xcel
10-20-2008, 07:06 AM
Struggles with the reality of modern driving. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article4961715.ece)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/I-5_and_I-10_junction_in_Los_Angeles.jpgStuart Prebble – UK Times – Oct. 19, 2008
California commuters enjoying the daily grind at the I-5/I-10 junction.
Leave it to a Brit to tell us what we enjoy and how we are not enjoying it in standard British prose :) -- Ed.
There is no individual area of our lives where the contrast between the expectation and the delivery is so great as in driving. I know it’s a big claim. God knows there are enough areas where as kids we Grumpies thought life was going to be wonderful and it has turned out to be s***, but I genuinely believe that we’re going to be able to justify this lofty statement about the whole business of driving.
For boys in particular it is part of our DNA. We are preoccupied with cars from the word go. Just about 10 seconds after we can say “mumma” boys are charging about the place and making the noise of screaming tires as they go around corners, arms contorting as they grapple with the virtual steering wheel, just barely coping with the centrifugal force produced by swerving, and adjusting their voice boxes to differentiate the squealing sound of going around a sharp bend from the related but distinctive sound of skidding to a halt…
What we got was the chance to sit and simmer, breathing in the stench of exhaust fumes, listening to the cacophony of the ugly urban sprawl that is the real soundtrack to our lives, surrounded by angry drivers, being ordered about by bad-tempered traffic cops, and just thinking: “S***, s*** and s*** again.” … http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article4961715.ece
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/I-5_and_I-10_junction_in_Los_Angeles.jpgStuart Prebble – UK Times – Oct. 19, 2008
California commuters enjoying the daily grind at the I-5/I-10 junction.
Leave it to a Brit to tell us what we enjoy and how we are not enjoying it in standard British prose :) -- Ed.
There is no individual area of our lives where the contrast between the expectation and the delivery is so great as in driving. I know it’s a big claim. God knows there are enough areas where as kids we Grumpies thought life was going to be wonderful and it has turned out to be s***, but I genuinely believe that we’re going to be able to justify this lofty statement about the whole business of driving.
For boys in particular it is part of our DNA. We are preoccupied with cars from the word go. Just about 10 seconds after we can say “mumma” boys are charging about the place and making the noise of screaming tires as they go around corners, arms contorting as they grapple with the virtual steering wheel, just barely coping with the centrifugal force produced by swerving, and adjusting their voice boxes to differentiate the squealing sound of going around a sharp bend from the related but distinctive sound of skidding to a halt…
What we got was the chance to sit and simmer, breathing in the stench of exhaust fumes, listening to the cacophony of the ugly urban sprawl that is the real soundtrack to our lives, surrounded by angry drivers, being ordered about by bad-tempered traffic cops, and just thinking: “S***, s*** and s*** again.” … http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article4961715.ece