Rant 349 14/12/12 Subject: No provision for ice

Rant number 349

I think that I pretty much articulated just how bloody cold it was yesterday.

Like, really - balls meeting your kidneys cold.

Well certainly by English standards anyway.

The truth of the matter is though - that to countries such as Russia, yesterday was pretty bloody balmy. Hell - to them, it was practically beach weather.

Which is why today was a bit of a farce.

The roads and pavements across this area were not gritted or salted overnight - despite the temperatures that meant black ice was an almost certainty. As such - not surprisingly. Things were fucking chaotic.

It took me around quarter of an hour to hack through the ice on my car (I broke my ice scraper!) - eventually resorting to a combination of de-icer and warm water. I then drove to work slowly and carefully - leaving a clenched indent of my bottom on the seat - because things were bloody foggy, bloody icy and thus a bit bloody worrying.

And most irritatingly - quite preventable.

Our local council have today announced that they are going to buy all of the councillors iPads to work on - which is going to cost a great deal of money - but save us money in the long run apparently (does anyone smell that male cow poo?)

But yet they spend nothing on gritting the roads so that people won't be injured in this weather? Cockends.

Surely - its a false economy to skimp on these things. Grit is cheap - but medical care is expensive. It also effects businesses and employees - who cannot get to work or transport their goods.

The news readers this morning for instance said 'only travel if absolutely necessary.' To some, it may not be necessary to go to work in this weather (like the councillors for instance?) To me - its a bloody necessity because I don't get paid if I don't get there.

It just goes to show that people at even the local council level are useless, self serving cunts who don't give a shit about you or I.

Bastards!

Rant over.

Rant 335 30/11/12 Subject: The Dawn of December

Rant number 336

After 11 tough bloody months - its time for December. Despite my best efforts - I may add.

Although I'm not terribly given to hating months particularly - there is much that I find contemptible about December.

Point 1) December is bloody cold. Scraping off my car, traffic chaos, dangerous roads, dangerous pavements.

Point 2) December is bloody dark and miserable. You never see the sunlight and even if you do its greyer than an octogenarians hair.

Point 3) Its got Christmas in it. This means that there is endless bloody Christmas adverts, band jobs for me to do - and various other reasons to be miserable.

Its been too short a year so far to be whacking december on anyway. I don't want to start the whole miserable cycle of optimism, realisation and eventual acceptance all over again. Its a pain in the ass.

Why do these things have to come round so soon!

Rant over.

Rant 27 - 27/1/12 Subject: Weather chaos

Rant number 27


I know, I know.


I'm sorry


but


An Englishman is about to talk about the weather


At least its taken 27 rants to get here hey?

Actually, its not a rant about the weather - so nah... The rant is about the chaos that it causes.

The reason that people across the world say that us British talk about the weather so much, is because they don't have any to talk about. It's just jealousy really.

Because we have lots and lots of weather! Mostly rain I grant thee, but we do get some other stuff too.

Today was a day with a lot of weather. I left the house in the morning to clear sky's, arrived at work to heavy rain and drove home in heavy snow - which is where the chaos comes in.

Because - for a country where it consistently snows every winter (albeit very lightly) we just can't deal with it.
At non rush hour times, my journey home takes around 20 minutes. Double this in rush hour to 40 minutes (pain in the ass already.)

Today it took nearly an hour and a half, just because there was a small shower of snow on a well gritted, well lit road. That I could not see:
A: the reason for obstruction at any point
B: any snow after the first 5 minutes

is what annoyed me.

Even as I left the motorway, the queue extended off into the distance - to god knows where.

What I want to know is - as a country, why can't we just well, deal with it?

We know that every winter it will be cold, that there will be ice & snow, fog & rain, hail & wind.
But all of these things seem to come to a massive surprise to everyone.

Are some people just unable or unwilling to drive with any intelligence as soon as there is a little precipitation? All around the world, people get it worse than us - and they seem to carry on so much better than us!

In Russia for instance, it snows heavily for half a year and goes into minus temperatures. The country does not stop dead because a couple of snow flakes have fallen onto someone's bonnet or onto the train-tracks.

We need to realise that the weather isn't going anywhere, and come up with a way to deal with it!

Rant over.