British roads

Having now driven a 6 metre long vehicle for well over 1000 miles on British roads, I have some observations.

- I'm pretty sure there are more speed cameras than speed signs.
- despite petrol being measured in litres, distance, width and height are measured in miles, feet, inches and yards. This causes problems when you're approaching a speed camera or low bridge and having to do conversions in your head. I.E. "40 miles is 65 k's, right? Right?!"; "are we under 14 feet high? We're about 9 aren't we? Duck just to be sure."
- single carriageway highways are 60 mph (95 kph), but there's no prior warning when you're approaching a sharp turn on a windy road apart from "SLOW" (or in Wales "ARAF/SLOW"). Consequently we slow the motorhome down to about 40kph at every turn. There's no difference in signage between a 5 degree bend and a 150 degree hairpin turn.
- all vaguely major roads are numbered. Consequently we're regularly saying "turn right at the B1782, not the B1783".
- North Wales isn't built for motorhomes. We were shouted and fist waved once and we clipped the mirror of a car towing a caravan going the other way. Also, it's easier to drive a few kilometres in the wrong direction to a roundabout rather than attempt a U-Turn in the motorhome.
- Scottish people are very polite on the roads, particularly in the Highlands. They'll blink their hazard lights in thanks if you pull over and let them overtake you. It's very rewarding.
- Welsh people do not blink their lights in thanks.
- the speed limit on most dual carriageways (including motorways) is 70mph (110kph), but some dual carriageways have regular roundabouts, meaning you're constantly speeding up to 110 then going back to 0.
- there are no utes (pickups for any American readers) in Britain. I've been keeping my eye out the whole time for them and haven't seen a single one.
- it's not uncommon to find a pair of elderly cyclists in the middle of the Welsh Highlands, miles from any town, in pouring rain. These people will not turn to look at the motorhome hurtling up behind them, but fearlessly continue to cycle on, uphill, in the middle of the single lane, until you find a spot to overtake them.
- parking facilities are not built for motorhomes. Most parking lots (including park & rides) have gates that limit the height of vehicles entering to 2 meters. We asked a caravan park owner why, and she replied "it's to keep our gypsies". This surprised us.
- people have no qualms about parking in the middle of a lane, turning a two way road into a one way road, only allowing one vehicle to pass at a time. It's completely legal too. People bend in their wing mirrors, so that buys you another 2 inches.
- distances on signs are unusually exact. I.E: "Salisbury - 4 1/4 miles" or "Parking - 270 yards"

I'm not sure what roads will be like on the continent, but I'm not sure they'll be much better. Looking forward to being back on the wide, long, straight, well signed roads back home.

Love thy neighbour

On Sunday I saw five speakers - four comedians and a Church of Scotland minister. All five touched on various issues of the world, and one of them offered what I think is a solution.
The four comedians were at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Hannah Gadsby, Dave Callan, Shappi Khoursandi and Rich Hall. They were all excellent, and all covered different issues.
Hannah Gadsby spoke about the difficulties of being gay in a small town. She's from Circular Head, Tasmania, and among other things, her comedy pokes fun at the strange mannerisms and at times small-mindedness of folks from the country. Like many people in rural Australia, she found it tough being different, and the tendency of people in rural areas to fear what they don't understand has had an impact on her life.
Shappi Khoursani is an Iranian-Brit. She immigrated from Iran to London when she was a toddler and her comedy discusses the difficulties she faced in England. She told stories (in an extremely funny way) about racism she was subject to. She also talked about how her father, a famous writer who was critical of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was sent numerous death threats and eventually his assassination was ordered by the Ayatollah of Iran (it was unsuccessful). These terrifying experiences have certainly had an impact on her, but she has turned it around and built a successful comedy career out of her sense of humour and life experience.
American comedian Rich Hall, who I know best from his appearances on QI with Stephen Fry, spoke about many, many problems that he sees in the world. He spoke about the UK riots, the American banking bust, the Global Financial Crisis, gay marriage, the Norway massacre and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, among many other things. As painfully hilarious as he was, he also gave a dour outlook on the state of the world, and despaired with his audience about how nothing was being done to help it. He didn't, however, offer a solution… which brings us to Reverend Anne Job.
Anne Job is a minister of the Church of Scotland in Fife and she was speaking at Dysart Kirk, where I went with two of my wife's family members, who we were staying with in the area. No matter whether you're Christian, atheist, Muslim, Buddhist, or anything else, her message was powerful. If you're thinking of stopping reading now that I'm about to quote the Bible, I urge you to keep going… it will all make sense soon.
She spoke primarily about Matthew 22:36-39 which says
"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?"
Jesus replied: '"Love the Lord your God with all our heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself'"
Reverand Job spoke a lot about "love your neighbour", and the more she spoke the more I realised… that's the answer.
I don't know whether it happened recently, or whether it's always been the case, but most people seem to be primarily focussed on what makes THEM happy, and what keeps THEM comfortable.
I don't think this is very sustainable. If we were living in a society where you had to fight to stay alive and hunt your own food and defend your land, then this sort of mentality would be completely understandable. If we were living in tribes in caves, and battling over limited resources and concerned that at any moment a bear might run into our den and eat us then it would be understandable. But we're not.
I'm going to assume now that you're reading this in a 21st century first world country. If you're not, then go about your business, and a hearty congratulations on making the internet work.
For those in a western country… you live in a society where everybody needs everybody else. We all need people to make our food (or at least grow it) we all need our government to function properly, and we all need people to drive properly on the road so that the cars don't all bump into each other.
What we need to realise is that if everyone was a bit nicer and more considerate of each other, then everyone would be happier. Love your neighbour.
If everyone (including the government) was a bit nicer to the underclass in Britain, they might not be looting. If bankers and businessmen on Wall Street were a bit nicer to their customers, and weren't too keen to line their own pockets, the American economy may not be ruined. If the world's political parties were a bit nicer to each other, and thought a bit more about the people they're supposed to represent, there might be some direction on things. If truck companies and drivers thought a bit more about the other people on the road, there might not be so many road accidents. If the people concerned about their company's bottom line thought a bit more about future generations, Australia might not be having a ridiculous argument about carbon pricing.
If people were a bit nicer and more considerate to Hannah Gadsby and Shappi Khoursani, they may have had easier childhoods, and if the Ayatollah of Iran was more considerate of his people, then Shappi's father wouldn't have written anything worth threatening death over.
It really solves most problems. It's not complicated and it's not new. Love your neighbour… just be a bit nicer to people.
Then again if that happened, what would the news report, and what would comedians talk about?

The London riots

On Monday night, we were catching the train home from seeing Les Miserables on the West End to where we're staying in Horley, south of London.

We arrived at Victoria Station at 11:30 and looked at the departures board to find out what train to catch. A number of services were cancelled. After checking Twitter, I discovered that the riots which previously were only in the North of London had spread to the southern suburbs of Clapham and Croydon.

We looked at the list of stopping points for our train. First stop: Clapham Junction, then East Croydon.

There was a tense atmosphere at the station. People whose trains through Ealing, central Clapham, Tottenham and Enfield had been cancelled searched the board for alternative services, and we nervously boarded our train.

As we approached Clapham Junction, the loudspeaker announced that some streets in Clapham and some exits of East Croydon station had been closed by police.

As we approached East Croydon station the train stopped. It was a frightening moment. I assured myself everything was ok, but the images I'd seen on TV made my heart feel like my car had lost power in the middle of Jurassic Park (we'd been to the Natural History Museum the day before). We were stuck on a train in a foreign city with rioting in front and behind us.

Nothing happened. After stopping for a few minutes the train proceeded to the station. People got off the train at East Croydon and strode confidently off into the night. They would wake the following morning to find shops and homes looted and the iconic local furniture store burned to the ground.

The experience made me wonder what would happen if this happened at home. If riots broke out in Sydney, would they spread to Newcastle, Melbourne and Brisbane like these ones spread to Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool?

Would Australians smash the windows on their local high street, rob JB Hi Fi and Rebel Sport and burn Bunnings to the ground?

British politicians and media commentators hypothesise that it's an underprivileged lower class, angry at the establishment, with a lack of respect and discipline that caused these riots.

Magistrates are under pressure to give tough punishments to the rioters while politicians are revoking benefits for their families. Whether punishment solves the problem remains to be seen, but it's unlikely to work in the long term. If something isn't done to fix the problem then more than likely the children of these rioters will riot again in 15 or 20 years.

Personally I don't think Aussie thugs have it in them. I think that our society leaves less people behind than are required to do some real damage. I wouldn't bet my home or my business on it though.

I hope I don't have a train trip like that again. I especially hope I never have one like that in Australia.

I hope we have the sense to show our young people the respect they need, so they can reciprocate it, and I hope the hand that feeds continues feeding everyone enough.

If you want to read a really interesting opinion on the London riots, read Russell Brands piece in The Guardian: http://m.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/11/london-riots-davidcameron?cat=uk&type=articlep

London shoes

Bought from eager but unhelpful shop assistants on Oxford St who thought we were American, to replace Dunlop Volleys and Converse shoes and alleviate severe lower back and heel pain.

7 down

Some things we have learned in the last 7 days since leaving Sydney:

Korean road rules in no way resemble ours.

Korean hotel restaurants serve meat at room temperature.

Koreans build MASSIVE bridges.

You can't just walk into a German hotel and eat breakfast.

Motorhome toilets smell only of the chemicals you pour in to treat the waste.

Germans obey ALL road rules exactly. Even the truck drivers.

Autobahns are amazing things.

On a Korean Air flight from Korea to Germany, 80% of the movie titles will be in English.

English motorways DO have speed limits, even though they don't tell you what it is. Even when you're getting out of the Channel Tunnel. No signs.

Bruges is beautiful, though there are a lot more tourists than are shown in the movie.

Bruges has not capitalised on the movie at all.

Bruges really is just like a f**king fairytale. (if you don't get that, see "In Bruges")

The Passchendaele museum is not in Passchendaele.

People regularly have shouting arguments on British trains.

Old ladies on British trains read Russell Brand's autobiography, but they hide it inside a gardening magazine.

The queue for the London Eye is soul destroyingly long.

You can still get classic rock stations on the AM band in the UK.

BBC TV Newsreaders have a much more relaxed manner than their Australian counterparts, and are much easier to watch.

Cons and Dunlop Volleys are not sufficient for serious walking.

In cafes in Bruges, a 'large coke' comes in a full sized stein.

Germans love their Biergartens.

I can't speak French.

Crossing the Channel in a motorhome costs €275.

Bruges has city-wide free wifi.

The staircase of the Bruges carillion gets VERY narrow up the top of the 366 steps.

There are CCTV cameras EVERYWHERE in London.

The Science museum would be a hell of a lot more rad if there weren't so many damn kids around. Seriously kid, it's my turn on that thing.

Gluten free food is quite nice, though impossible to find in cafes.

Vodafone actually works in the UK.

The London Underground struggles to cope with rugby games. Good luck with the Olympics, guys.

It's possible to accidentally drive into the Netherlands from Germany when you were aiming for Belgium.

That's 7 days. 109 to go.

Why don't we have anything like Incheon Bridge?

Yesterday I crossed a bridge.

It took over seven minutes to get across at 80kph. It's over 23 kilometers long.

The bridge is in Incheon, South Korea and its purpose is to take people from the growing city of Incheon, near Seoul to the ten-year-old Incheon International Airport. It was built to alleviate the traffic problems on the old bridge to the North.

View European Holiday in a larger map

The bridge cost $1.4 Billion USD to build and was completed in 2009.

This is the first amazing piece of infrastructure I've come across on our trip and it got me thinking, why haven't we built anything like this in Australia recently?

The endless scoping studies and arguments over cost and wastage is stopping Australia (and seemingly also the United States) from building truly great infrastructure projects.

"But", you may say, "That's an essential bridge, and it only cost $1.4 Billion USD! Australia's National Broadband Network will cost over $30 Billion, and who knows how many Billions an East Coast Very Fast Train would cost?!"

"Well..." I would say "the Incheon Bridge is not all that's happening in the area to stimulate growth"

Some other projects in the planning or construction stages in the Incheon/Seoul area include nine new subway lines, a new light rail service, several massive building projects including 151 Incheon Tower which is under construction right next to the Incheon bridge and an extension to the Incheon airport.

The airport was built 10 years ago on reclaimed land between two islands after it became apparent that the old Seoul airport would not be able to cope with increased traffic due to increased tourism after the 1988 olympics. Does that remind you of anything?

My point is that arguing over petty problems is going to leave Australia behind. Places like Incheon, Macau and Dubai are getting things done, and we're not.