Driving test petition

If you're not interested in the motorcycling content of this blog (and why would you be, you're normal, aren't you?), please read a little further anyway, as this concerns everyone who has an interest in road safety.


Motorcycles are very different from cars, which is why some of us are so fond of them as a mode of transport.  On the positive side, they are generally much more agile and manoeuvrable, a lot quicker off the mark, and cheaper to run than a car.  Riding is physical in a way that driving a car isn't, and this physicality is part of the pleasure.  There are numerous negatives: exposure to bad weather, greater vulnerability to poor road surfaces, and of course the risk of much greater injury in the event of an accident.  There are big differences in the way a bike needs to be ridden, as well.  Hard braking on a bike requires skill and practice, whereas in a car most emergencies can be dealt with by mashing the middle pedal and letting the ABS sort it out.  A few bits of gravel, a wet manhole cover or a spot of diesel on a corner might cause a small slide in a car as one wheel out of four loses grip.  On a bike, you're down on your side and heading into the scenery.

Bikers clearly have different needs from the car driver.  We are less easily seen, we fall over a lot more easily, and if we hit, or are hit by, something it causes us a lot more damage.  In the Highway Code we come into the category of 'Road users requiring special care'.  Sections 211 to 213 cover the approach to cyclists and bikers; briefly: look out for them as they are less easily seen, give them room when passing them (!), and be prepared for sudden changes of direction due to changes in the road surface.

All well and good.  So how many questions in the driving test ask for understanding about sharing the road with motorcycles?  Answer: zero.  I think, given that the Highway Code is so clear on the issue, that this is a bit of an anomaly.  Bennetts, the specialist motorcycle insurers, are backing a campaign to get bike-related questions included in the driving test.  There is a petition which, if it reaches 100,000 signatures, will be passed to Parliament for debate.  At present, there are 37,529, so it is well on the way.

If you feel that this would be a good idea, please pop along to www.bikerpetition.co.uk and add your name.  It's not going to cost anything (other than Parliamentary time, and what else would they be doing anyway?), and nobody is going to be compelled to do anything or stop doing anything.  The petition is just asking for a small change in focus in the structure of the driving test to ensure that the needs of motorcyclists are made a little bit more prominent.

If you do go and sign, you have my sincere thanks.

Straight through ...

... with no advisories.


The XT is officially certified as roadworthy for another 12 months.

To celebrate, here's a picture of the little scamp in its natural environment.

Five minutes after this photo was taken, I had to brake to give way to a car on a narrow bridge.  The rain had turned the dirt at the side of the road into greasy mud, and first the front and then the rear of the bike lost grip and started to slide about.  Easing off the brakes and gently re-applying saved the day, but it was a trouser-filling moment for the pilot.  The bike, of course, shrugged it off.  "I'm a dirt bike, you moron.  It's what we do!"

Men of God

I've spent the weekend in Ireland, and have passed a large chunk of the time with my nose between the pages of the Irish Times.  In each day's edition, there are several pages dealing with the monstrous issue of child sexual abuse by priests, and the lack of any meaningful action by the Church authorities when the allegations came to light. In comparison, the matter has hardly been touched on by the British media.  The story, or stories, are truly heartbreaking.

I am not a Christian, but there are many passages from Scripture which strike me as speaking a profound truth about the human condition.  One, which I first read many years ago and which came to mind this weekend, is from Matthew's gospel:

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

I don't like to use the word 'evil', but nothing else comes close to describing the sheer amoral wickedness of it all.  I wonder what Jesus would have done: turned a blind eye to avoid a scandal, or raged in like a hurricane and overturned a few tables?

Oh no, not another dilemma ...

... you must be getting sick of them, ho ho.

The netbook hard drive is dead.  A dodo is alive and well, and in training for an Olympic event, in comparison.  I bought an 'enclosure', which lets me connect the netbook drive to another computer as an external drive, and I have found that my Lidl laptop doesn't even recognise that a drive is there.  Apparently, after much Googling, it seems that either the drive controller is toast or, worse, that the drive itself is damaged and beyond simple surgery.  Either way, to get my data back would involve sending the drive off to a data recovery outfit and paying about £300 and upwards to get the files back.

What have I lost?  About 6 months' worth of photographs.  A record of my weight loss since 1 January.  All the maintenance and fuel records of the bikes.  Microsoft Money files that I had painfully brought up to date after a period of financial neglect.  Backups of this blog.  Nothing earth-shattering or life-changing.  Just a fucking nuisance.  So data recovery is out.  The drive is going in the bin.  But what to do now?

Option 1: the Lidl laptop
It's actually quite a decent machine.  It's still host to some unpleasant scripts (which is why I got the netbook in the first place) which make its behaviour erratic, but as a piece of hardware I can't complain.  Screen's good, keyboard's good, internal stuff seems robust.  Option to back it all up, and then re-install Vista from scratch and carry on.  Cost?  If I can find the original Vista disk, nothing, but that's a major uncertainty.  I've had a complete clearout of the room that had all the computer stuff, and I can't remember seeing it.  So, let's say £60 for a new installation disk.  On a 3-year-old laptop that has wear marks where my wrists have been and a duff battery that means it is mains power or nothing.

Option 2: Resurrect the Netbook
Again, nothing wrong with the hardware.  The screen's covered in spots (do I cough that badly? Jeez) and the keyboard has crumbs under the keys, but nothing that a screen wipe and a vacuum attachment can't sort out.  New drive, £60.  Have an XP disk, so nothing for software, assuming I can get it to load (yes, I have invested in a USB CD drive).  Upside - very portable, neat little machine that performs way above what it looks as if it can do.  Holidays, bike trips, pop it in a tankbag and you have the internet anywhere there is a wifi hotspot.  Battery life is awesome - 6-7 hours at the last count.  Metallic blue cover looks pretty good too.  Downside - I don't think I ever used it where I could not have taken a full-size laptop quite easily.  And I got really fed up of looking at the World Wide Wait through that letterbox of a screen.  And the wifi card was really poor - signal 'very low' even within sight of the router.  And the keyboard was tiny, and most of my typing time was spent back-deleting errors because my man-size fingers couldn't cope with the My First Computer key spacing.

Option 3: Lash out on a New Laptop
Cost £250 and upwards.  Windows 7, speed, modernity, pleasure of a new toy.

Decisons, decisions.  I have actually found an OEM Vista disk (thanks, Anna), so Option 1 is becoming more realistic (especially in view of the forthcoming France trip and the previous post regarding reduced pay).  But your thoughts, as ever, would be welcome.

Incidentally, huge thanks to commenter Ripper, who has been extremely helpful in talking me through the diagnostics on the dead hard drive and the mechanics of resurrecting the machine.  Cheers, mate, much appreciated.

My contribution to the Recession ...

The last six months have been fairly crappy from a work point of view.  I said a while ago that things were getting awkward, but I didn't go into any detail.  This was mainly because I know that my employers (or, rather, the marketing people) review the web regularly for business reasons, and if anyone had accidentally found that I was writing about work issues here I suspect it would not have gone in my favour.  Unlikely, given that I have never mentioned the name of my employer, but possible.  In a company where 'being negative' is a disciplinary issue, if I had been found letting fly with what I was really feeling I would have been down the Job Centre within the half hour.  We were in 'negotiations' and it seemed good judgement to keep a little bit schtumm about the situation.  Now, things seem to be resolving themselves, everyone's a bit happier, and life can go on.

What happened was this: the company is in a fairly desperate position financially, and the backers have started to lose patience and insist on real economies, especially on the payroll side of things.  Our 4-on/4-off rota system was deemed to be inefficient and wasteful, and we were told that we would be doing fewer hours, on a 5-on/2-off system, and with half the staff.  For me and the other supervisory staff, this would have meant a pay cut of around 2k per year, and a shift system that was chaotic and unpredictable.  Out of the nine of us, seven put in a formal grievance.  In my case, it was clear - I was contracted, in writing and signed on both sides, to work a 4/4 shift pattern and to be paid £x per year.  Any variation on that had to be agreed by both sides - and I didn't agree.  I joined Unite (holding my nose to do so, I must admit) and had their support during a series of meetings.

I'll say this now, and say it fairly and clearly - the Unite rep was supportive to me and combative with my employers (in a way that I would not have been), but throughout his contribution was for fairness and justice, and I was grateful for it.  None of this 'evil capitalist bosses' stuff - just a focus on my contract and my reasonable expectations from my employment.  I was very glad to have him there.

The next communication frm On High was that the matter had been referred back to the Board for 'further discussion'.  My guess is that they realised that they would have been marmalised if the matter had gone to court, and thought better of it.  The next proposal was different, and more in line with employment law.  We were all offered redundancy, or the opportunity to apply for new jobs, which were quite different from the old jobs.  My supervisory position has disappeared, but the 'new job' is surprisingly similar to the old one, only with additional responsibilities.  Heh.  I am now no longer salaried but paid by the hour, but I have kept the 4/4 shift pattern.  My pay will be cut by about £1,300 a year rather than £2,000, and I will be paid for additional hours worked, instead of the old system of Time Off In Lieu (TOIL - ho bloody ho).  I work only nights now, and there's a lot more to do; but if it's not a victory, at least it is less of a defeat.

However, the great thing from my point of view is the relief from the endless discussion.  Every shift from start to finish, and every time different teams met during handovers, all we talked about was The Situation.  Some guys have left to other employment, and the real 'negatives' have all taken redundancy, and what is left is a core of fairly good guys who just want to get on with it.  It's actually quite refreshing.  Last night I worked with a guy I haven't worked with before, and we talked about religion and death, amongst other things.  Quite a change.  I have enjoyed the last round of nights, although being out and about rather than supervising from the office means less opportunity to crank up the blog and say something irrelevant and pointless on a company computer.

Anyway, that's me: a bit poorer, a bit demoted, but still in work.  We're in a recession and I have taken a hit, but that's how it is, and I have vanishingly little sympathy for anyone in the public sector who bleats about how they haven't had a pay rise this year.  YOU HAVE A JOB AND A PENSION, FOLKS and there are plenty who don't have either.

All right, I am off to Ireland tomorrow for a few days, to sample the pleasures of a fabulous step-daughter and her family, a few pints of the black stuff, and the nutty but wonderful hospitality of the Irish people.  And no netbook - it is DEAD.  So communications will be minimal if not non-existent for the weekend.  See you after the jump.

And have a good one.