Celebrating Positives (offset of the Gripes Thread)

[Jerry_Atrick]

Gentlemen, I present to you, the new @Marty_d:

 

[ClintonB]

That guy looks a bit like the guy who walked into the prop on Indiana Jones.

that has stuck with me since I was a kid watching it.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Well, she swaped out two instructors - the first two having what could be best described as personality traits not reallu suited to teaching people, but daughter passed her driving test yesterday. First attempt with whom her current instructor thinks is the toughest examiner and no deductions - i.e. a perfect score! 

 

As I welcomed her to eternal poverty, I realised it is our cost of living going up! As she starts university in September and over here many universities, including the one she is going to, require first year students to live in on-site accomodation, it doesn't make sense for her to get a car, yet. But at the moment, she works 16 miles away. To date, parents have been driving her to work and picking her up 4 days a week, which is 256 miles a week. She will now driver herself to and from work using the mini (she won't drive the Volvo), so that should reduce the mileage to 128 miles a week. Happy daze, right!

 

Well,, er.. no... So, we have to get her insured. Insurance here is more of a scam than Australia. As my partner doesn't drive much except to take daughter to work, we legally cannot put my daughter as a nominated but not main driver of the car. Our insurer doesn't insure higher risk drivers (i.e. youn-uns). so we had to cancel the policy we just renewed (with a cancellation fee) and take out a new one, where my daughter is the main driver and both partner and I are named drivers. Previous insurance bill: £380. New one (after significant time shopping around), £1800. TThe average quote was £4,000, and we had one come in at a reasonable £10,000 (the car is valued at £9,000). With this, my daughter has to drive with an app on her phone and paired to a tracker that makes sure she complies with all the rules (which no one normally does). 

 

But, because my daughter will need to drive to work and partner doesn't want to give her a lift when I am in London, I now have to take the Volvo. The fuel usage is only marginally more than the Mini as the former is diesel and the latter petrol and both have the aerodynamics of the side of a garage,  but, the Volvo is not ULEZ compliant - which means add £25 pre week for the privilege of driving to the train station and back, of a little over £100/month.. or £1,200/year. Not only that, but to preserve my partner's no claims bonus, I have to make my partner the main driver on the Volvo insurance! Which means, unless I get another vehicle, I will lose my no claims history after three months - one month before my daughter hands us back the keys and heads off to to uni. 

 

So far, I am about £300/month worse off.. At least my daughter may pick up the tab for the petrool she uses now.. and she will also buy her own lunch (when muggins here drover her to work, we woiud stop and the local supermarket so she could buy her lunch - except I would pay for it).

 

Still, wouldn't want it any other way!

 

Edited June 7 by Jerry_Atrick

[spacesailor]

it's,  still an insurance scam  here in Australia. 

NRMA has a higher policy price for pensioners !,

 Because

Pensioners don't pay full registration cost .

spacesailor

[red750]

Just fitted a front and rear dashcam to my Astra after watching all the idiots on the road.I have to mind my P's and Q's. Like most dashcams I guess, it records the date, time, GPS co-ordinates and speed in the bottom corner of the video. If I get incorrectly photographed I can prove I wasn't speeding, or go through a red light.

 

[old man emu]

This morning there was a brisk W-SW wind blowing, but the sky was clear and the Sun shining down. I happened to look out my window and saw a pair of wedge-tailed eagles soaring on the wind. I don't know if they were actively hunting, or just moving to another of their haunts, but it was a pleasure to see them wheeling about. I was impressed by their wing dihedral. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I use a gopro mounted on my windshield for a dashcam... 

 

Here is a vid of the last part of m drive from the South West to London early Wednesday morning - was about 5:50am from the start, but I took off around 3:15am. Didn't get much sleep so stopped at almost every services on the way and was still falling asleep between the Reading services and Heston Services, the London side of Heathrow on the M4, whic is where this vedeo starts. My stop at Heston, which are very ordinary services, was about 15 minutes or so where I did exercises, which did the trick to revitalise myself.

 

[onetrack]

I remember a lot of that section of the M4, from Sept 1988, when I was living with an Auntie in Reading for about a month. I had a little hired Vauxhall, and used to go into London on a lot of days to have a look around. I went straight in via Hammersmith and Earls Court.

 

Vegetation is a bit higher than I recall, and a lot of big new buildings are along the route, that weren't there in 1988! I remember how the traffic flowed smoothly until a few kays out of London, then it all came to a halt with congestion getting into London. The Pommy drivers were pretty courteous, and the road layouts were very well thought out, with turning lanes everywhere, unlike here.

 

I don't know how you do that 160+ miles drive and back on a regular basis, it must take up 6 hrs of your day? I drive 130kms out to my block in the wheatbelt about 3 times a week, it takes me an hour and 20 mins, and no traffic lights once I leave the city, and only one small town on the trip.

Road Trains are about the only holdup, there aren't enough passing lanes, further out past the divided carriageway - but most of the Road Trains are doing a pretty good speed, 90-100kmh.

 

Edited June 8 by onetrack

[rgmwa]

Who watches all those dash cam videos? If you happen to capture that meteorite or UFO or bank robbery in progress then great, but otherwise what’s the point? I don’t really get it. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

I have already used one to prove an accident on a country lane into my village, where there were no witnesses other than the other driver, was not my fault. With a £750 excess if fault could not be determined, it paid itself back

[Jerry_Atrick]

3 hours ago, onetrack said:

I don't know how you do that 160+ miles drive and back on a regular basis, it must take up 6 hrs of your day?

I normally am off between 3am and 3:30am to get me into the office between 6:30am and 7am. I stay overnight at The Dukes Head Inn on the (aptly named) Vineyard, in Richmond which is a leafy part of the world. That used to be my local when I lived in Richmond, and I have known the landlord for c. 25 years now. He charges me £75/night regardless of season, even when Wimbledon is on (Richmond is not too far from Wimbledon and accomodation gets hard to find). I head back the next day. Door to door, it is normally 3.5 hours in and 4 hours back - give or take. I am used to the early morning runs and late return home. The early moorning drive has always been great - very few cars and a smattering of trucks.. Services open 24 hours, so if I need a comfort stop or just to take a break (like last Wednesday), it is easy.

 

There are two routes I take:

The norther route is the M5/M4 to London (and vice versa heading back). Both are 3 lane motorways all the way to where I merged into two lanes in the video I posted. The police are very liberal with enforcing the speed limit when there is little traffic. I set cruise control to 79 miles an hour and have been gunned many times, but never heard anything from them. During winter, unless there is a road closure, which I check online before departing, I always take this route, as one never sees dead animals on the side of the road. When I rode my motorbike in, I also exclusively took this route,

 

The southern route is 20 miles shorter. Taunton, one takes the A358 south to Chard, then left on the A303, which is the main alternate trunk road to the South West from London. Whereas the A303 is mostly dual lane carriageway - proibably about 10 miles in total is single lane each way, the A358 is about 10 miles of single lane carriageway. Although the latter is mostly windy, at 3:30am, there isn't too much traffic and you can see the headlights easily, so the few times I am stuck behind a truck, it is not hard to overtake. The terminates onto the M3, a triple lane motorway from Southampton, I think. In all of the dual lane carriageways and the motorway, I set my cruise control to 79 (speed limit is 70), and 69 for the single lane bits (speed limit 60). Again, police are liberal in their enforcement at that time of the day.

 

I will usually take the southern route in the late spring/summr/early autumn months as the sun starts glowing at about 3:30 and visibility is great.. Coming home will depend of whether I am tired or not - if I am tired, I will go the M4/M5, because the motorway services are much better and there are many more of them (occasionally I have stayed at a motel at a motorway services if I was really tired). Before Covid, it was a pain as the traffic was a lot worse - often took me 4.5 hours to get home door to door.. Now, the traffic thins nicely after 7pm - previously it could be stop start to 9pm. 

 

Driving home takes a little longer as there is more trafficand I stop for dinner at one of the services. 

 

Door to door is home to the office. I park at North Sheen or Mortlake station (same line; one station apart) and get a train in. Usually takes between .75 and 1.25 hours depending on when I rock up and what mode I take (Can take train to Waterloo, get the tube or bus; or a bus to Hammersmith and the tube). 

[Jerry_Atrick]

It's too late to edit the above, so to add, at the times I drive, the soouthern route is always faster (roadworks and closures excepted). 

 

[pmccarthy]

We stayed in Street (Glastonbury) in April and got down around Taunton on sightseeing drives. It was dry and sunny wh had travelled all that way to experience rain.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I did tell you to let me know.. would have been good to catch up!

 

6 hours ago, rgmwa said:

Who watches all those dash cam videos? If you happen to capture that meteorite or UFO or bank robbery in progress then great, but otherwise what’s the point? I don’t really get it. 

Another reason..  can share some interesting places.. The vid below starts in my village (the New Inn, which is the community pub is the white building on the right just before I make a sharpish right hand turn). Th vid gets a bit boring after the two joggers (well the one at the rear), but goes to Penn Elm, after which I cut to Waitrose in Wellington, after which we leave Wellington, through Milverton (sadly, their local pub, the Globe, has closed down), and back to Halse. 

 

 

 

Edited June 8 by Jerry_Atrick

[nomadpete]

Interesting to see the housing along the way. By the way, what is your gopro mount? It seemed to be self levelling?

Thanks for sharing.

[red750]

It's not a GoPro, it's a Kleva Range Dashcom. Their address is 301/209 Oxford St, Bondi Junction, NSW 2022, webpage https://klevarange.com.au/products/kleva-front-rear-dash-cam

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

8 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Interesting to see the housing along the way. By the way, what is your gopro mount? It seemed to be self levelling?

Thanks for sharing.

No worries.. The mount is a cheapie from Amazon and the camera wobbles like crazy, which is a testament to the camer's image stability despite its flakey software: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01EF3Q8SU?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

6 hours ago, red750 said:

t's not a GoPro,

It is a GoPro - Hero 8 Black. Not sure where you got the idea it was a front and rear dash cam from, though I am thinking of getting one for the car my daughter drives as it is the beginning of tourist season here, and they tear aroudn these country lanes. 

Edited Monday at 06:19 AM by Jerry_Atrick

[red750]

The front camera sticks to the windscreen with adhesive and is rock solid. The rear camera sticks to the back window and had a lead which you thread under the door seals and roof lining. It is the small item circled in the image. the veiw from the rear camera is shown below. The files are storerd on a 32 Gb micro SD card, in TS file format. It is nothing like the GoPro 8 Black.

 

[red750]

I found a converter online to convert TS files to mp4 so I could upload one. Here is the video of approaching and arriving at the Men's Shed.

 

 

 

By the way, as you are not allowed to have anything to distract you while driving, the front camera fits completely behind the rear view mirror out of view.

 

 

[red750]

Here is a video from the rear camera, leaving the Shed in the afternoon

 

. It's image is sent to the front camera and recorded on the same micro SD card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Onto another positive. A Buzzard has taken up residence at our place. He seems to like a big old tree of some wort we have (under a tree protection order, so we can't even prune it without permission and I think a tree surgeon has to do it). 

 

Here are a coupl of photos of it perched on outr cottage on site. Sorry about the grainy results. It is an el cheapo phone:

[nomadpete]

Eeer, wot you doin up that tree, taken piccys of birds?  Ya wasn't checkin t'rige cappin fer straitness, was ya?

[Jerry_Atrick]

That was taken from my kitchen window.. we look down on the pheasants... er... peas....ants 😉

 

We shoot one of them.. just can't remember which 😜

 

Edited Monday at 06:13 PM by Jerry_Atrick

[red750]

The first image shows how the camera is hidden behind the mirror. The only things visible are the power and data cable (from the rear camera), which disappear into the roof lining. My son installed it for me one Sunday afternoon.

 

 

This photo is viewing the camera from the side, behind the mirror. The mount only has vertical angle adjustment to allow for the angle of the windscreen. All wires are hidden, nothing to get caught or distract.