Other road users - Page 2

Sorry, made a mistake £ is higher valued that Euro.

Valdeez. Answered a bit quick before about Euro. Current rates of exchange -
£1 = 1.33 Euro
    = $1.96
So £2000 about $4000
Can you see now why US gets so many UK tourists ?

Yep, that's what they tell me.  Sucks about the $4k tho.
Stick with the PINT- 12 oz. cups only filled to 10.5 oz. will start a civil war. 

You're not wrong there, brother.

1. In this area (and others where I have lived) the equal to the white van man nemisis are commercial pickup trucks generally loaded with ladders and other construction equipment. Their radiators loom quite large in my Accord rear view mirror so I dash away yielding the lane at the same time. Forever in a hurry they are. some of the drivers actually speak English.....of sorts.

2. Perhaps in some parts of this state deer are not prevelant but I hit five out of seven standing in the middle of the road.......driving a friends recently restored 1957 Ford Skyliner (the first hardtop convertible). Painful lesions for the deer and expensive lessons for yours truly. We are still friends by the way.....and the deer were tasty.

3.Bike Riders, where do I begin? Prior to moving here we lived in Austin TX, the world capital of Yuppiedom and tree huggers. Since Lance Armstrong lives there he has a league of wanna be's numbering in the tens of thousands. They are on the roads daily but most are weekend pedal pumpers. They will take up the highway on Saturday mornings chugging along at best speed, taking up traffic lanes and daring the steel behemoths to hit them. Many roads have specific bike lanes and most riders realize they would lose the collision test so they remain where they should be.......out of the way. There are the few that simply defy law and logic taking up the car lanes causing traffic problems and giving the single digit salute to those that honk at them. Stupid Bastards! There would be the occassional car vs rider contest on the news, guess who lost? Now these are educated people with good incomes spending thousands of dollars on their bikes and corresponding "French racer" garb. On the job they are no doubt brilliant young wizards but on the bike they are stupid bastards. Perhaps the bike seat goes farther up their arse than it appears reaching the brain stem and damaging it temporarily?

academic, here's some thoughts for you....

The town we live in is THE most impoverished city in the entire U.S.A (published figures 2005, cities over 100,000 population).  Why would we move here? We don't speak Spanish and many here don't speak English. Simple, it is what you make of it. It costs less to live here than most of the US, money goes farther for major expenditures. The beach is only 30 minutes away and the climate is mostly quite lovely although quite hot & humid in the summer.

We moved here because of the laid back atmosphere and the warmth of the people. Communication is sometimes a problem but once translation is established you realize how warm the people are. It is totally different from anywhere I've ever lived but I like it. Many Texans consider this area to be "the pits". They are so foolishly incorrect.

Housing here is beyond cheap by today's standards. What would cost you 300,000 pounds can be had in this area for FAR less than one half of that in US money. Currently if you came here with 100,000 pounds you would indeed be a wealthy man. At current rates that would be around one quarter of a million dollars. Nothing to sneeze at.

In California that would buy you a tiny little beach house, Where I live now it would buy you a custom 30,000 square foot home and a new very nice car...and servants!.  THAT is why we live were we do. A little lesson in US economy.

quote:

ORIGINAL: RTexasF

academic, here's some thoughts for you....

The town we live in is THE most impoverished city in the entire U.S.A (published figures 2005, cities over 100,000 population).  Why would we move here? We don't speak Spanish and many here don't speak English. Simple, it is what you make of it. It costs less to live here than most of the US, money goes farther for major expenditures. The beach is only 30 minutes away and the climate is mostly quite lovely although quite hot & humid in the summer.

We moved here because of the laid back atmosphere and the warmth of the people. Communication is sometimes a problem but once translation is established you realize how warm the people are. It is totally different from anywhere I've ever lived but I like it. Many Texans consider this area to be "the pits". They are so foolishly incorrect.

Housing here is beyond cheap by today's standards. What would cost you 300,000 pounds can be had in this area for FAR less than one half of that in US money. Currently if you came here with 100,000 pounds you would indeed be a wealthy man. At current rates that would be around one quarter of a million dollars. Nothing to sneeze at.

In California that would buy you a tiny little beach house, Where I live now it would buy you a custom 30,000 square foot home and a new very nice car...and servants!.  THAT is why we live were we do. A little lesson in US economy.

Texas, everything you say makes absolute sense to me. i would live there too. Where I live is a joke to Southern Britain - they think it is an industrial wasteland with people with strange accents [that last bit is a bit true] BUT if you examine the map closely you will see that Northern England is sparsely populated and mostly National Parks and areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. World Heritage sites are also commonplace. We just nod at the jokes but secretly we laugh at them in the South with their greed and that filthy over-priced pit London because we have the beautiful countryside and the lowest house prices.

My last post was a bit biased. We also have relatively high rates of unemployment and salaries are lower here. But our industrial past is being cleaned up rapidly. We have salmon back in our rivers and the otter is coming with them - a sure sign of clean water. We have the worlds largest colony of Grey Seals back on Seal Sands [a historical name] and huge colonies of sea birds on our coast. The south has water shortages and hose bans. We even export water to Saudi because we have huge upland reservoirs which were built to service the industrial giants which are no longer there. Also [as you probably suspect] it pi..... down a lot here too.
Salutations and manly hugs.

Not with me, but I do have a baseball bat in my car that I carry for emergencies such as someone scratching my paint job...

                          WheelBrokerAng  

By the way...what time is it there right now, it's 07:36 AM here in Ohio, USA...
 
                                       WheelBrokerAng

Academic...do you have a picture of your car?
If so would you post it for us...
 
                               WheelBrokerAng

quote:

ORIGINAL: academic

My last post was a bit biased. We also have relatively high rates of unemployment and salaries are lower here. But our industrial past is being cleaned up rapidly. We have salmon back in our rivers and the otter is coming with them - a sure sign of clean water. We have the worlds largest colony of Grey Seals back on Seal Sands [a historical name] and huge colonies of sea birds on our coast. The south has water shortages and hose bans. We even export water to Saudi because we have huge upland reservoirs which were built to service the industrial giants which are no longer there. Also [as you probably suspect] it pi..... down a lot here too.
Salutations and manly hugs.

 
So you are a Geordie then?

quote:

ORIGINAL: academic

You can always rely on good old Auntie Beeby. Our govt. hates it, thank God.

 
OK, we're stumped.......is this a reference to the BBC? Translation please ----

quote:

ORIGINAL: WheelBrokerAng

By the way...what time is it there right now, it's 07:36 AM here in Ohio, USA...

                                      WheelBrokerAng

If you mean what time was it when you posted, it was 12.38pm so you are 5 hours behind . you Americans must stop living in the past. But the time now is 18.27pm. The old Tardis works wonders.

quote:

ORIGINAL: WheelBrokerAng

Academic...do you have a picture of your car?
If so would you post it for us...
 
                               WheelBrokerAng

Oh bugger ! I'll have to wash it. Sun doesn't come up here for another 6 months.

First Auntie Beeby - B.B.C. as you guessed.
Second question - you may regret asking this one. The answer is depends on who asks. If you are outside Geordieland, then the answer is "yes", if you are a citizen of Geordieland the answer is "no". Here we go, this might take all night. Feel free to fall asleep.
There are three cities and three rivers in Geordieland - the Tyne, the Wear, and the Tees. 10 miles between Tyne and Wear, and 20 miles between Wear and Tees.
There is major rivalry between Tyne and Wear. Newcastle itself is on the Tyne about 10 miles from the coast. Sunderland and Durham are on the Wear, Sunderland at the river mouth on the coast and Durham about 10 miles inland. Newcastle claims to be the true Geordie in Geordieland which is B.S. The name originates in the Napoleonic Wars when George, the Earl of Northumberland raised an infantry regiment, the Northumberland Fusiliers nicknamed the Geordies. The aggro is between Newcastle and Sunderland. Durham, the senior university town and home to the Prince Bishop of Durham stays neutral with a superior attitude. Both towns are ancient. A district in Newcastle is called Wallsend - the eastern end of the Roman wall built by Emperor Hadrian. Sunderland has two parts, one called Monkwearmouth and was the site of a monastery founded by St. Bede. The other side is called Bishopswearmouth being owned by the Bishop of Durham. There is a 6th century church on the river which was the first church in Britain with stained glass windows.
Everyone still awake ?
OK. Both towns have Premier Division football teams so games played between them are highly tribal where both tribes show their Viking berserker origins but the actual cause of the aggro is much earlier. In the Civil War [ours not yours] Newcastle declared for parliament whereas Sunderland declared for the Crown, There was a pitched battle on the land between them. Dont know who won or even who came second.
If you asked the question as a joke, I am going to feel extremely stupid.
So, most of my working life was in Newcastle and Durham, I was born and raised on Teeside, but I currently live in Sunderland. So you tell me what I am. I am a citizen of Geordieland.
Bet your sorry you asked now

Definition of a Lecturer - someone who never uses one word when 500 will suffice !

If you can, you do; if you can't, you teach!
 
Don't take that too seriously.  Thanks for the history lesson on N.E. 
Is it possible to americanize the pronounciaton of those locales?  Tyne="tin" or "ten" or "tine"?
 
Regarding weather:


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quote:

ORIGINAL: honda97valdeez

If you can, you do; if you can't, you teach!

You've met them too then. I was invited to teach after 35 years in the heavy chemical industry - my first job was in a plant making cyanide and my final one [when I got more sense] was as Production manager in a lead refinery. Between them I worked in petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals. I glowed in the dark. Other Lecturers called me a dinosaur on the grounds that I had done a real job in heavy industry and was not a true academic. I was one of the "retreads".

That was indeed interesting thank you. As far as what to call you I'll stick with "academic". Teeside in Sunderland just isn't as catchy.

valdeez - tyne as in tine.
If you would like to hear geordie, download the following from i-tunes. "Why Aye Man" by Mark Knopfler [from Dire Straits, remember ?]
It tells the tale of the depression in the north when the coal mining industry was destroyed by a Tory [Republican ?] government and geordie craftsmen were forced to go to Germany to work building the new Germany "German built but British made" There was a tv programme about it some years back too "Auf Wiedersien, Pet". So a lesson in social history and a bloody good song, expert guitar work. Why Aye Man = translation "yes". If you can also learn the phrase "Yer Buggar, Man" you can combine it [with facial gestures and hand movements] to have an hour long conversation with a geordie just by alternating the two or, if you feel really adventurous say Why Aye, yer buggar man. that last one is for the intellectual only. Yer bugger, man is a complex phrase with several meanings i.e. I disagree with you absolutely or I tend to favour your point of view, old chap. See how versatile the language is.
For advanced students only there is a book "Larn yersel geordie" by Frank Dobson

HA!  That's an excellent reply.  I saw a comedy flick called "Hot Fuzz" and in it they moved a london cop to the country and he couldn't understand the locals-it was very funny.
You would have a field day learning hillbilly slang and ebonics here in America.

quote:

ORIGINAL: honda97valdeez

HA!  That's an excellent reply.  I saw a comedy flick called "Hot Fuzz" and in it they moved a london cop to the country and he couldn't understand the locals-it was very funny.
You would have a field day learning hillbilly slang and ebonics here in America.

 
How true, how true. I'm still learning as a matter of fact.  

Se habla espanol, senior?  Por favor, una cerveza y dos tamales!  Viva May-hee-ko!

ich kein spreche... um... spainish...