Drivers....and how they irk me

I have always wanted to use the word "irk" ever since I first saw it repeatedly appearing before my eyes during my high school typing test exams. Now I have done - one more goal down on the way to my life's tick box.

The way people drive here amazes me. Seriously. Anyone who's witnessed or actually driven in Spain will know where I'm coming from. To put things in to perspective, I'm 23, a female and drive a BMW (so...really...I should fall in to the worst drivers ever in the history of everything category) - and yet I am still astounded at the things I see.

This evening I made my regular journey from my house to Boy's place of work to collect him, and back again - nothing too tricky there - journey time can vary between 5 minutes and 3 hours depending on the number of accidents/police controls/roadworks etc etc I encounter on my merry way.

I had left the vicinity of my urbanisation without any incident - so far, so good. Driving along a minor road, I could go no faster than 40km as there were kids riding their bikes towards me on my side of the road.

Approaching the roundabout I slowed to about 30, checked the traffic, and to my horror of horrors saw a taxi driver attempting to pull out from a parking space with no lights on and no indicator :-o Needless to say I beeped my horn quite sharply and got a fleeting apologtic look from the (female) driver.

Side on collision avoided. Car and yours truly alive and well.

About four minutes later, I was chugging along in my automobile in the right hand lane, and noticed a large queue in the left hand lane - something that often happens at this part of the road where there is a semi roundabout/U-turn function thing which doesn't quite cater for the traffic load on the Costa del Sol. Thank whoever resides above that I wasn't whizzing along (as, naturally, I should have been being a female and driving a poncey car) as a Peugeot, whose driver did not wish to remain in the queue any londer, decided to pull out in front of me - again, with no indicators.

Don't even get me started on the roundabout in the Port...

Now, perhaps it's just me, but surely wing mirrors and indicators are there for a reason? And do forgive me if I'm wrong, but it seems from my position as a mere Observer of Others that the more expensive and prestigious the car, the less need or usage of indicators?

When I arrived at my destination, I sat and watched all the cars going round the roundabout, and observed:

Only one driver chose to use his indicator when leaving the roundabout. One!!! And I was there for a good 20 minutes!

I counted 16 drivers talking on their mobile phones while going round and round.

A Range Rover Sport zipping along so fast it had to skid to a halt half way across the zebra crossing to let a (quite rightly so) irate man pass. It's not exactly like zebra crossings are hard to miss.

On the drive back I had another car practically glued to my rear end. I know my car's derriere is pretty and all, but you don't need to get that close. It won't make me speed up or get out of the way when the speed limit in force is 80kmh and you're trying to go at 140kmh, no matter how many times you flash your lights or honk your horn at me. Speed limits are there for a reason...boring, I know, but true.

These things irk me (yay! I used it again!) because in the last 12 months I have lost 2 friends in seperate incidents - both were victims of someone jumping a red light while speeding and talking on their phone.

Is your conversation THAT important?

Is jumping that one traffic light gonna get you there that much faster?

Just because your car does 240kmh easily, doesn't mean you have to travel that fast.

The World as it stands on Saturday, 14th June 2008

The decade that has passed since my last post has been caused by the fact that I now have a job which makes me work 25 hours a day (or so it seems) leaving me little time to complete all my female house dutes, and even less for blogging.

Boy is being trained to help out a bit more, so hopefully blogging duties should return to normal...

Work in the Land of the Naked People was starting to get...slightly unsure, and so I took it upon myself to create a super impressive CV during one of the quieter days, and sent it off to various companies advertising positions along the Costa del Sol.

Evidently, it worked, as I had a call for an interview at a law firm less than a week later.

I clearly did okay in the interview, as they invited me back for a second, and before I knew it I was working there full time from the end of January.

Due to astronomical mortgage payments (not that I live in a castle or anything, sadly the astronomics are down to tax), bills, petrol etc etc etc I found myself unable to survive on the wages from my new job alone, and so am still working in the Land of the Naked People every weekend.

Which, at the begining, didn't bother me at all. At All! However, that was in January and February, when it was raining and cold and grey and damp and miserable and wet.

It is now the middle of June, and outside temperatures appear to be somewhere around 28ºC. All the Naked People are varying shades of pink/red/tan and I am, quite honestly, most upset at having to spend my Saturdays and some Sundays inside.

I have therefore taken it upon myself to enter every single online competition I can find (yes, my inbox is filling with spam, but when that €55 billion cheque arrives in the post, I won't be complaining) - and dedicating several minutes a day to completing online surveys (my current balance is €17,75!!).