Car Troubles

I seem to be having some issues with my hire cars. I'm now onto my third in three days, not bad going really. The first one was a Fiat Punto from Heathrow but it was just bloody awful, it felt like it was made from tin cans and was so noisy that I was totally deaf by the time I got down the M4, I also couldn't get my iPhone to sync and there's was no way I can cope with Radio 2 for the next week and a half. So I took it back to Hertz and asked to swap. I think this may have been a bit of a weird request as the guy at the local branch looked a bit bemused that I wanted to swap my car just because I didn't like it. So they gave me a Ford Fiesta exactly like the one I have a home, which was great. Except this one blew a fuse every time I wound down the window. Bit of a problem when it's raining. So I went back to Hertz again and they gave me another Fiesta. This one has the oil light on and half of the plastic body panels missing but I'm past caring now. If it blows up it's not my problem. It's also very, very red.

So now I have a hot hatch, three door, red racer. A classic hot hatch. But it's got a diesel engine. Not something that an Australian would think of as a sporty option (they tend to prefer a massive V8) but it's pretty common here for sports aspirational cars to be diesel powered. And to be honest it goes like the clappers but that might be because it's a hire car and as everyone knows, the fastest car in the world is a hire car. Any hire car.

That's something else I'd forgotten about Britain; absolutely no one pays any attention to the speed limits. In Oz we are all brainwashed into slowing down, obeying the signs and being caught on camera. Here nothing. Hardly any speed cameras and I haven't seen a single cop car in the last three days and 200 miles of driving. I don't really know what Clarkson et al are always banging on about, if you really want restrictive speed regs and cameras go to Victoria. In Blighty if you do 70 mph on the motorway you will be the only person doing so and you'll feel like you're parked. It's quite liberating to just put your foot down and get going.

The weather has been a bit crappy since I got back, pretty much rained each day and been fairly chilly, but today the sun came out and boy can you tell that the British don't get a lot of summer. It was 18°C at the very most today but everyone was out sitting in the sun an eating their lunch in any available bright spot. Gods know what would happen if it ever got to 35° here. I assume mass absenteeism and a massive increase in the sale of tanning lotion (we don't use sun screen here, we WANT to burn 'cos it's nice to get a bit of colour). Here's the scene in Cheltenham today to show you what I mean;




Not exactly the riviera but it keeps the locals happy.