Day #11 (slightly late) - Does my bum look big in this?

I was so tried yesterday after all that I did, I just couldn't face the idea of posting anything. Readers may have noticed that there are the odd few typo's here and there along with spaces and other things all being in the equation. I like to get things right so it is annoying when I have to spend a lot of time editing and trying to get the text presentable for the general readership. I blame the keyboard.

Anyway, whatever. Yesterday I was lucky enough to be able to get a loan of a van from a good friend to help me continue work here whilst waiting for my own one to get fixed up. There was a time when I would be happy to crawl under a vehicle to do repairs in any weather but at my age now as well with the gyp shoulder I just cannot. This van is already a great help and stuff isn't taking anywhere near as long as it used to in the past. To put it mildly.

One thing that I have noticed - and again - I MUST insist that there is no misogyny in this - but what is it about the ladies that make them such "unique" drivers? The best woman driver I ever encountered was a Japanese lady living in London - she was the girlfriend of a good friend at the time. She drove a BMW - nothing special - quite an old 5 series. She was able to obey all the rules and worked using the "common sense and good manners" technique that I have described in the past. I remember one night when we had to drive from Notting Hill to Brixton one rainy night, she was so confident and capable that I was blown away by her skill. A long time back I had advanced driver training and she struck me as better than my instructor on that course - this was a guy that had taught at the highest levels - Metropolitain Police included. Here in Ireland it is a different story.

Years ago there was a backlog in applications for the driving test - it numbered almost 15,000!!! In a style typical of Ireland at the time, all of those applicants - and this is only in my town and county - were automatically granted full licences without having to do the test. This was the way that the backlog was cleared. Many of these motorists had never even driven before. The knock on effect was that insurance premiums soared and so did accidents. A great deal of these people are still on the road.

One of the tests in the G.A.T.B. (General Aptitude Test Battery) - a sort of occupational IQ test of Canadian origin but used worldwide - is Spatial Awareness and Reasoning. Have you ever noticed how the Spanish and - to an extent, Italian people - have what might be described in Northwest Europe as poor spatial awareness. Anyone that has tried to negotiate their way through a crowd of tourists from these countries will understand what I mean. They folks just seem to be blissfully unaware of the presence of others. It is just a friendly observation and may well be based on cultural orientation than anything else. I heard a diplomat once describe how French people are disposed towards the habit of being closer to another person when speaking with them. This same character said that at diplomatic meetings that involved the French, folks from the UK, Ireland and especially Scandanavia found themselves being inadvertently "herded" into dense packets because of this behavioural phenomena. The spatial awareness ratio differed from culture to culture according to this chap.

Yesterday when I was driving I took a U-Turn and had to reverse. There was a lady in her car behind me - I had seen her but she thought that I had not. As I was reversing I was shocked at the fact that she sounded her horn more than just for a moment of warning - this was an angry burst of sound to communicate her worry/fear that I hadn't seen her. I can understand though - it has happened to us all. What I found surprising was that she then followed me very closely for about another two miles and when I "moved out of her way" on a dual carriageway she then sat with her hand firmly on the horn of her car for at least ten seconds before speeding off. I then watched her drive on, I witnessed her break the rules of the road at least three times before she disappeared out of sight. Speeding, changing lanes without indicating, using the wrong lane to negotiate her exit to another road via a roundabout. She was still right though - she had to be - it was her driving after all. 

If one wants to experience something surprising about spatial awareness then they should try the following experiment whilst driving alone - preferably on a narrow road. It doesn't matter if your vehicle is left or right hand drive. All you have to do is extend your free hand across the length of the passenger seat. toward the window. You will instantly become unsettled as if your hand was about to come into contact with the wall or hedge or other vehicles parked. This is impossible of course as you are INSIDE the vehicle but it can create the impression that you are going to touch the wall/hedge/cars outside.

To see a spatial awareness deficit in action try and watch any driver that will swing out to the opposite side of the 90 degree turn that they are going to make. It is usually about a metre or yard but I believe that this sort of behaviour is an ingrained habit that began early on in the drivers' time on the road. My observations of this are usually of women drivers doing it. It could be a false belief that they think that their car is bigger than it actually is. By extension I think that this is where the whole "Does my bum look big in this?" comes from. Ask any driving instructor about what I have described and it is more than likely that they will agree. There's a right way to drive and I really do wish that more folks did it.

On a final note - I went to the hospital today for my x-rays - no permanent damage or breakage thank goodness. I also saw a physiotherapist and she gave me some therapeutic exercises to do. I'm going to do them and hopefully I will be in better condition physically soon. I am happy about this because there is still a lot to get done here at home. Onward and upward!!! Our often maligned health service performed excellently today. More power to them. They are far more underrated than they should be. That's it for now but have a good day folks and to use that quote from the old TV show "Hill Street Blues" - "Let's be careful out there!".