I suspect that most comments on the correlation (usually inverse) between
driving skills and flags are tongue in cheek...
HOWEVER,
I did hear on the radio the other day someone phone in to say that the flags
should be banned because they scared her horse!
As a cyclist living in a rural area I've been used to getting less respect
and consideration than horse riders from drivers, and am relatively happy
with that because horses are daft, and the riders do have further to fall.
I've often wondered whether it was also down to us being a nation of animal
lovers, or more to do with the perception that a horse could do a lot more
damage to the motor!
Then again, I've seen horses spooked by such threatening articles as an
empty black bucket in the ditch (and come galloping down the road and nearly
flatten me on my bike as a result), and that, together with the lady on the
radio's expectation that everybody should modify their behaviour to
accommodate her mount's psychological frailties, sets me to thinking whether
we expect too little from horse riders. Are their mounts fit for purpose, or
even roadworthy? When horses were used as a genuine method of transport, I
believe they were chosen for their temperament, reliability, utility etc.
Nowadays the roads round here have horses on them which are the equine
equivalent of a Formula One car, and about as temperamental. Now of course
it wouldn't be legal to drive an F1 car on the road, but I'm not suggesting
that there should be construction and use regs for horses, just wondering
aloud whether the horse lobby should educate themselves and their horses
better on the subject of road use.
Perhaps, also, there might be a way getting the same respect for cyclists.
Anyone for taping a fluffy kitten to the carrier? ;-)
"Vivian" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:I've seen a few messages from people here about the subject of England
flags
Quoted message said:in cars. What is the problem exactly? I can't believe that anybody can be
bothered about that. I even saw a message of somebody calling a driver a
[censored] b/c he had a flag on the window of the car? I just don't get it.
There's a big football tournament going on, and whether you like football
or
Quoted message said:not (I get the impression that the majority of cyclists don't like
football.
Quoted message said:WHY?), what's wrong with showing support for your team? And you know
what's
Quoted message said:the greatest thing? Here in London I see Asian kids wearing the England
shirt and black drivers waving the St George's flag on the roof of their
cars. As a foreigner, I find that such a possitive attitude. It never
occured to me to make a relation between the flag thing and the quality of
the driving!
I don't think I need to tell anyone this, but not all drivers showing
support for England are football hooligans. They are just football fans,
happy that England is getting through to the finals.
So, good luck for tonight against Portugal.
COME ON ENGLAND!
--
Vivian
-------
"We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in
school".
Quoted message said:No Surrender
"Velvet" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Well, was a little surprised by this, but...
Whilst we were out cycling on sat from home to east grinstead (first
half was most unpleasant - mostly my mental state/mood I think but just
didn't feel part of the bike, tense, nervous, etc - but the second half
things improved vastly and I was happily whooshing down nice sweeping
downhills etc), we were overtaken by three cars in rapid succession.
One and two passed rather closer than they might, and cut back in fairly
close. The third gave plenty of room all round as it passed, though did
then look to be attempting to climb into boot of car preceding it!
Out of the three, we were a bit suprised to note that it was the one
that overtook with plenty of room to spare which had the twin ingerland
mini-flags flying from the rear windows...
Just goes to show that the rule doesn't hold for all instances :-)
Oh, and something else to note: I now have a heart rate monitor that has
altitude, and it seems I'm not the only one to have invested in a
height-aware new toy, t'other half (unknown to me at the time) has
ordered a GPS too (ostensibly to be able to save time spent looking at
maps when cycling through unfamiliar areas)...
Surely nothing to do with them that say there's no hills[1] in
cambridgeshire (though in my case that was just a handy frill - I wanted
to be able to download the data to the PC and graph my HR over a longer
ride to see how it changes in ability to recover after hills[1] once
I've been out there for an hour or two)... *grin*
So far very impressed with the ability to look back over a ride and
compare how it felt at the time with what the heart was doing, in a
number of different places. Have already realised that doing this for a
ride of more than 30-60 mins is a LOT of info to look at, but the
ability to get the resolution on a small stretch is very helpful.
[1] - feel free to *mentally* substitute your own descriptive word for a
range of contours you may or may not have cycled, but just don't tell me
my description's wrong, ta very much :-P
--
Velvet
