< R A N T >

Just failed my HGV Test - all because of some stupid BMW driver thinking he owns the road.

Scenario:

Yeading lane at Whiteheart Roundabout, next to the petrol station. I come up to the junction, wanting to turn left. However, as you can see in the google StreetView image below,  there is this little funny lane that appears. In a truck, you cannot take the whole of that little lane when turning left, otherwise you hit the curb (fail), therefore you can only cover part of it.

View Larger Map

This therefore means that the lane is still partially open for people exiting the petrol station. The BMW decided that he would attempt to use it to turn right IN FRONT OF ME. He was even partially on the curb. Obviously a big truck that looks like this with loads of 'L' plates all over it means that he is always right and can do anything, not: oh, I better be careful, there is a learner in there.

So I nearly take out this nice near-new black BMW because of his idiotic driving. The only reason I missed him is because the examiner shouted "STOP!" = game over :(

So that's ~£400 pounds down the drain because of a black BMW in my blind spot.

Note that if you own one, and I happen to have a golf club / cricket bat etc. in my hand, it may suffer a a consequence - you have been warned.

&lt; / R A N T >

What is the world coming to?

So, many of you have probably heard about the "urinating on the dead" video that has sprung up over the past few days (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-16538159 ).

Well, another has suddenly come to light on youtube:

CAUTION THE FOLLOWING LINK CONTAINS A VIDEO THAT MANY WILL FIND DISTURBING
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp2cmWMOJqk

So here are my two pennies on this:

Anyone considering starting a war, maybe it should be against these guys. Although not all US service personal are like this (I know some really nice ones - AFN guys in Wiesbaden) there do seem to be some really dumb ones too.
First urinating on the dead, now beating a poor sheep with a baseball bat.
Lets just home that this video and the others are fake trying to get people to turn against those who we trust to keep us safe.

**UPDATE** - Apparently some of the people in the urination video have been identified as actual US service personnel - oh deary me :(