4x4s?!

[hedgewizard]

Keep the noise down you two!

Muddy, I see where you're coming from here. But there are SOME idiots on the road. My OH was nearly in a high-speed collision near Bridport last year, caused by someone overtaking a line of traffic (already moving at 60mph) on a blind curve near the brow of a hill. My OH was coming the other way and this guy had no-where to go. If that's not idiocy I don't know what is.

Baby on board stickers no more irritate me than "my other car's a porche/broomstick/bicycle" stickers, but Homer Simpson had a nice little comment on them a while back. "Oh, Marge, a baby on board sticker! Now people will stop deliberately ramming us!"

Mr 42mph... oh, irritating and we get such a lot of them down in Dorset because people are on holiday trying to relax, or here to retire and in a slightly different reality from me! I've learned not to take any chances "getting round" folks though... with one or two notable exceptions these people don't cause any appreciable delay to my journey.

MY pet hate is people who wear hats when driving. I always allow extra space for hat-wearers since I find them inexplicably prone to dither, inattention and poor judgement. I don't know why this is - they are usually elderly, but I think the answer is more likely something to do with choosing to wear something that partially obstructs vision when driving in the first place. Roll on the flak from hat-wearing ishers!

[Muddypause]

Keep the noise down you two!

Oh dear! I thought I was being reasonably well behaved. Is this better? I'm not really trying to have an argument here, but I do think there are certain presumptions and tired old ideas that lack imagination, and need challenging from time to time. The trouble is, I understand what I'm saying perfectly.

Muddy, I see where you're coming from here. But there are SOME idiots on the road. My OH was nearly in a high-speed collision[..]If that's not idiocy I don't know what is.

Well, yes, of course, as I have noted, there are all kinds of drivers on the road. I'm baffled why people seemed to be surprised by that. It's a given; it's inevitable. Toni will meet more of them. And it gets worse - it also includes people who have been banned, or are drunk, or are uninsured, or are out for an evening's joy-riding, or are playing Deathrace 2006 with the cops... But that's not the issue. The only issue is our own driving.

What is encumbent upon us, is not to get upset about it, or to get on some high'n'mighty hobby horse, or to pontificate about how wrong the rest of the world is, or how stupid or impolite other people are, but simply, and as best we can, to deal with it; accomodate it; observe it; avoid it. But NOT to get drawn into it. Put any judgemental response away - it's inappropriate, and can only hinder things.

It's absolutely not easy to do; that pesky monkey on our shoulder keeps jabbering away and sticking his oar in. It's kinda like meditation, but with your eyes open and your awareness fully engaged. It takes concentration; an intelligent, conscious, application of appropriate thought. But it can also be quite a buzz to do.

[Chickpea]

I read a thing once that changed my attitude to stressful stuff like other people's atrocious driving. I can't remember it exactly but I'll tell it the best I can.

If you are rowing your boat down the river, and another rower bumps his boat into yours you'll probably shout and swear at him, and you'll feel annoyed all day, and in the evening you'll go home and tell your wife about this bloody stupid guy on the river who couldn't watch where he was going, and you'll be all stressed about it for the whole day.

But if you're rowing your boat and you get bumped by an empty boat that's adrift, you'll just push it away with your oar and go on with your business and not think of it again.

So what's the difference? What you should do whenever you see someone else acting stupidly, e.g. a driver who changes lane without indicating, or a neighbour who is heavy-handed with the roundup, or a kid who drops his coat on the floor rather than hang it on the peg, is just shrug your shoulders and say "Empty boat".

[hedgewizard]

Perfectly true, and an interesting way of looking at things... but if I thought about it too much I'd never go out on the river because some of those empty boats weight 2 tons and are travelling at 70mph...

[Martin]

with a crass sticker in the back window...............

[Wombat]

Well Hedgie, I have been known to wear my Belgian Farmers Hat while driving.......................but only until I realise, the I take it off!

Nev

[hedgewizard]

Then you are tentatively forgiven, but as penance you have to post a photo of yourself in the hat.

[Wombat]

No worries! I'll see about later in the day!

Nev

[kenboak]

I'm a bit of a latecomer to this discussion, but I remember when there was the same attitude to Volvo Drivers.

I'm not going to be pulled into a highly emotive subject, but I do hope that eventually the 4x4 will be charged appropriately according to its environmental footprint.

I rather liked the 2x2 that Tom built from his rotovator on "The Good Life".

I came aross these during my travels in Southern China - they actually drive around the streets in homemade pick-up trucks made by coupling a trailer up to their rotovators - or "walking tractors" as they are known out there.

I nicknamed them Wun Ton Noodle Trucks, as they would carry about a ton, they have a top speed of about 25mph, and run on veg oil.

I once saw a family going to market in a fully laden one, farmer, wife and daughter in the front cab on the bench seat, and the son and three fattened pigs in the back!

Roll-on appropriate transport! Piss-on Chelsea Tractors!


Ken

[Masco&Bongo]

I have a diesel 4x4... its about 10 years old and is fairly basic.

We tow a trailer with it, a horse box, put the dog in it, put bags and bags of horse muck in it, take it camping, and I also drive to work in it.

Yes, I am a "lady driver", and I drive the 20 miles to work every day on my own in the car.

I know exactly how wide my car is, and where I can and can't "squeeze" by

I'd get public transport if there was any... but when I looked into it I'd have to change bus 3 times and then one of those would go straight past where I work into the town, where I'd have to change bus again to get to work. I'd also have to set off about 1 1/2 hours before work starts to get there for 9, and although I finish work at 5, wouldn't get home until after 6.30. No thanks.

We've tried having a smaller car, but we put so much stuff in the Shogun that I'd find it very difficult to get another car that is as good...

[Stonehead]

Cow bars - I call them roo bars and wondered why on earth you would need them outside of Australia!!! Now how many cows are wandering loose on the roads in the UK?

Thirty on the road past my place recently. Two a week or so before that. Twenty at Easter. And umpteen sheep all the time.

I need a 4x4 to drive through the fields because the roads are so congested with animals.