Bewitched, Bothered, Bewildered

I have to admit I’m rather confused lately, now have the UK road laws changed? Are instructors teaching new methods? Is there some sort of new fad? Or is it, as I suspect, that most people are just being muppets?

Take headlamps for example, lately I’ve encountered a bizarre number of cars travelling around in the pitch dark, middle of the night with absolutely no lights on at all. How do you forget when all you can see is darkness? For those who do remember however there’s the new fad for driving around using fog lamps and side lamps as an alternative to main beams. I’m curious as to why this is as while fog lamps aren’t meant to be dazzling due to being directed at the road, they are high intensity…they’re dazzling no matter what direction they point (Not to mention illegal on clear nights).

The use of headlamps isn’t the only thing that has changed…I’m wondering if someone’s reversed the direction of giving way on roundabouts and just not told me. It is still give way to the right, isn’t it? If so, could someone point that out to the next idiot that cuts me up and gives me a mouthful for daring to approach from the right.

So in short…what changed?

While it’s too soon to say what the new Knight Rider will be like (I’ll have to wait until February 17th to find that out) it hasn’t stopped many fans from discussing it, something which has fired me up to add in my own tuppence worth. Now my first impressions are this; Many Knight Rider fans are plonkers. No, really. However I digress, let’s take this a step at a time.
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I’m finally back once again folks, full from the joys of Christmas and just getting myself ready for this evening’s festivities.

I had to pop on here quickly though for a first…I’m going to embed a YouTube video. Take a moment to wait for the shock of my using new fangled technology, then watch away…

So it appears that the new KITT (Knight Industries Three Thousand) is a Shelby Mustang GT500 and according to the show’s write up, the new KITT’s capabilities include a supercomputer that can hack any known system, a top of the line weapons system, and a body that utilises nanotechnology to change shape and colour at will.

Unsurprisingly, Ford are putting big bucks into this sponsorship deal in the hopes of getting some much needed exposure.

As we broke through the rain shower I assured Sian that the weatherman had forecast us some good weather for our holiday. It was hard to see quite how, after our brief stint at fifty miles and hour with no visibility beyond the car in front, however I was confident of it and as it turns out I had every right to be.

I admit I haven’t done a motorway journey further than Bristol in a very long time and that Bristol journey was hardly the greatest of trips. A bad night of insomnia and a headache meant that the entire thing was nothing but a stretch for me, so I approached our one hundred and seventy mile journey with great trepidation. However a combination of effective use of the cruise control, Sian’s iPod on the radio and her company saw me to Bristol at which point it occurred to me I was doing just fine. We passed a lot of new sights for me on the M4 corridor, it has been so long that the bizarre ‘hat signs’ ( ^ ) painted down the middle of each lane (supposedly you’re meant to make sure you have two between you and the car in front…try telling that to the car behind me,) the incessant contraflows, roadworks and the very first SPECs speed camera system I’ve ever seen were all new to me. It certainly keeps you on your feet, that’s for sure. Except for Specs, that just numbs your brain which I’m sure isn’t healthy for someone in charge of a car.

I believe it was good old Leigh Delamere services we stopped at sometime near the end of our journey. We went looking for facilities and food though we were distracted by a small bout of star-spotting…Aled Jones had walked in behind us and Sian was enthralled watching him shopping in M&S Food. Being my usual observant self, she had to point him out to me quite a few times before I realised who he was but still, at least now I can say I’ve seen him.

We arrived finally and didn’t linger long in the hotel…I was starving! I asked at reception to see if there was anywhere that would do a plain and simple pub lunch for us, expecting to be told the nearest was in Maidenhead (a hint for all of you trying to figure out where our hotel was) however I was directed to The Royal Oak in the heart of Windsor. I was excited about seeing the place again for the first time in so long so we decided to just go straight in and try and find this pub.

We got waylaid though, Windsor really has not changed one bit in the seventeen odd years since I’ve been there and even though I was just a little kid at the time, I remembered my way around well enough to get us to the car park my Mum always used on our last visit. My saying it hasn’t changed a bit is no exaggeration, walking out onto the high street which runs around the outside of the castle I instantly spotted the same McDonald’s I always insisted we go to, which is where we got the idea for food. Right beside McDonald’s was a Wetherspoon’s pub, though a much nicer looking pub than I’m used to. Shops, restaurants and pubs along the high street have for the most part stuck to a certain design style, no doubt due to planning constraints from the council. We were to find out over the weekend that Windsor’s council have a very specific idea of how it’s town should be designed to fit in with it’s Castle and other attractions.

With lunch out the way we decided to go exploring. In my post before we left I mentioned a Madame Tausaud’s for Windsor…this was gone in so far as the waxworks and the exhibition had vanished however the building it was housed in was still here, directly opposite the ‘driveway’ for the castle. What I hadn’t realised before was that this building was in fact a former railway station for the city, which has now been restored with it’s unused rooms now being used by some very classy looking shops. While all of the well known chain stores had found space on a road that lead off the end of the high street, this historically themed shopping centre was full of names I had never heard of but names which obviously commanded a high price tag for their merchandise. At the heart of this shopping centre was my favourite bit of restoration, a beautifully restored steam train sat on the end of the tracks, cordoned off from the rest of us and with a descriptive plaque.

I’m a sucker for style and substance.