x5 French Driving Habits I won't miss...

Observations formed after a lifetime on the roads: either as a kid passenger as we wore down the tyres across European motorways - or as a licensed road-hazard in the making. Naturally, it would be wrong to stereotype a whole nation based on biased observations. Equally, I recognise that I am no road-angel - although I do try to learn from my wicked ways...

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1. indicators (any) : is it just laziness or arrogance? it seems many French drivers think we can read their minds and fail to indicate their intentions on roundabouts, motorway exits, and other junctions

2. joining a motorway: you clearly were granted a birth right to join a fast-flowing major road, without a care in the World for whoever else is present - just like your other compatriots. Oh, the give-way sign was not intended for you...?

3. exiting a motorway: if you are going to indicate after you have started to move off the motorway (onto the exit gangway), then to be honest I would prefer you do not indicate at all. Your mind is evidently not focused on driving correctly, so I would rather whatever part of your mind is aware that your are driving be focused on road safety. Indicators serve to communicate your driving intentions, it helps the other drivers accommodate your change of speed and/or change of lane/position. On some roads you can use your position in the road to communicate this - but on a motorway, with the higher speeds, it is generally a better habit to indicate some 300 metres before you actually make a move.

4. indicators (overtaking) : ok, you want to overtake - I saw you a long way off and already 'read' your driving style, save yourself the 'tick-tick-tick' sound of your constant indicator. I am at the maximum speed (more, rather than less) and already overtaking, you just have to wait your turn.

5. overtaking (bis) : no, driving up the edge of my bumper will not make me shift out of your way any faster (if anything it might tempt the opposite). I understand very well why your Citroen, Peugeot, and Renault vehicles have so many damaged front wings + why a few drivers might be tempted to touch their brakes (so as to show their brake lights) to frighten you into receding to a safer distance... {such driving habits should not to be condoned, just a shame the road-cops are focused on speeding tickets rather than overall road safely}

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...and I am not suggesting for a moment that these driving habits only exist in France. There are different tendencies that can be observed on the roads across Europe, some better than others... some comical, many downright dangerous.

(I should perhaps add that I am a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, which includes a minimum 90 minute road exam, in the company of an advanced traffic cop examiner...)

Minimum Power - Please

a new home can only mean new projects...

...the shower curtain is installed (it was strange to realise that it was the first time I had installed wall-plugs - a widget that I found rather smart when a little kid)
...get to drill more holes to put up pictures, including our little pleasure from Kenya (await image link)...

surprisingly, we are still awaiting our first bill!
these have tended to be amongst the first items to arrive in the post in previous residences - but not this time, we have a post-redirect service in place - so the first items were actually from our old address. Guess there is still time for the first directly addressed item to be a bill!

Anyway, bills to services - and in particular energy. We only have electricity to pay for in our new home - this is a good thing in light of all the price increases. The budgeted monthly cost for electricity alone is 45 Euros. We will see if we can sustain a lower usage rate...

Now to the gadget/tech part! a few months ago some friends at Hursley included me in a collective initiative to deploy a monitoring tool: Current Cost. Eventually data may be published online (and form part of a wider home automation project), but for now we wish to see if the accurate recording and displaying of usage can influence our behaviour in our use of electronic devices at home.

A few initial remarks. The monitor has two parts, a display and a current meter. The data exchange between the two is achieved via wireless communication. Configuration is simple, and we soon had the device displaying Euro/cent values (instead of Pounds Sterling/pence), plus had entered peak/off-peak values. The meter itself was a little more tricky to install, but only because the electrician who set-up the mains electricity box (and mains meter unit) had protected the cables - and the space to introduce the clip/jaw was rather limited. Perhaps there will be a need to review this 'jaw point' : as it does not quite surround the live wire (this explains the slightly erratic data feed). It would seem that our energy supplier permits us to select the hours we wish as our designated '8 hours of off-peak use' (yet more info here). Perhaps this will be more obvious once I spend more time on the EDF.fr website!

...we have already changed the light bulbs for ones which are more energy efficient. We don't have a TV, but do have a small washing machine - the usage will most likely be timed to coincide with the off-peak hours. The hot water also needs to be configured to match the off-peak hours. The end game: reduce our energy cost - both financial and our personal footprint.

Time to open up...

...and let the tide rush in

Well, for a number of months I have been a 'blogger in hiding' - allowing only authorised readership. There was a justification for this. Indeed, at first I used the entries to record private&confidential TODO lists! these lists have been re-written or removed, together with other incriminating data, so that I now wish to liberate access - and return to the way it should be... just me, and whoever cares to pop by

I seem to recall that when I last had 'open access', the track map feature indicated that within a few hours people in Holland, Thailand - and two well known corporate locations in the USA, had viewed the site. From a message received the next day, it was clear that one of those hits was from a bot - which did an impressively fast job at context assessment. Now to see what happens...


...and to also allow comments from OpenID users

YouTube : the ones you should not miss

Top spot for YoutTube views, plus top spot for being marked as 'favourite'...

#1 - The Evolution of Dance, by comedian Judson Laipply


#2 and #3 are professional productions for singers, you can find out about them here - I don't care to offer more publicity for them...

#4 - great guitar work... with Queen-like moments