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]-
net.net...
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:IcoBc.1349$6e.12120131@news-
text.cableinet.net...
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
