Grannymar

Yes I am leaving home…. for a few days only.*

Where did I leave my car?

The time has come to inspect the new Love Nest. Elly & George are on the move to their new home. The measuring tape is packed and ready with the pencil and pad to take exact details of the windows. Designs and materials will be discussed before purchasing the fabric, once bought and paid for, it will be passed along to keep me quiet for the next few weeks.

Travelling always makes me think of my safety and how I will react to the everyday situations and pressures on the road.

Am I getting old?

Reflexes slowing down?
As far as I remember, the ‘Rules of the Road’ driving manual states the average driver’s reaction time is:
.75 seconds -or- 1 car length for every 10 mph…

Test your reaction time with this special test.

I am a Bobbing bobcat!

Do You think I’ll make it.

*Access to Internet may be interrupted for the few days. Enjoy the peace but don’t give up hope, I will come back!

I hear the birds in the South of Ireland are chattering Post Codes once more. Let their music not fade into oblivion like a one hit wonder, but rise with a great crescendo to completion of the task. Postcodes are very handy. I know because I have one. Way up here in the cold and often forgotten part of the UK, are many towns and villages with a prefix of ‘Bally’. I live in one of them. Back in the days before we had post codes our mail took the tourist and scenic route via Ballycastle. Now with a Post code such detours are avoided.

Nowadays all my outgoing mail has a return address of my last name, house number and post code. I have in fact received Christmas Cards from the United States of America addressed to that return address. If for any reason I need to phone my bank or any utility company they ask first for my postcode and then the house number and finally ask me to verify my name. When travelling my luggage tags have only this return address.

Northern Ireland was the last part of the UK to be postcoded with all postcodes here beginning BT, a mnemonic of the capital city’s name. While Belfast was already divided into postal districts, rural areas known as townlands posed an additional problem, as (at the time) many roads were not named, and houses were not numbered. Consequently, many people living in such areas shared the same postal address, which is still the custom in the Republic of Ireland. Today the majority of roads in Northern Ireland are named with the odd exceptions in Co Fermanagh and most houses (even in rural areas) are allocated a number. Those that are not allocated numbers can be uniquely identified by a house name. An example is Bushmills, which begins with BT57.

The format of UK postcodes is generally:

A9 9AA

A99 9AA

A9A 9AA

AA9 9AA

AA99 9AA

AA9A 9AA

where A signifies a letter and 9 a digit. It is a hierarchical system, working from left to right — the first letter or pair of letters represents the area, the following digit or digits represent the district within that area, and so on. Each postcode generally represents a street, part of a street, or a single premises. This feature makes the postcode useful to route planning software.

The part of the code before the space is the outward code or out code used to direct mail from one sorting office to the destination sorting office, while the part after the space is the inward code or in code used to sort the mail into individual delivery rounds. The outward code can be split further into the area part (letters identifying one of 124 postal areas) and the district part (usually numbers); similarly, the inward code is split into the sector part (number) and the unit part (letters). Each postcode identifies the address to within 100 properties (with an average of 15 properties per postcode), although a large business may have a single code

wikipedia.org.

The population in the Republic of Ireland are well prepared for this type of system since vehicle registration has worked on a similar vein for several years. Surely incorporating the latter system would make the providing of Postal areas and districts an easier task.

What do you think?

With each day the knees creak a little more, the hip aches and I am now unable to run for a bus. The fact that buses seldom come my way is beside the point. I still drive and the car is my lifeline. What would I do if I had no car It is a topic that to date I have avoided like the plague.

It made me think…. I might find a pair of

Nowadays there are so many contraptions to aid with mobility, I might upgrade to this

I could always call a Taxi…

Mind you if the state of the office is anything like the driving, I might walk.

What am I worried about, sure I have a Son-in-Law and he is a good driver with a nice car. But oh dear!…

Now that will never do so I must dig a little deeper….

Now you are talking. That was just made for me!

Red mum captured this picture last week of a crazy driver having her cereal whilst driving along the Quays in Dublin during morning rush hour traffic.

Then yesterday this arrives by email:

Driving to the office this morning on the M25 (UK) motorway, I looked over to my right and there was a woman in a brand new BMW doing 90 miles per hour with her face up close to her rear view mirror putting on her eyeliner!

I looked away for a couple of seconds and when I looked back she was halfway over in my lane still working on that makeup!

It scared me (and this coming from a bloke….) so much that I dropped my electric shaver, which knocked the bacon roll out of my other hand.

In all the confusion of trying to straighten up the car using my knees against the steering wheel, it knocked my mobile from my ear, which fell into the coffee between my legs, causing it to splash and burn BIG JIM AND THE TWINS, causing me to scream, which made me drop the cigarette out of my mouth, ruined my shirt and

DISCONNECTED AN IMPORTANT CALL!!!

Flaming Women Drivers!!!!!!!

So come on own up, which of my Toyboys was it

We have not officially started the Christmas break and already the Carnage on the roads has begun. The Irish Times starts the ball rolling with with the following piece :

Teenager killed, another seriously hurt in Tipperary crash

A teenager died and another was seriously injured in a crash in Co Tipperary this morning.

The single-vehicle crash happened at 8.05am on the Borrisoleigh Road near Templemore.

One of the men was taken to Nenagh General Hospital but was pronounced dead before arriving. The seriously injured man brought to Limerick Regional Hospital.

Gardaí closed the road, and an investigative team is at the scene. Gardaí are appealing for witnesses to contact Templemore Garda Station on 0504-32630.

Earlier a driver was killed in a two-car collision in Mullingar, Co Westmeath. The crash happened near the Covert at around 6am.

If you intend walking on a pavement, crossing a road or travelling in a car this Christmastide, think of your loved ones, travel carefully and safely. It is better to be late and safe, than never to arrive at all!

Todays Podcast tells the story of what happened on the way to Omagh.

One Sunday morning a neighbour discovered that someone had spray painted red all around the sides of this new Black car. He was very upset and was trying to figure out what to do since nothing was open until Monday morning.

Another neighbour came out and told him to get his WD-40 and clean it off. It removed the unwanted paint without harming the paint job on the car.

Water Displacement #40. The product began from a search for a rust preventative solvent and de-greaser to protect missile parts. WD-40 was created in 1953 by three technicians at the San Diego Rocket Chemical Company. Its name comes from the project that was to find a “water displacement” compound.
They were successful with the fortieth formulation, thus WD-40. The Corvair Company bought it in bulk to protect atlas missile parts.

Here are some of the uses:

1) Protects silver from tarnishing.
2) Removes road tar and grime from cars.
3) Cleans and lubricates guitar strings.
4) Gives floors that ‘just-waxed’ sheen without making it slippery.
5) Keeps flies off cows.
6) Removes lipstick stains.
7) Loosens stubborn zippers.
Removes stains from stainless steel sinks.
9) Removes dirt and grime from the barbecue grill.
10) Removes tomato stains from clothing.
11) Keeps glass shower doors free of water spots.
12) Keeps scissors working smoothly.
13) Lubricates noisy door hinges on vehicles and doors in homes
14) Spraying an umbrella stem makes it easier to open and close.
15) Removes splattered grease on the cooker.
16) Keeps bathroom mirror from fogging.
17) Lubricates prosthetic limbs.
18) Keeps pigeons off the balcony (they hate the smell).
19) Removes all traces of duct tape.
20) Folks even spray it on their arms, hands, and knees to relieve
arthritis pain.

The favourite use in the state of New York - WD-40 protects the Statue of Liberty from the elements.

P. S. The basic ingredient is FISH OIL.

P. P. S. Keep a can of WD-40 in the kitchen. It is good for oven burns or any other type of burn. It takes the burned feeling away and heals with NO scarring.

I have counted my light bulbs. There are 27 of varying types in the house, but don’t forget about the one in the garage, so that makes a total of 28. We are told “Energy saver bulbs typically use around 80% less electricity than normal incandescent bulbs”. They cost a bit more than ordinary light bulbs (about £3.50 each) but they last 12 times longer and could save up to £9 on my annual electricity bill or £100 over the bulb’s lifetime! So making this effort will really make a difference! I can feel justifiably proud of myself.

About six years ago I changed the light fittings in my living room. The central light had three bulbs. One of these bulbs had lasted since the house was built. I know this because it had become completely soldered into the fitting. That means that particular bulb worked for 30 years. So if the new bulbs last 12 times longer I should not have to replace them again for 360 years! I hope I live long enough to find out.

A high powered flashy car has raced passed my window … Now that makes me think….

Today, the average new car has some 14,000 to 15,000 parts and accessories. These parts must fit and work together. They are made by many different companies, in different countries. The workshops are all hi-tech nowadays with robots doing the work of several men. While in the past men used blood, sweat and tears to build the parts and the cars, the robots use electricity. Much more than my measly 28 bulbs worth!

Cars come in all the colours of the rainbow. When finished they have a high gloss shine. How many coats of paint does it take to achieve this effect? The paint is not applied by paint brush, oh no, it is machines yet again doing the work. The fumes given off while one car is sprayed, would I am sure, cause more pollution than my bulbs. Is such a high shine necessary? Travel around Dublin or any city and you will observe many cars that have never been washed since they left the showroom.

New cars are designed to travel faster than all legal speed limits. The higher the speed the more fuel used. I would imagine the faster they travel the more wear and tear on the roads. How do they make the tarmac type surface for the roads? I am sure it causes yet more pollution.

I am not anti motorcar I have taken it as an example. I do drive and own a car. At times it means the difference in my being able to get out and about or being trapped indoor for days on end. I live on a hill and walking down to the town is fine, but walking back up again with shopping is a no-no. For me a car is a necessity and not a luxury.

I suppose if I gave up eating, drinking water and washing my clothes I might save the world!