Preparedness for when

elona

My DDs used to cringe when I pointed out that joggers with earphones, cyclists with same and people who were crossing a busy city street texting and with earpieces on were disabling themselves and making themselves helpless.

The neighbours cherry blossom is billowing across our back garden like pink snow and is so pretty. I can gawp for ages when the field opposite has pedigree cattle in it and there is a good clear view over the Ings.

Have got most of the arrangements made for DH's funeral next weekend and have family here so going to offer breakfast before the vicar visits later this morning. Taking DDs to cinema this afternoon as a break for them from arranging things to help me.
I am so lucky in having them.

jk0

I almost had an accident on Thursday turning into my drive. It is on the right of the road, so I have to cross the opposing traffic. As I was slowing to turn I became aware of something traveling fast on the right hand pavement in the same direction as me.

Fortunately I looked, and saw a bicycle tearing along. I braked hoping to God that the guy behind me stopped in time. In the end the bike stopped in time.

I'm sure I would be deemed partly at fault if there had been a crash.

GreyQueen

thriftwizard wrote: »

We were sizing up a market that we're thinking of trading at recently, and I was watching potential customers walking across the magnificent cobbled medieval market square, surrounded by gracious trees & half-timbered jettied buildings, and only about one in ten of them showed any awareness at all of their surroundings! And it wasn't as though they were all used to them; some had just clambered out of tour coaches, but it was clearly more important to update their "status" than to actually look around them. Bizarre...

And worrying. They'll trot round the stalls & take pictures on their i-Phones, and exclaim with delight at how quaint & beautiful it all is, but actually buy anything? I'm not sure...

I see this in the city centre here. This is a small, mostly-medieval centre with more history than you can shake a stick at, and much of it is picturesque. If you're in the right place at the right time, you can even watch articulated lorries squeezing past corners with jettied timber buildings on them, which is always a challenge - passers-by sometimes give the successful drivers a round of applause.

But all too many people are so fascinated with their phones that they are oblivious to much of their environment. Such a shame. Their holiday memories will be a series of selfies of them gurning in front of statues and other landmarks, including things they have climbed onto and are in the process of damaging in order to get that essential shot.

One of the sorriest examples of location-blindness I have ever witnessed didn't actually involve i-phones, being about 12 years ago. I was on an excursion boat on Milford Sound in New Zealand.

You do not get onto that boat without a considerable amount of effort and expense. You will first have to make your way by plane to NZ, then get to the west coast of the south island, an area called Fiordland, which is a temperate rain forest. It's very remote, and has few roads. You get to Milford Sound on a twisty road, or off the long-distance Milford Track walking trail, there isn't even a village there.

Why do people do this? Because Milford Sound is one of the most stunning bits of the natural world. Don't take my word for it, check these images out: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=milford+sound&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=9rdNVZXpF9CQ7Abvl4KgCw&ved=0CD4QsAQ&biw=1024&bih=615

Bearing all of the above in mind, I was astonished and saddened to see tourists on this excursion boat sitting downstairs in the cabin for the whole trip, drinking coffee, reading newspapers or even sleeping..............!

People, one day the lights will go out for you permanantly, and you missed one of the wonders of the world in order to read the equivalent of the Daily Wail?!

elona

GQ

Those pictures are stunning and must be even more incredible in reality.

GreyQueen

elona wrote: »

GQ

Those pictures are stunning and must be even more incredible in reality.

Yes, it is truly stunning, like being in the world at the dawn of time. If you have an ounce of soul, you well up.

I also went to another, even more remote place nearby, called Doubtful Sound. We sat on a catamaran on the edge of the ocean with dolphins frolicking around us and fur seals on a neaby islet. Our captain asked is to be silent, and listen to the silence.

People did. We were literally at the edge of the inhabited world. People get lost out there, lost as in never-even-find-their-bodies lost. It's awesome, in the literal sense of the word. I saved for 20 years for my NZ trip and I regret nothing I didn't buy to make it possible.

Karmacat

Oh my word, GQ ... that's really something. I'm not surprised you well up.

elona wrote: »

Have got most of the arrangements made for DH's funeral next weekend and have family here so going to offer breakfast before the vicar visits later this morning. Taking DDs to cinema this afternoon as a break for them from arranging things to help me.
I am so lucky in having them.

Elona, hope you're doing okay, thats still a *long* time to wait - I'm really glad you've got your DDs there.

thriftwizard wrote: »

We were sizing up a market that we're thinking of trading at recently, and I was watching potential customers walking across the magnificent cobbled medieval market square, surrounded by gracious trees & half-timbered jettied buildings, and only about one in ten of them showed any awareness at all of their surroundings! And it wasn't as though they were all used to them; some had just clambered out of tour coaches, but it was clearly more important to update their "status" than to actually look around them. Bizarre...

And worrying. They'll trot round the stalls & take pictures on their i-Phones, and exclaim with delight at how quaint & beautiful it all is, but actually buy anything? I'm not sure...

They miss such a lot of what's around them by doing that and yes, that has to have an effect on the traders too. I got sucked into that *once* - at an impromptu dance during a convention, and a friend was urging me to take a photo of it. I didn't get time to take the photo, and I missed the dance because I was faffing about with my camera at her request. Lesson learned ...

ivyleaf

Thanks so much for your posts GQ, and especially for the lovely pics of Milford Sound, which brought back happy memories of an astonishingly wonderful trip xx

moneyistooshorttomention

jk0 wrote: »

I almost had an accident on Thursday turning into my drive. It is on the right of the road, so I have to cross the opposing traffic. As I was slowing to turn I became aware of something traveling fast on the right hand pavement in the same direction as me.

Fortunately I looked, and saw a bicycle tearing along. I braked hoping to God that the guy behind me stopped in time. In the end the bike stopped in time.

I'm sure I would be deemed partly at fault if there had been a crash.

I think you may be wrong on that - fortunately:)

You were presumably legally entitled to cross over the pavement in your car into your drive. Unless it was a joint pedestrian/cyclist footpath then that cyclist was not legally entitled to use it. Surely all you would have had to do was point out you were "legal", he was "illegal" and you would be in the clear?

I only found out this week that my supposition that "pedestrians come first" and motorists are responsible for watching out for pedestrians, rather than vice-versa, on the type of narrow country roads that don't have any pavements is legally (as well as morally) correct:D.

I've had it on good authority that the legal position on those country roads is that, as pedestrians were in existence before cars, then pedestrians have legal precedence and the car-drivers must watch out for the pedestrians. You wouldn't think so - judging by the number of car-drivers that seem to think pedestrians should watch out for them/flatten themselves against the hedges for them - but, fortunately, the law is the "right way round" on this as to who is the one having to take care.

I thought that must be the case and I would be able to sue any car-driver/report them to the police that hit me if I was walking along a pavement-less road like that. It wouldn't make up for them having hurt me obviously - but it would be good to know I could make sure they got "hit in the pocket"/told off for breaking the law for doing so.

Hence I wouldn't mind betting the law would cover you, but not that illicit pavement cyclist.

the_cake

Greetings preppers - I have been away doing election stuff for the past 48 hours, good to be back ... I was a poll clerk in a local village hall, great experience, we had an 86% turnout - fantastic! Being a small village, it was also a very sociable experience, lots of chatting. We also welcomed three dogs (they didn't vote) but sadly not a goat on a lead, as happened to a friend who was clerking in an even more rural polling station. I then went in to be a counting assistant the following day, counting for the local parish and county elections. Turnout overall was really good; I had a go at my nephew (who is in his mid-thirties) for not voting, and managed to persuade him to do so; whatever one's opinion of politicians, the alternative to democracy is a lot worse, I reckon. I'm obviously not enthused by the result, but it's still pretty inspiring to see democracy in action, and the great care taken to ensure the safety and secrecy of the voting system. So today I am knackered, and aiming to have a quiet day in the garden which, I am happy to report, is heaving with bees, in particular the Golden Hornet crab apple tree, which is still awash with blossom, despite the recent winds. I will grow as much as I can this year; every year I learn more and more about it and get a little better at it - a lifetime's very enjoyable work! I was, however, taken by surprise at finding the seedlings on my kitchen windowsill (basil and coriander) had been attacked by a big black slug - bleurgh, must have attached itself underneath the seed tray last time I put them out. It has, of course, been a-salted, and lives no more.

meanmarie

GQ.....thank you for sharing those wonderful photos, not sure that I have enough time left to see more of New Zealand than the 8 hours we spent in Auckland airport in 1997 en route from Australia to Japan.....maybe squeeez the cents a bit more.......

Marie