First time !

[pipme]

First let down on the road with Nissan - 3 cars since '89 - today !!

4-45 am M4 heading east for Heathrow to pick up rellie.
Sluicing down rain, dark, 70 mph, overtaking two, nose to tail, artics the wash from leading lorry hit windscreen - hard - wiper drive arm ball joint came apart wipers parked almost on bonnet drivers side .... Jeez ! foot down to clear lorries, indicate left to hard shoulder .. hazards on ... big horns from artics ....whew that was unpleasant, almost as unpleasant as waiting in car on shoulder for AA ...
No warning triangle and no lightweight waterproofs ... priority buy - to boot and forget - hopefully !!
First time breakdown in 37 yrs on Mo-Way .... Always vowed to be out of car and over barrier .... Not in that rain I wasn't !!
AA jury rigged .. popped again 5 m from home, spare wiper blade, arm out of window wiped screen 'til home !! .... A very nice day .. Now have to drive to Chessington to collect said rellie !! This time in Renault - ooer !!

P

 

[2scoops0406]

Worst I ever had was driving to parent house at Christmas time, windscreen kept fogging up, so had heaters on full tilt, noticed my eyes were getting a bit dry and sore, blinked, and both contact lenses popped out so there I was hurtling along a 70, in the wet, blind, and about 150 miles from destination. I had no spare lenses (the spares were at my parents house), and no glasses. Truly a horrifying experience. I wear glasses now!

 

[TexMex]

Not so much a worst day as worst week I had.
Following a big waste disposal lorry down a country lane. At one point, next to a building site, there was an old 6ft reinforced concrete fence post laying on the verge with about 4 inches protruding over the kerb. As the lane is quite narrow and there was a constant stream of traffic comming towards us, the lorry was litterally, brushing the kerb with it's tyres. As it hit the tiny overhang, the whole post was flipped through 180 degrees, landing directly in front of me. Taking as much of the road as I could led to both nearside tyres being blown out as they bounced over it.

The very next day, down the M25, following a skip, an engine mouting bounced out of the top of a skip, hitting my windscreen, slap in the middle. Out of sheer fluke, the big rubber bit was the point that made contact so the screen, miraculously didn't break.

The very next day, following a lorry loaded with timber, I found myself getting into a bit of a panic. Being concerned that I may end up with a long term phobia, if I didn't face the fear, I deliberately followed this one (at what I considered a safe distance). A couple of miles later, a length of about 4 foot of 8x2 suddenly bounced of the back of the lorry and once again, hit the windscreen, smack in the middle. One again the screen held.

I just thank my lucky stars that Toyota MR2s seem to have incredibly strong windscreens.

On another occasion following an apparently empty pickup truck, a large, black plastic sheet (possibly a DPM), suddenly leapt out of the truck and completely smothered the front end of my car leaving me completely blind. By the time I had pulled over and removed the sheet, the b*gger was long gone. What made matters even worse was, all the abuse I got passing motorists for having the audacity to stop there.

My heart rate now goes up, every time that I find myself behind any flatback lorry, skip lorry, or pickup truck.

 

[ohmygodwhathaveyoudone]

came back from down south 2 weeks ago and had to take a detour through stamford
wife mentions look at the water coming down the side of the hill,it was literally a stream about 12" deep,had to go through it as could'nt turn around.
carried on down the road but the water kept coming over the bonnet in big swages had to keep to a sensible speed as to create a bow wave in front of the car,even though we were crawling along i could feel the wheels losing traction (even the 4x4 discovery behind us pulled over)
as the car was an auto we could'nt dip the clutch & keep the revs up even though the exhaust was under water (very very scary situation with 2 kids + wife +zero visability)
evetually made it to a petrol station & got out of car,water came over my ankles,fork lightening hit the canopy over the petrol pumps & all the cashpoint alarms went off along with the power,i know top gear did a feature with richard hammond in a golf being struck by lightening but the thing was our car was in a foot of water so don't know if we would have been earthed
seeing what happened in cornwall last week was similar to the amount of water that appeared in such a short period of time.
btw i must have a very clean car underneath

 

[AdamW]

Not so much a worst day as worst week I had.

You should watch "Final Destination"

Luckily I have never had any proper break downs, just an incident with being given a poorly-handling hirecar that decided to mount a kerb because I had the audacity to ask it to go round a roundabout...

My dad had fun with his car. About a week after he picked up his Mondeo, he was driving past a development of new homes built by a company whose name rhymes with "Carrots". He saw two workmen fiddling around with the base of a 40-foot high flagpole and thought nothing of it. When he came back half an hour later, the flagpole swung downwards and hit the road mere feet in front of him. Obviously being so near, he went over it. Driving over a 6-inch thick metal pole isn't fun at the best of times, but as this is an ST-220 it has low-profile tyres combined with stiff suspension... apparently the noises were not pleasant!

He pulled over, a bit shaken and went to question the two workmen looking a bit sheepish by the flagpole. Turns out they had decided to try and remove the pole by themselves (NOT with a crane like you should)! If the pole had dropped a few feet further in front, it would have bounced up and possibly hit my dad full in the face: not good at 30mph. Same if it had dropped a little later.

The words he used can't be repeated here, but even the workmen were shocked at the sheer blueness that eminated from his mouth.

Luckily no damage was caused to my dad or the car (he had it checked out by the Ford garage to be on the safe side). Although I wish he had reported the incident as something like that should not go unrecorded for either the workmen or the foreman.

 

[TexMex]

Luckily I have never had any proper break downs, just an incident with being given a poorly-handling hirecar that decided to mount a kerb because I had the audacity to ask it to go round a roundabout...

If I remember rightly, that was near Heathrow as well Are we entering the twilight zone here

 

[AdamW]

If I remember rightly, that was near Heathrow as well Are we entering the twilight zone here

Indeed, you remember rightly...

Perhaps there is an "Uxbridge Triangle"? I'm driving past there today, hopefully I won't break down!

I just came across something strange (whilst trying to figure out what county Heathrow is in: Middlesex as it turns out). In your hand luggage, you are not allowed:

Hypodermic needles (unless required for medical reasons)

Can anyone tell me a non-medical use of hypodermic needles? Wouldn't it be more effective to just say "This ain't no 'Planespotting' movie: don't jack up smack on the plane, fother mucker"?

 

[TexMex]

Can anyone tell me a non-medical use of hypodermic needles?

They are also used, quite extensively, in laboratory work, for such things as Thin Layer Chromatography, Artificial insemination, Cloning of sheep, even oiling of sewing machines.

Could be a bit of a b*mmer if your running up a new skirt, and the machine starts to jam mid flight

 

[2scoops0406]

Can anyone tell me a non-medical use of hypodermic needles?

They're also good for injecting wallpaper paste into any bubbles you may get !! Honestly

 

[TexMex]

They're also good for injecting wallpaper paste into any bubbles you may get !! Honestly

As long as you don't drip any onto the work of the passenger next to you, while you are doing it. I would be really peaved, if my material got wallpaper paste on it, especially if I'm having to strugle with a jammed sewing machine at the time. No wonder these things are not allowed on airlines, think of all the arguments that could ensue!

 

[AdamW]

They're also good for injecting wallpaper paste into any bubbles you may get !! Honestly

Seriously?! I would have thought that being so viscous you would need to put quite a bit of force to get paste through such a fine needle.

I will have to remember it though. Can you just buy them in chemists, or do you paddle, bare foot in the Thames for half an hour and pull them out of your feet?

 

[2scoops0406]

They're also good for injecting wallpaper paste into any bubbles you may get !! Honestly

Seriously?! I would have thought that being so viscous you would need to put quite a bit of force to get paste through such a fine needle.

I will have to remember it though. Can you just buy them in chemists, or do you paddle, bare foot in the Thames for half an hour and pull them out of your feet?

I was born into a family of Pharmaceutical researchers who often had to "bleed" animals. Before anyone gets the hump no it was not vivisection, the hypodermics used for cows, horses (which lived natural lives on farms) are a bit bigger than the human ones, and excellent for wallpaper repair jobs, just remember where you left 'em

 

[AdamW]

That's interesting: where is the boundary between vivisection and just plain old vetinary research? My dictionary reckons that vivisection is "the cutting into or otherwise injury of animals for scientific research".

So, surely taking a blood sample does NOT count as vivisection... Otherwise taking one from a human would count as a surgical procedure and phlebotomists would earn 4 times as much

With drugs research: if you take a healthy animal, give them some new drug, and it causes no ill effects, is THAT vivisection? Does it become vivisection as soon as harm comes to the animal, or is the intent enough?

I know of a facility belonging to one of the pharma-giants that claims no animal testing takes place there... However a mate of mine worked there for a year and assures me they do, cos they did it.

Does pointless animal testing still take place? When I say pointless, I mean things like lipsticks and shampoos, things that really aren't that important. As opposed to trying to find a cure for cancer, HIV or any other severe illnesses.

 

[TexMex]

When I was a kid, I used to pull legs off of spiders, in various combinations, to see how they adapted to their new leg configurations. I also used to experiment by drowning them for various lengths of time, to see how well they reccovered. I also kept a "Battle jar", where I would place various combinations of insects and arachnids, to see which would be the victor. Does any of this qualify as vivisection?

I find peoples perception towards animals generally, quite odd. They look at a rat and think, "oo, yuk disgusting", yet give it a bushy tail and they say, "Ahh, look at that cute little squirrel". My daughter in law won't eat lamb because "they're cute and fluffy", yet she has no problem with pork, because pigs are not. Can a pig help it if he's just born ugly?

You have people that would be traumatised for life if bitten by a rat yet, when their Jack Russel is tearing into the milkman, they just think it's funny!

Just playing devils advocate, Would the animal rights contingent be so large, without these unjustified emotional responses? Why should a laboratory guinea pig be given it's freedom, yet "vermin" can be subjected to an agonising death through slow acting poison?

 

[AdamW]

Can a pig help it if he's just born ugly?

My brother (coming up to 27, not a kid) refuses to eat pork. Reason being, pigs have been proved to be very intelligent. More intelligent than dogs, in fact.

I have heard of squirrels referred to as "rats with a better PR agent". Jack Russel? I thought they WERE rats!

Would the animal rights contingent be so large, without these unjustified emotional responses?

Well, I doubt that any animal rights protesters would advocate slow-acting poison. I don't know anyone who says "remember when they gave rabbits mixamotosis? Ah, those were the days". Our attitude to animals as a nation is very affectionate, as it should be.

An interesting point to note: we have hares round my way. A colleague of mine is called in by the farmer to shoot as many hares as he (and his buddies) can. Whilst this is primarily to stop shady east-end types threatening the farmers and causing havoc (they have been known to torch hay sheds when a farmer tells them to p*ss off), it is also more humane for the hare. Lead shot up the jacksy kills them quicker than a dog mauling them.

Talking to said colleague brings in that weird paradox: hunters generally love the animals they kill.