It’s now just over ten years since Princess Diana died. One thing I didn’t mention in my blog post at the time was that when I got home, I found my VCR, which had been set to tape an obscure Sunday morning TV programme (the rather amusing look at the parables of Jesus, Wrestling With ... [More]
My car is dark grey. A recent study found that dark-coloured cars are more prone to accidents. In the rain, like this morning, I drive with my lights on, for visibility. It’s like my friend Merlin, who rides a motorcycle. Where he lives in Canberra, you apparently don’t have to ride with your motorcycle headlight ... [More]
Dishwashers: On the subject of water (I think Andrew or somebody mentioned this a while ago) in last Sunday’s Age M magaziney thing, there was an article noting that dishwashers generally use less water than handwashing. Dishwashers are in the 13 to 20 litre per cycle range, whereas handwashing is up around 40 to 60. ... [More]
You don’t have to be a 4WD owner to drive like a moron. Even Prius owners do it sometimes. The other contender this week was red Mercedes TLH 385, zooming down Jasper Road with at least one indicator and brake light not working, tail-gating and generally driving like a maniac on Wednesday night. Also seen ... [More]
I’ve been doing so little driving that it had been a full month since I’d bought petrol. But that came to an end the other night, when the fuel gauge was finally getting very close to the big E. So I pulled into the nearest service station, a Shell. Despite what they’ve been up to ... [More]
What’s the deal with those little car licence plates? Particularly on big cars which have plenty of space for normal licence plates. I seem to see them a lot on SS Commodores and 4WDs. Surely the point of licence plates is to make cars easily identifiable, in which case allowing smaller plates where they’re not ... [More]
What “Keep left” sign? Whatdyamean, “Keep Left”? Tram stop? What tram stop? It doesn’t apply to me. I’ll go where I want. (Sorry about the pic quality.)
With Easter almost upon us, the usual people are complaining in advance about how the price of petrol will shoot up when hordes of people take to the roads for the long weekend, with the oil companies mysteriously wanting to cash-in. Well, duh. What do you expect? This is how the free-market economy works. And ... [More]
Bullbars have a legitimate use in some rural areas, where threats such as kangaroos and other wildlife can do significant damage to a car and its occupants. In urban areas though, they’re a menace, significantly increasing the chances of injury and death to other car occupants, cyclists and pedestrians. Given that 90 percent of 4WDs ... [More]
Insurance companies are talking about reducing insurance premiums for people who don’t drive much, on the basis that they’re less likely to have accidents and cause pollution. I’m not sure why insurance companies inherently care about pollution, but bring it on! But hey, I can say that — my average driving in the car has ... [More]
I mean, okay, maybe you need the truck to do whatever work you’re doing in the adjacent shop. But why completely block the footpath with it, forcing people onto the street to get around it? How about finding an actual spot on the street? Irritating enough for able-bodied pedestrians like me. Doubly irritating for people ... [More]
Was away for the weekend in parts of the world you can only get to by road. 275km covered, which is a lot for me, who rarely drives more than 10 minutes in any direction. Thankfully there were four of us in the car, and the conversation made the driving go so much faster and ... [More]