A trip to the Peak District

My Wife and I got some ‘me’ time last weekend.  Before marriage and kids we used to enjoy going to the National Parks for some long walks.  So it was a real treat to ‘dispatch’ the kids, and trot off to the Peak District. 

However, something happened that has been nagging away at me since, troubling me even – that occurred on the very first day.

You see, we have just updated our family car just a week or so before, and because my Wife uses it to travel to her work, all except a token 5 minute drive when she brought it home on the first day, I’ve not driven it.  I appreciate that might come as a little surprising given my job, and given the fact I’m a “bloke”, but honestly, cars really really don’t interest me.  Don’t get me wrong, I can stare in awe at a photograph of a nice Merc, or Audi or such like as good as the rest, but I’m not “interested” in it.  The thought of seeing F1 completely switches me off – I’d rather have a nice round of golf.  So what I’m getting at is that when we loaded up the other day, I kind of fell into a bit of a time warp trap that I had not expected at all.

Despite the fact that our previous family car was a Ford (I hate Fords) it did have some nice touches about it like the wipers used to come on automatically at a rate that matched the amount of rain.  It had leather seats that could be warmed/chilled.  The central mirror could automatically detect someone dazzling you from behind and deal with that unrequested.  You get the gist, it was how can I say...... a little bit like a favourite Uncle – very friendly, very reliable, and a pleasure to be around – but you wouldn’t necessarily want to live the rest of your life with him.

So there I am finding myself in the driving seat of this new car that I’m not familiar with; it seems to have a lower seating position, and the seat seems to ‘wrap’ round you, and it has more knobs and techie things than you can possibly imagine.  Coupled with that, for a birthday present I had received Pete Tong’s latest Ibiza compilation on my iPhone and before I had realised this new car didn’t have a conventional handbrake, my Wife had plugged my phone in and up on the dash is the track listing of my new album, that instantly gets turned on.  Hmmmmm..... all very nice, but all very.... different.

The stereo was phenomenal, and before I know it, my Wife has bluetoothed our phones in and she is making calls after she has tapped in our destination so the in-built Sat Nav is kicking in – both of those functions occurring seamlessly with the music fading in and out correspondingly.  Oh boy.... it would seem things have moved on!

So I’m trying to figure out getting the cruise control settings done, whilst also getting my head around the fact that this thing has got 6 gears, as well as coming to terms with the fact that it has so much more zip and power than the previous family car.  But after about an hour I’d guess, I was beginning to feel a bit more comfortable.

We found ourselves approaching the Peak District on an A road, with national speed limits and we were about 5 cars down of a stream of about 30 sat behind a car way up ahead doing between 40 and 50.  After a while you begin to see a pattern to someones driving, I noticed that when the vision altered in any way, the driver in the lead car was slowing to between 40 and 45 depending on the severity.  When the vision opened up again, he’d make his way slowly back up to about 50.  Not such a big deal for us, we are in no hurry at all, but for Friday evening commuters (and clearly for the driver of the BMW in front of us with 4 exhausts), this was quite obviously infuriating!  But what could he do?  It was one lane in each direction, and overtaking would have been really hairy on the A617.  

Anyhow, what happened next was surprising to me and very uncharacteristic.  We eventually find ourselves on the A38 and being late rush hour on a Friday night, people were generally not really giving two hoots about the many very large speed signs that were up.  So I found myself doing 30 on an approach to some lights controlling a large crossroads, when I spot this vehicle approaching fast from behind, doing a very late overtake of me at about 50-60 I would guess on the approach to these red lights – not a great combination really.  I came off gas, and this vehicle flew passed just zipping back in to avoid a rather high kerbed concrete island – it was not great.  We then come on to a large roundabout, and unbeknown to us all, there is a car broken down on the roundabout that is forcing the vehicles in that lane to readjust lanes.  As I began to do just that, this vehicle to my right (yes it is the same one), speeds right up effectively closing the gap to block me off, and we then had a 30 second pantomime of ‘chest thumping’ using our cars to display our might.  It was bad for lots of reasons.  Not least as there I am, going off for a relaxing weekend when I imagine the driver of the other vehicle has at least got the ‘excuse’ of being a legitimate commuter.   Later in the evening, I brought the subject up with my Wife, and she said how it had surprised her that I had reacted as I had.

 

And considering that this is my work, it does expose a shortcoming in my driving ability or at least mental attitude.  I’ve been thinking about it on and off all weekend.  I wonder how much of it is to do with the fact that I found myself driving a car more powerful than I’d driven for a while – and whether that sparked off any memory of very old driving styles.  I wonder how much of it was related to reacting to a driver who had by then directly demonstrated twice to me how ‘not to drive’.... and I was unwilling to continue allowing this person to play Russian roulette with our safety.  I don’t know.  I will need to give it some more thought.  I literally can’t remember the last time I have responded to another persons poor driving like this.  

The text book answer is that our own driving and mental attitude has to be adaptable enough to accommodate whatever poor driving occurs around us, so that we continue on our way, unflappable, with no emotional angst towards any other...... best I start reflecting on my own driving some more then!

 

Either that or only potter about in my little 1.1L Driving School car.