Thursday, June 14, 2007

Like German tourists...

"Like German tourists, the stupid are everywhere"

Arnold Judas Rimmer, Red Dwarf



The Pyrenees Highway has a highway type speed limit - 100 kph - BUT- and as you can plainly see, this is a big BUT - if one tries to turn onto a narrow dirt road from said highway at the aforementioned 100kph, one is likely to oversteer and have a terminal encounter with a very large gum tree or at the very least cause severe startlement to the local and very cute black faced sheep.

As I am philosophically opposed to both my own unnecessary demise AND the vehicular interruption of sheep deep in the contemplation of grass, I generally choose to slow down as I come down the hill approaching the turnoff. This is accompanied by both break lights and appropriate use of indicator lights.

This process of slowing down and indicating was obviously too much for the car load of young men behind me, who chose that moment to pull out OVER DOUBLE LINES to overtake.

It wasn't scary because I saw them. More annoying... but the potential was there for a really nasty accident if I hadn't seen them make their spectacularly stupid move. Given that I was making a right turn, in a right hand drive vehicle, I would've probably taken any impact squarely on the driver side door at about 100 kph.
and in other 'news' the overnight low was minus 0.9 degrees C. Yes, Bells, I know Canberra was probably colder but that's still cold enough for me. Particularly because I had myself shorn back to my customary 1/2" haircut today. Couldn't stand it a minute longer. I actually had to resort to using the blow dryer this week for the first time in about a decade.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

And they wonder why young rural men are a disproportionately large part of the road toll...

Anonymous said...

Certainly noticing the cold here. Girlie had to scrap ice off the car when leaving work this morning. Ahh.. can't wait for suuny ol' Queensland next week.

Rose Red said...

I hate how more reckless drivers make the more cautious of us feel bad for our caution (if you know what I mean).

Nice sheepie. Do you ever feel the urge to stuff one in your tuckerbag (heh!)? (or maybe just shear it and snaffle the fleece?)

Bells said...

Oh cute sheep! I love the black faced ones.

Yes, very cold here but it's all relative huh? Just because we live with minus 0 temps here, doesn't mean you don't find less than 10 icy cold!

catsmum said...

oh 10 degrees is positively balmy.
I had 16 days straight last winter that were zero degrees or less.
Today wasn't nine degrees . It was minus point nine !

Mia said...

awww, i luv that little sheep pic!

Sheepish Annie said...

It seems that young men who are in such a hurry to go nowhere in particular can be found on every continent...I was hoping that there might be someplace safe out there!

Stay warm!!

Nadie said...

maybe you should add a '0' in front of that '.9' to make it clearer. As the boy said, pretty cold here, but nothing sub zero so far. It took about 15minutes at 8am yesterday with the heater going full blast before I was able to scrape the sheets of ice off the car.

Can't wait to head north next week, apparently a freezing cold day in Townsville is measured by being able to see your breath!

Meow (aka Connie) said...

Wow, that must have been scary ... stupid boys !!
We beat you, it was -1.2C on Thursday morning LOL
Thanks for visiting my blog ... I have now put you in my favorites ... always love meeting fellow Aussie bloggers.
Take care, Meow