WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Tizer]

I agree with you about cycle helmets, Ian. One of my friends when I was a teenager came off his motor scooter and wasn't wearing a helmet. He was going relatively slowly but bumped the kerb, tipped over and landed on the flags, cracking his head and almost dying. However if that makes him a moronic Tory then we should perhaps mention a `moronic Labour MP'. Ben Bradshaw, Labour MP for Exeter, has opposed making cycle helmets compulsory because "it would be disastrous for pubic health". Just trying to maintain a balance!

[PanBiker]

Shame on the man.

What attracted me today was my first half day back in gainful employment (Maths Paper 1) for the Year 11 mock exams. A gentle introduction, full days (with a few gaps) from now on. RE, Triple Science, Business, Resistant Materials and Child Care tomorrow.

[Stanley]

When I was a lad the nearest thing to a crash hat was Reg Harris wearing a padded leather skull cap. See THIS for a biography and a pic of him wearing the hat.
The fact that I have once again locked myself into having to stay up waiting for a UPS Next Day delivery. I hate waiting for couriers! On-line shopping is a great boon but the deliveries.......
The lovely clips of the 106 year old black lady visiting the White House to meet President Obama and his wife. I hope I have as much energy as that at her age!

[Tizer]

Stanley, are there any shops in Barlick that act as pick-up points to which you could get items sent, instead of direct to your home? Then you could collect them when you wish.

[Big Kev]

Stanley, are there any shops in Barlick that act as pick-up points to which you could get items sent, instead of direct to your home? Then you could collect them when you wish.

There are a few, Bonjour and Singh's definitely do but I'm unsure of which couriers deliver to them.

[Stanley]

Tiz and Kev... That's the problem. The courier. YELL leave things at Happy Shopper on Coates estate. I'd look well getting a 35kg parcel home from there.... Luckily the system worked yesterday and UPS delivered at 2PM. I got a lot of compressor for £100!
By the way I noticed I had the original price wrong, it was reduced from £279. It's up and running and an air hose and a bunch of fittings are on the way from Amazon.... No room for anything else in the shed now!

[Tizer]

In the old days you'd have given some kids a few bob and they'd have had it round from Coates to your house in no time at all on a cart.

[Stanley]

You're right about hand carts Tiz, they used to be very common. Here's the last one I saw, in Manchester in 1979. Looks as though he's had a good morning!



The report about the police running over a dog as in the cause of the greater good. This of course has raised a storm from the dog-lovers. I can clearly remember an incident in Keighley many years ago when I was coming down Halifax Road (A steep hill) on ice and passing a bus queue when a dog ran into the road. I had no problem in deciding instantly that the dog had to go! Thankfully even though I went over it the wheels missed it and it ran off but I would have shed no tears, the people in the bus queue were more important. Does this make me cruel and open me up to criticism?

[Tizer]

No it doesn't make you cruel. My father started driving in WW2 and he passed his driving test in the RAF, then was sent to South Africa and passed the civilian test there, then came home and was made to pass a third test for UK roads. He drummed it into me, even before I'd started driving, that a driver should never swerve if a dog or cat ran into the road. Then my driving instructor reinforced the advice. It was far too dangerous to other drivers, pedestrians and yourself. In those days there were many more dogs and cats roaming about and too many instances of drivers swerving into oncoming traffic or hitting pedestrians on the pavements. Now there are fewer dogs roaming but more cars and higher speeds, so it's still too dangerous to swerve.

[Stanley]

Amazon delivered a day early and I have my new compressor up and working. This makes the old Clarke Jumbo tyre inflater redundant and it's in the outside shed. It is a useful little thing, has enough capacity to run a spray gun. If anyone fancies it, give me a shout.....

[Pluggy]

Since the police had tried to coax the dog off the road before running it down and got bitten for their trouble, running over the damn thing sounds like good service to the public to me. If it was cared for it wouldn't trailing down a dual carriageway at 3AM. Farmers are entitled to shoot dogs that are worrying their livestock, police should be entitled to kill dogs that are endangering life on the roads without having to justify themselves. Excuse right of centre viewpoint......

[PanBiker]

Not quoting chapter and verse but the Highway Code is quite clear about animals in the carriageway. A driver is not expected to swerve or veer off course to avoid animals in the carriageway. It could be hazardous to other road users or pedestrians.

Obviously if it's a cow or sheep or other large beast you should avoid but should also be driving carefully enough to stop if required. Domestic livestock is a lot easier to see than a stray dog, rabbit, squirrel, cat or whatever smaller critter. Having said that it is instinctive to try and avoid things that jump out in front of you.

[Stanley]

I don't see how that is 'right of centre' Pluggy. Just sound common sense....
The fact that now I have the air compressor up and running with its air hose fitted I am itching to take an engine in there, couple it up and have a play! I shall resist it and get on with the job of making more engines.

[Stanley]

The quiet settled dry weather we are having. I have seen a lot worse in February!

[Tizer]

..Having said that it is instinctive to try and avoid things that jump out in front of you.

Very true Ian, and as you noted it's a different story for bigger animals. One of our previous neighbours hit a deer which jumped into the road in the dark while he was on his way to Gatwick. His car was badly smashed and he was lucky to avoid injury or worse. We have to be thankful for seat belts and air bags.

[PanBiker]

It's worse if you are on a motorbike. Once on my way home on the bike, around midnight on a moonless night. I was lined up for the right hand sweeping bend down out of Thornton in Craven. While I had the bike banked for the bend a big buck rabbit jumped right onto my line and became transfixed in the headlight. I had to do a quick swerve to stop it fetching me off. The result was that I caught it with my left foot. It put a bit of a wobble on at 60mph or so but I recovered OK and pulled up further up the road. The rabbit had made the wrong call and ended up with a broken neck, otherwise untouched. I popped it in the top box and took it home for my dad for the pot.

[Tizer]

That reminds me of the time I learnt something about the physics of moving objects while riding my Vespa scooter in the 1960s. I was turning at a junction but took it a little too fast and hit the traffic island kerb. With the small scooter wheels I should have been thrown over the handlebars but miraculously it simply bounced up and over the island, much to the astonishment of onlookers (and me). I kept going and tried to look as if I'd done it deliberately to impress them. It reminds me of Stanley's phrase about a power that oversees fools and idiots!

[Stanley]

"There is a providence that looks after drunken men and idiots".... My dad told me that and it's saved my bacon many times!

[Tizer]

This article is listed as the 5th most popular on the BBC news web site today but strangely it is dated 16 August 2013. The other listed articles are all today's or very recent. Anyway, it's still a worth reminding ourselves of the danger...

`Warning over 'flash-for-cash' car accident insurance scam'
"Motorists are being warned about a new insurance scam where criminals flash their lights to let other drivers out of a junction, then crash into them on purpose. Anti-fraud experts are calling it "flash-for-cash". The gangs tend to target new, smarter vehicles or vulnerable road users, including older people and women with children in the car. The scam is costing insurers hundreds of millions of pounds every year. It is a new tactic for an already well established crime, called "crash for cash", where criminals slam on the brakes for no reason so that the victim drives into the back of their car. Police investigators said the criminals will often remove the bulbs in their brake lights so other road users don't know they're stopping. However, "flash-for-cash" is more crafty, because it is harder to prove in court, often coming down to the innocent driver's word against the criminal's that they flashed their lights to let them out."

The article ends:
Generally speaking, drivers are not meant to flash their lights to let people out onto busy roads. It is meant to be used as a warning.
The Highway Code says: "Flashing headlights. Only flash your headlights to let other road users know that you are there. Do not flash your headlights to convey any other message or intimidate other road users. Never assume that flashing headlights is a signal inviting you to proceed. Use your own judgement and proceed carefully." LINK

[Stanley]

In the old days wagon drivers had their own well understood code of signalling with both headlights and tail lights, it made things a lot easier. Then the car drivers noticed and got it wrong. 'Flash for Cash' doesn't surprise me and I have always said, the best indication of a car's intentions is road positioning and what they actually do. Prime example is indicators, the only totally reliable indication of a turn is when the front wheels turn. Always ignore any 'signal' which is against the Rules of the Road. I have seen people killed by 'helpful' motorists stopping when they have right of way to let people cross the road, they get hit by an overtaking vehicle....
What grabbed my attention this morning was a mail from a lady friend I lost track of many years ago. Lovely! The power of the tinternetwebthingy.

[plaques]

More on the Northern Poorhouse. I've said for some while that this area of East Lancs' (plus the annexed bit of Yorkshire) is in terminal decline. The official figures now show that the whole area is going downhill fast. Poorhouse. . Except for a few success stories the biggest employer in this area is the NHS. Unfortunately, it doesn't need a crystal ball to see what our ever caring government is doing in this area. Get your Sat Navs out and be prepared to travel.

[David Whipp]

Resurfacing West Close Road following the completion of work on the new bridge over Stocks Beck.

[Stanley]

Nice to see some work being done! (Have you noticed some of the nasty potholes growing in the roads? A bad one on Fernlea Avenue at the end of Albert Road....)
P. I still think that the 'Northern Powerhouse' was an election gimmick. If you remember it completely ignored the latest estimates from the rail authority that previously announced improvement schemes were out of budget and postponed. The only scheme that went forward was the one to the SW. As for the work being done on the proposed high speed trans Pennine rail tunnel (LINK), I doubt if we will see it. Remember, North of Watford there be dragons! I always remember talking to an otherwise sensible and nice man in London who said he had never been North of Watford in his life. Frightening stuff! And then they say that the N/S Divide is a myth..... Do you remember the wonderful topic we had on the old site on this? Perhaps we need to start another one.....

[Tizer]

I mentioned about car accident claim scams in a post above. Today I read that a Google driverless car has caused an accident by pulling out in front of a bus. I wonder if we will have driverless cars suing each other in the future?

[PanBiker]

If the sensors can't see a bus what would happen with a pedal cycle or motorbike!