Mirror Signal Manoeuvre

picture credit: office.com (free use)

That’s what you are taught when learning to drive. That’s what most of us do. But I, and I am not alone in this observation, have noticed that car/van signal lights seem to be getting smaller and harder to see.
Just today, while stopped at the Bucksburn roundabout, I watched as an Audi, who initially I thought was being naughty and not using the slip road towards Dyce Airport but going to speed left at that roundabout. This wouldn’t be the first time such a thing has happened and I’ve sat there waiting for them to pass me; I was just about to go when he came round my way with his indicator light blinking. Only problem was you could barely see the light and he was practically on me before I could see it.
The indicator lights are there for safety, to help other motorist know where you are going. It's great when people use them, I just wish that they would be bigger so you can see them.

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Why oh why do we bother with hairspray. Elnet - super hold. Super shite. Had my hair in the perfect ponytail with the perfect swept fringe. Tonne me lacker. Two secs out side- all over the f'ing place.
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What the....

Well I've lost data on my blog before but never the whole blog. On Friday I decided to create a new blog, one where I could share the love I have for my new house and show my designs etc. I created the Blog made my first post, but I wasn't finished so saved in draft. I went in at the weekend to complete and, what the hell, the whole blog is gone, it says that it been removed and address is no longer available. I have now spent too much time trying to put together some sort of request to get it back only to become frustrated with the people that be on Google because I can't find that elusive send us a message, I just keep going round in circles.

Can't find your blog - click here.
Contact Us - click here.
Sign in - did that.
Contact Support Team - click here.
Post a message - I've already looked at the posts and they say contact or appeal. I'm lost and annoyed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Pet-hate

People who don't have the hems of their trousers fixed properly.

It's so untidy and ruins the outfit. Who decided it was ok for this shoddy look to still continue?

Courtesy & Etiquette

These two words have taken a severe beating over the past decade as the human race becomes more and more selfish. Don’t get me wrong there are people out there who believe in good manners and common courtesy and act on it, myself included, which is why I guess I get quite annoyed when others don’t show the same courtesy or etiquette. Is it the way they have been raised? Or have they just become complacent and decided that the world and everyone and everything on it can just get out of their way?

This morning I was driving into my work’s car park, there was a work colleague driving behind me, I know her to see, but it’s a big building and you can’t know everyone by name. Now our car park has a sort of one way system, where you have a no entry on the left, drive straight up - there are parking spaces to the left and right of that straight - and at the end you can choose to go left in a circle to the no entry or right towards the dead end where there are more parking spaces. Granted it would be better if you could turn immediate left as you come through the gate then do a right and right circle with the option to continue right and exit or go straight ahead, this would also make sense for exiting the car park as you would not be exiting on to on coming traffic in to the car park,

Now, this morning, as I past the gate I clocked a space on the left, but as that is a no entry and there was a car behind me I did what any driver should do, common courtesy, driver’s etiquette, I drove straight up and turned left at the top of the car park to head to that no entry, but the car behind me cut in to the no entry and took the space. I was fuming, the bloody cheek of her! There was a space right across from where she parked, so I took the second space, but I still can’t help but be annoyed at the sheer lack of social courteousness in this person.

Similar situations happen in car parks all over the world and it shouldn’t; giving way for someone, helping them etc. should be first, if you want someone to go in front of you in a queue you offer them your place, if they want it for whatever reason then they should ask. In some situations it’s a first come first served, you see a car in front then they get first pick on an available space, if they drive past and another car is coming out then fair pickings but come on people show some good manners and remember you’ll get an equal measure of courtesy in return.

::Append::

Well I nipped out at lunch time to do a message. As I returned to the car park, following the same route as before I parked my car in a different spot, just as I was switching off the engine, the woman from this morning’s fury drove in, and guess what? She did the same thing, cut across the no entry and took the space next to me. On well I guess some people never learn.

Poignant

When I got in my car this morning, the sun is shining, birds singing & I was feeling happy. I switch on the car & the music comes on & plays Louis Armstrong's It's a Wonderful World. I mean how perfect is that? I headed off to work thinking life's great and smiling from ear to ear. I drove round the corner on to the main road & was greeted by this...

This doesn't look good, the car wasn't there when I pulled up, but once the police moved it closer to the recovery truck you could see that the back wheel is right off and there's white sheeting inside the car, that  makes me really worried. I suddenly realise that it's not a wonderful world for the people involved in that accident. I'm a little bit saddened now. I hope they are alright. My thoughts go out to them. x

Pot luck

Aberdeen's roads have never been the best and at the moment they are uneven, patchy, pot-holed, cannoned, fissured and just plain dangerous, and the problem is getting worse and there's not a road unaffected. Some of Aberdeen's roads are so bad it's like driving on the main roads of Egypt, and that's one hellava bumpy ride. And I'm sure I saw a tarmac mole the other day. The local council say they have no money to repair these damaged roads, but some how they managed to find £80M to rebuild, repair, and revamp a building that they are only leasing as their new headquarters.

Granted, the current HQ (shown above (28-03-10)) is a visual eye sore, and I can understand the need to have new premises, and I welcome the use of such a beautiful and historical building like the Marischal College - which is the 2nd largest granite fronted building in the world (shown below in renovation & reconstruction (28-03-10)), - but don't tell Aberdeen's citizens’ that there's no money to repair our roads.

Our Council tax already incorporates a portion of the money paid to maintain our roads, so what are they doing with it? Our city should be a shining light,- the gate way to the Highlands, Royal Deeside, some new beautiful modern shopping centres, which bring needed revenue and the Oil Capital of Europe. So why are we still bumping along our roads like we're driving dodgy shopping trolleys?

Come on Aberdeen Council, get your fingers out and sort the roads before the next onslaught of bad weather makes it even worse.

Dumping not Providing

Wednesday just past I was clearing out some cupboards and as I normally do I had a few bags to go to charity. Now as a rule I'll take the bags to the Charity shops - I do a circle donation that way all charities and not just one get something - however this time is was for the Salvation Army. I remembered that they had collection bins in Tesco car park, so i thought that I'd drop the stuff there as it was on the way to my Mother-in-laws and i could then pick up my son. The bins are very big and the SA have signs to tell you how they would like the stuff sorted. That's a sensible thing to do. I tried putting several carrier bags in, two would not fit so that stuff will be going in to a store. I was surprise, on the day, to see that there were a few black bags of items sitting at one of the bins and someone had left a single mattress and a suitcase. What is rather ridiculous and obvious is that the person or persons responsible are just dumping. Baring in mind that the local dump is not that far from Asda and Asda's not far from Tesco. I do have a criticism about the bins, the chutes do not allow for a bulging carrier bag and you would have to use several bags if you have a lot on things, so you can see why people would leave black bags if they didn't known and just couldn't be bothered to take the stuff home again, but this is dumping not providing.

I was at Tesco shopping today and couldn't believe my eyes. The Salvation Army bins were nothing short of disgusting, and the people who left the items behind should be ashamed of themselves. Clothing out of bags lying on the wet ground, now no use to anyone. Why did they waste petrol traveling to Tesco just to dump when they could have just used their wheelie bin and let the council refuge collection dump them instead?

Hair raising

For years I've tried everything to get my hair to do what I want. I've had every style under the sun, tried all the shampoos but after a few hours my hair always returns to its usual limp, dull and oiled at the roots, dead straight damned right annoying mess. Until one day I was trawling through the Internet, the great thing that it is, and discovered a website that advise rinsing your hair with cold water. Oh my God the revelation, my hair was bouncy, soft and beautiful all day. But a secret I wish to add, mild shampoo, I tried my son's baby shampoo and found that it gave fantastic results but I still have to wash my hair everyday. I now use Aussie Mega Volume Shampoo/Conditioner and Mousse and find that with the cold water it gives amazing results, but still have to wash everyday. When I find way to get two days from one wash I'll let you know.

RED Means STOP

5.07pm today three fucking idiots in cars went through the red light on Ellon road after the Don bridge. If I had driven off on the green light that was showing for me at that time the three of them would have smashed in to me, and not only hurt me but my 10 month old son too.

I am moaning about this, because this sort of driving happens too fucking often, even to pedestrians. What the fuck is so important that you have to risk yours and others lives by running red lights?

Anyone who does this are 'fucking arseholes' and they should be banned from driving as it's totally reckless.

You can tell I'm really pissed about this because of the swearing.

Total waste of time

It's been rather windy in Aberdeen lately and I couldn't believe my eyes when I was driving across the Don bridge yesterday. There was a council worker using a leaf-blower. He could bearly stand upright for the wind and the leaves were blowing everywhere. I wish I had been able to photograph or film it. Well he had a job and he was doing it.

Money for Nothing - Part 2

Well would you believe it M&S money called me back on Friday, while I was out, and left a message on my machine. They tell me that a team has listened to my last call and they confirm that I was told that I was due them £2.43 not they were due me. Unbloody believable. How can this be the case? I've 4 months left on my insurance, I cancel, granted, and they charge me £25 for clicking a button that says cancelled etc. then claim money for loss of 4 months business, of which they were paid upfront, then have the mordacity to charge me a further amount. Why did I bother? With an increase of motorist uninsured in this country it really irks me that as a customer they could and would do this.

I’ve reread my policy and terms, which I’d read a year ago when I’d taken it out, and they nicely state the following 'We may also charge a percentage of the total cost of cover, depending on when you cancel.' I give emphasis to the words may and depending. Surely either a fee or percentage should be applicable and enough but not both and certainly not a further charge; so does 4 months not apply?

I am disgusted by this situation and with M&S money, it's one thing to charge a fee but I really don't see why they should get to keep my money for months I won't be insured by them or to pay them more for the privilege. It really does go to show that car insurance and insurance in generally can be money for nothing.

Money for Nothing

Insurance is a necessary evil and it would appear that if you risk not having it for something you need it and if you have it your paying for nothing. Last year I changed my car insurance company to M&S money, who have BISL as their administrators, as I was saving a reasonable amount, however this year my husband bought a second car, which is fine, it's nothing exiting just a run about to get to and from work. So I contact my insurance company ahead of time to ask about the procedure of insuring another car while he had not acquired any no-claims and was a named driver on my existing policy. I was told that is wasn't a problem and that my no-claims would be mirrored and he'd get a good saving. Great I think; wrong. Couple of months later husband buys car I call insurance company, go through loads of questions and they say, 'insurance will be £350' just as well I was already sitting on the floor. That was almost the same price as the car and double the insurance for my car. We talked about moving my no-claims to my husband but that just cost him £220 and me £400. CRAZY. There I am sitting on the floor going what the hell. Anyway, I tell them in no uncertain terms that we're not paying that. Hence I manage to get both our cars insured elsewhere for a total of £300; that's with my husband having no no-claims bonus of his own, amazing how one company can do this and another can't.

Although you can have two insurance policies on one car you can't claim on both so who would have two? I therefore called M&S Money back and told them I was cancelling the policy and why. The policy had until September to run so I knew that I would be losing something. After they told me that I’d have to pay £25 cancellation fee, then there was the loss of business expense of 90% of the remaining policy which would leave me with £2.43, WOW, enough to buy a fair-trade coffee. I say that it’s all ridiculous and told them to refund the amount, well it’s mine.

Few days later I’m checking my statement and there it is a debit for £2.43, they charged me. On the phone I get and then I’m told that they don’t refund anything under £10, first I knew, I pointed out that that didn’t give them the right to charge me and that they now needed to refund me £4.86; if I keep going I’ll get to that £10. Well I’m still waiting for the refund and the call back. They’ve got until Friday and if they haven’t they’ll be hearing from me.

Pedestrian vs Driver

As both a regular driver and pedestrian on Aberdeen’s streets I have a vested interest in the use, courtesy, general misuse and down right rudeness that comes from both. Firstly as a driver I find that far too many motorists think that the road is just for them and that traffic lights are there to inform them to drive faster to get through them. Then there is the fact that on certain roundabouts the give way to the right seems not to exist and that during traffic hour a stream of cars will actually park around the roundabout stopping the flow of traffic, this seems only to happen in Aberdeen, and just because no one wants another car to get in front of them and put them further back in the queue. Crazy when you consider that our traffic jams are not jams as the traffic has a reasonable flow. I wish I could say that the part-time traffic lights work but they at times just add to the rush to the next bit and that inch closer to that bumper. And why oh why is there confusion as to who has right away at a crossroad – for those who don’t know, it’s the driver going straight ahead then the one going left, that goes for crossroads that are not completely straight on – like the one on Ellon Road.

My biggest problem with drivers, is that many seem to ignore pedestrian crossings, I stop at a crossing if there is another car before me and there is not a clear space behind them for me not to sit on that crossing, after all there will be someone wanting to cross the road and I’d rather they didn’t walk around my car – more on this later.

Now life on the pavement can be dangerous, for all the reasons mentioned above, drivers seem to see pedestrians as targets as well as a nuisance, now granted there are people out there that while walking put themselves at risk by crossing the road between cars and before reaching or using pedestrian crossings or simply run out on the road to get across before a car comes. Such decisions baffle me. As a pedestrian I generally hate drivers, this comes from the fact that they don’t think about what they’re doing only that they have to get somewhere and are on autopilot most of the time and if I didn’t pay attention on those pavements and road crossings I’d be dead. I can’t count how many times I have stood patiently at a crossing, in the rain, only to have a car speed up to get through that light before it changes and that green man appears or that a car moves on to the crossing lane and blocks my path those seconds before the lights change. I may be wrong but I’m not going to walk around a car, bus – they are big criminals on this count – trucks etc. and risk someone moving off and hurting, maiming or killing me. I will however get extremely annoyed and rant at the offender and they know that they’ve done wrong, because they sit there looking straight ahead pretending that you’re not there and they’ve done nothing wrong.

I have to say that pedestrians really get a raw deal from motorists, not only do they have to put up with bad behaviour and discourtesy on the roads, but the weather is also against them with it; how many times have you seen a car drive faster in the rain and splash those rivers of water on Aberdeen’s roads just because they have to get somewhere, big news the pedestrian is going somewhere too and we’d like to get there in one piece.