collective noun for key-fobs.

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