I know everyone has somewhere they've got to be, but rules are rules and laws are laws, and I'd really like for everyone to get to their destination with minimal stress and well, erm alive.
I have cruise control on my car and whenever possible - especially on motorways - I set the cruise at the speed limit for that road and as respectfully as I can, make my way from A to B.
I'm not a lane hog, but equally - unlike some vehicles I've seen - I won't weave back and forth from the slow to middle to fast lane repeatedly catching up on lorry after lorry and potentially getting stuck before accelerating like the clappers to pull out again. I like the idea of not increasing the chance of an incident, but more importantly not having to break and reset my cruise... :/
However, should I require use of the fast lane on a three lane motorway, where last I checked the speed limit is indeed still 70 mph, I will not break the speed limit or accelerate past the setting on my car's cruise control in order to overtake. Therefore, any amount headlight flashing, tailgating, gesturing and so on of any vehicle in my rear view mirror that doesn't have flashing blue lights on its roof will not make me get out of the way any sooner than I deem safe, or quite frankly until I am ready.
Some of the 'smart' motorways now have illuminated signs that state 'Be a respectful driver', 'Keep a safe distance', 'Drive to the road conditions'. So those people that ignore the advice either cannot read or maybe they believe they are above the law (we call them VIPs, changing the letters as we see fit for the occasion) or that they're just so good at driving that the rules don't apply to them.
When I first started driving (over ten years ago), I found the manner in which some drivers act on the roads incredibly intimidating and felt I must get out of their way as quickly as possible...
Nowadays, while I am much more capable of ignoring being dazzled, on good days I admit to infrequent (*snort*) cases where my patience is tested and I've been known to gesture back, but I still have journeys where I am tired or indeed not feeling at my mental best and therefore aggressive behaviour from my fellow road users does not a good day make.
A while back some douchebag was sitting right up my bum and there were too many lorries for me to safely pull in. When I thought it was safe I signalled and started to pull left but then had to pull right at warp speed because said moron undertook me while gesturing penis head at me and nearly took a chunk out of my bumper. What pleased me though was that they still got stuck in the exact same jam as me two miles down the road. Justice.
I do wonder if these people realise the stress they are imposing on others? Not everyone is a perfectly confident driver, and I wonder if the aggressor would actually be able to react quickly enough if there was an emergent situation?
I've been affected by this behaviour so often that I've tried to think of a way to devise a little messaging system for my back window that would try to communicate in the politest way possible, perhaps forming words out of multicoloured unicorn farts, on a speed/vs proximity basis, with sentences along the lines of 'Back off jack-ass', 'Seventy really is plenty' or 'I'm too tired for your sh1t today', but alas I'm not an engineer... and in any case, from what I've read, this is illegal, and I'm a good little law abiding citizen.
So it's now my 'day three' (operation day being day zero) and I'm almost back to normal. Sort of. The day of the operation went perfectly. I was in the OR at 9 am and settled in quote 'the best room in the whole hospital' with sweet and sour chicken by about 5pm (I think). I have been really privileged to have a private corner room with two huge windows and my own bathroom. The mixture of anaesthetic and morphine and who knows what else meant that day zero was pretty easy. As soon as I was in the recovery room in my delirious state I was put on a physio machine that kept my knee moving and I had that all night and most of day one and over night. It kept me awake quite a lot, not because it was particularly painful but because my leg kept jumping off it (rebelling) and I had to keep readjusting. And it was noisy and quite annoying as is the call bell. It was much easier using the machine than trying to bend my knee manually though. Even now I can only be...
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