Two safety ideas: starting with proper safer spare tires

In Texas in March 2022, according to the accounts I read, a group of golfers and their coach were hit head-on by a Dodge pick up truck. The truck was driven by a 13 year old driving a vehicle with a 'spare tire'. 

Spare tires used to be large.

Photo author RLGNZLZ from Chile. For Thunderbird 292 hardtop 1956. From Wikipedia.

A tire on the back of the car, left room inside the boot (Americans say trunk) for your luggage.

 Let's take a closer look. I shall enlarge it for you.

Some designers put the tire inside the lockable boot (trunk). Additional advantages were streamlining the car shape for speed.

1960 valiant car (automobile).

Spare tires

The modern spare tire is thin and is supposed to be driven only at low speeds for a short distance to a garage to get a replacement tire.

The idea is that a thinner tire makes more space in the car boot (Americans call it automobile trunk). Bring back proper spare tires.

If you really put space in the car above passenger safety, you could dispense with spare tires and pull over and wait to be rescued by the Automobile Association (AA for short). (The American version is not the AA but the AAA, American Automobile Association.) But the AA would not want that. The cost of premiums would go up. More cars sitting around on motorways, waiting. And where would they wait?

Where do they go now to change the tire? In the slow lane, waiting for somebody to plough in the back of them. A common cause of death is not the first accident, but the second one, the pile-up. The pedestrian, contemplating the broken down car, stepping out in front of an overtaking vehicle.

When my car was hit on the M4 in London, I was horrified. My car shot across into the fast lane where the car revolved and stopped. The driver side door was hit and damaged and could not be opened. A driver of a lorry (Americans say truck), stopped (Forced to stop by debris across three lanes of the road). He ran up to help. Either the window was already down or I was able to wind it down. Whilst I contemplated trying to climb out of the window, or vaulting over the front seats into the back - but the back passenger seat was also dented, he pointed out, "You can get out on the passenger side!"

I did. I was horrified to find that the central reservation did not have enough kerb for a pedestrian to stand on, out of the way of traffic. 

My Accident

Two accidents waiting to happen just killed several people. When I was a child a spare tire was a proper tire. 

A motorway had a hard shoulder where you could move or be moved if you broke down. There the vehicle could be pushed in the case of an accident. So called smart motorways, which are really dumb motorways were unknown. 

Bring back the real smart motorways which have a hard shoulder. With clearer wide luminous strips to show where they are. Bring back proper spare tires.

Do you want to read that again? I would like to say it again.

Two accidents waiting to happen just killed several people. When I was a child a spare tire was a proper tire. A motorway had a hard shoulder where you could move or be moved if you broke down. There the vehicle could be pushed, in the case of an accident. 

So called 'smart' motorways, which are really dumb motorways were unknown. Bring back the real smart motorways which have a hard shoulder. Add clearer wide luminous strips to show where they are. Bring back proper spare tires.

Visit Reading Museum's Bayeux Tapestry and Join Esperanto Events

Problem
1 What to do in Reading, which has been rebuilding the station and everything for months, years?
2 Does anybody actually speak Esperanto? In the UK, where most people speak or learn English, as opposed to some remote island where nobody speaks their language and the lighthouse keeper wants a penpal?

Answers
I was delighted to be sent an email telling me that Esperanto events are being held in Reading Library and Museum. The library is inside the museum, alongside, however you like to look at it.

That's such a great idea, combining a museum and a public library. Many museums have a library attached to the museum, with books about the museum collection or the museum subject. If you have a free library, and a free museum, this works well. If the museum charges, this could be awkward, but it's easy enough to stick up a sign on the library reception desk saying, Buy Tickets here.

If the occasional person slips past deliberately or accidentally, you might just shrug. Alternatively you install a gate, a camera, threatening signs, welcoming signs, PAY HERE signs, and a person with eagle eyes, a suspicious mind, and a loud, stern voice. You know the sort. A retired NHS doctor's receptionist.

Memories of Reading
I've driven through Reading many times. I've been to the station. Never forgotten, when my car was written off on the nearby M4 as I drove to my writer's holiday in Wales, the huge, high, wide, long recovery vehicle with my car on the back, me perched, still shaking, in the cabin beside the driver, drove around the city's one way systems, to find where the large vehicle could top and let me off, with suitcases for my holiday in Wales into the station entrance or side entrance or back entrance. With a return ticket from that station, and no car, mine being in the local breaker's yard, with half my possessions still inside, I arrived in Reading again at the end of the course, to be collected by my husband who drove from London along the M4 to collect me, and home again.

Windsor, pedestrian area, previous Xmas. Notice the decoration of a royal crown in foreground. More decorations are handing across the street, mid-distance. Windsor Castle is peeping over the top in the background. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

If you are driving from London, you pass Windsor on the motorway on your left, the distant Windsor Castle just glimpsed, and then reach the turn off for Reading. If you are driving to Reading and passing at Xmas, or any season, you might make two centre stops, stopping at Windsor on the way to Reading or on the way back.

I've asked to stop and drive through Reading to break the drive from London to Wales. Hard to find somewhere to park.

But if you are in the area, such as a student or teacher at Reading university campus, you will live nearby or stay nearby, and know the parking places or bus routes or walking routes into the city centre.

The email told me that the library and museum were worth seeing, so do take a look. Type in Reading Museum and you get photos and I had this heading:
https://www.google.com/maps/uv

Esperanto
The Esperanto meetings at the library include one in summer 2018 and one later in 2018 just before Christmas, on or near the date of the birth of Zamenhof, who invented the universal language Esperanto.

Esperanto In Vienna, Austria
By the way, if you are holidaying or working in Vienna, Austria, see the museum with exhibitions on Esperanto and other made up languages. Esperanto is the most successful

Esperanto in England
In the north of England there's a museum on Esperanto and a college teaching Esperanto. See my other posts on Esperanto.

I have given several speeches on Esperanto, the world's easiest language, with consistent spelling and grammar and 16 basic rules. My talk with photos of Zamenhof and the museum about him in Poland and his grave with the Esperanto inscription encouraged members of the audience to say they wanted to learn Esperanto.



Reading Town Hall
Wonderful old building. Designed in the late 1700s!

Inside, the museum contains a copy of the Bayeux Tapestry. See it for free! William the Conqueror and unlucky Harold, shot in the eye by an arrow. Or was that merely William's wishful thinking, propaganda, a threat to others, don't mess with me.

William's legacy to us was the Domesday book, and all those French words, such as beef from boeuf, French for cow.  Go to Hastings, in England, or Bayeux in France, for different views of history.  Or simply ask any two visitors! The same simple question, to curators, 'Was William good for England?' will provoke two differnt answers.

You could discuss this in Esperanto. Start looking up the words now in preparation for your next visit.

The revamped interior also contains the modern museum, library and café.

Esperanto, Desperanto
If you can't do languages, Esperanto is for you. If you are good at languages, add it on, an easy extra.

Monthly events for Esperanto speakers and total novices in the cafe, run under the auspices of Duolingo.

The website said the Xmas event starts at noon, but the email said they meet at 11, so if I were you I'd arrive at 10.30, look around the museum or library and keep an eye open for when people arrive.

Esperanto Events in Reading
August ?
September 15, 2018.
Saturday Oct 13, 2018.
Saturday November 17, 2018.
Xmas Event, Dec 15 11-3 pm. (Not an evening event. Lunchtime.)

Reading Museum,
Reading Town Hall,
Blagrave Street,
Reading,
Berkshire, RG1 1OH

readingmuseum.org.uk
http://www.bayeuxtapestry.org.uk

Learn Esperanto:
duolingo.com (Lots of Languages.)
Lernu.net (Devoted to Esperanto. Looks like lernu is an Esperanto word, simple spelling. Read more on the lernu.net website.)

Travel Information
Trains run from Paddington, London, to Reading.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Town_Hall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reading_Museum
visitbritain.com
visitengland.com
visitlondon.com
https://www.gwr.com/plan-journey/stations-and-routes/london-to-reading
http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2018/05/frank-talk-about-learning-esperanto-if.html
https://events.duolingo.com/u/mw3qbu/ Contact Rico, the ambassador.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker, teacher of English and other languages. If you would like a talk or workshop on Esperanto and learning languages, why you should be bilingual, or any other travel subject, for entertainment, after dinner, or business, please contact me.

Driving From London to walk in Cork in Ireland via The Fishguard Ferry, and back to London walks

Sculpture of Fish on Lower Harbour, Fishguard, N Wales. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

Problem
I go to Fishguard every year to Writers' Holiday. From the Fishguard Bay Hotel on the top of the cliff at Goodwick you see the trains arriving below, bringing passengers from London and cars driving up to catch the ferry going off to Ireland.

If you stay in Fishguard at a b and b, three things you should do:
1 See the museum on the upper floor of the town hall (a green building on the central square), featuring the tapestry of how the indomitable Welsh women wearing red coats and tall black hats fought off and captured the French would-be invaders. A proud moment in history.

Fighting Welsh Women In The Tapestry
Creating the tapestry is a modern achievement - see the video of how they commissioned somebody to do the drawings. First, they had to research. It is not a myth but a true story, well documented. Who was the lady who led the Welsh women to march around and frighten the French?

Whether your interest is Wales, history, motivation and morale, art, embroidery, women's achievements, or project management, or negotiating prices, the story of the embroidery creation will interest you. The designer researched suitable scenes, the buildings still standing, checked characters and colours described in historical accounts.

Then each scene was drawn to size, with enough action or background to each scene in the entire square. The drawings were converted into stitches. They had to source the hessian backing, find matching embroidery silks at the right price, find embroiderers to do each section. Finally, stitch together all the scenes. Then mount the embroidery.

Later, of course, display lighting, preservation, security, opening ceremony, publicity, and finally making the video - which had either be filmed, started earlier, or involved going back to find the people and places.

Check museum opening times which vary seasonally. You have a library and town hall and a shop on the ground floor. If you can't see the tapestry, or if you can, allow time for the shop which has tourist literature as well as postcards and souvenirs of the tapestry.

Drive or Walk to Lower Fishguard
Around the edge of the bay you can walk past the old cottages and a tea room and shop to the sculpture at the end. Seagulls will follow you. If you stop to sit on a bench and admire the boarts in the bay, while you eat a sandwich, the birds will hop around your feet, watching, hoping for a crumb or two or more. Look up and see Fishguard Bay Hotel. Check the opening times of the bar and restaurant in Fishguard Bay Hotel.

Go up to have a drink or meal,or Welsh cake for tea, admire the view from the terrace at the front. Read about the movies of Moby Dick and Under Milk Wood by Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (who visited and died in the USA) and about Liz Talyor and her husband (twice married to him) Welshman Richard Burton, who stayed at this hotel, and probably stood where you are standing, after they had filmed in the bay.

Fishguard Bay Hotel For Views and News Of History
2 Yes, go up to the Fishguard Bay hotel, where the terrace gives a lovely view on a fine day - longer hours of daylight in summer. From the bar or the tables by the window in the dining room you can look out over the bay. If you are in Fishguard just for one day or evening, go for a quick drink. If you are taking a holiday, go there for a birthday or celebration or first night or last night drink or meal.

Where do the passengers go? I've looked up Rosslare, and can't see much there.

Answer
I just spoke to a friend in London, whose family live in Cork. He said they used to drive regularly from London, along the M4 to Wales, up to Fishguard, stay overnight in a b and b. In the morning, they would catch the ferry across to Rosslare. They would not stop in Rosslare but drove straight across to Cork where they stayed at a b & b called Sea Breeze, nothing special about the decor, just friendly people who are their friends.

What is there to do in Cork? Mainly walks, rambles. The complete opposite to London.

You can imagine the walk around Cork. The crowds in Oxford Street in London. However, I must defend London. If you go to Cork and come back to London, looking for places for pleasant walks you will find them. The Japanese are impressed by London's parks. In the city centre, you have Green Park, Regents Park with the zoo and summer theatre in the park.

If you want to walk in London, there are many walks and the London Loop, which is signposted through parks and alleyways and pedestrian bridges and the old Grims's Dyke.

In Fishguard you can walk down from a car park to a promontory with ruins. See my previous posts on Fishguard for more information on places and more links.

Handy Websites
AA driving and routes
Ireland
Ferry
Wales
London

Britain
https://www.visitbritain.com/gb/en

Fishguard Bay hotel
tapestry
Writers Holiday

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Please save links to your favourite posts and pass them onto your family, friends and colleagues.

Packing Your Car, Stacking your car, Planning You Trip Essentials, Items Retrieved In Emergency

Problem
How to fit all suitcases and bits and bobs in your car boot and interior?

Answer
Car boot - American and British names
Americans call it the trunk. The British word for the front is the bonnet. The American word for the part at the front is the hood.

How do remember the American and British words? Imagine a lady or a dress maker's mannequin laying down across the rack on top of the car, looking forwards to see where the car is going and enjoy the view. Her bonnet or hood is at the front. Her boots are at the back. By her feet is her trunk or suitcase.

Fixe of Car Boot
1 Try the empty suitcases in the car before packing.
2 Try the suitcases pyramid stacking. If the top obscures the drivers view, line everything up towards the left or right.
3 If you want to get things out en route, try stacking upright like books on a bookshelf with another other across the top.
4 If you are travelling with a friend who is arriving at your house, or being picked up along the route, ask the size of their suitcase or tell them the limit.

Stacking suitcases
1 Have all items needed for the journey or on arrival in you handbag or a small big in the body of the car.
2 Place valuables which must must be left in the car instead into a small light wheel on aircraft-friendly 18 inch bag, left on top or even in the car, so you can take it with you when rushing to the toilet at motorway stops.

Packing Suitcases
1 Allow room for souvenirs by packing a spare travel bag inside your biggest or handiest bag or handbag.

Saving Space
2 Consider taking old clothes you can leave behind
3 Use a folding device.
4 Use the roll-up method.
5 Use the nesting dolls principle.
6 Wear two layers of thin clothes.
7 Consider colour coding. For example, green case or green Marks and Spencer carrier bag for food needed on the journey.

Do not obscure the driver's vision. Keep the back window clear. In some countries a van can drive without rear vision but must have mirrors on both sides.

Animals and Babies
Take into account any animal such as a dog or cat in a box or cage or behind a barrier on the back seat.

For a baby allow for: the baby, (sitting or lying down, the cot, the baby seat, and the size of a pushchair. Add the space of baby clothes, changing mats, toys and food. Consider how you need them to be accessible at stops on the way or when unpacking at your destination.

Fragile Items
You can get souvenirs posted home and delivered by courier. Or wrap them inside towels or blankets, or inside boots and shoes. A blast sealable covering is useful. Also tupperware boxes for small items which might leak such as cosmetics.

Food and Drink
You can allow space for a cool box with an ice container inside to keep food and drinks cool for the journey amor at the destination.
Food bought at the destination can be sent home by courier to arrive after you get back.

Need Extra Space
1 Lower the back seat for skis. When buying or hiring a car, check it will take skis.
2 Check the roof rack and allow time to buy a rack plus fixing straps.
3 Consider buying a trailer to attach behind a bike or car. The vehicle manufacturer or brochure should tell you the weight and shape a vehicle can pull. Learn how to turn corners without being pulled over by the weight or endangering others if the back portion swings out.
4 Alternatively hire a big motorhome for the holiday. Transfer clothes already on hangers from your home into the motorhome.

Check the glove box contains your insurance, car handbook - print one off the internet - especially how to open the boot, open the petrol compartment - often a lever under the knee level on the driver's side, central locking and child locks, what the warning signals mean, petrol stations (gas stations) en route, cheap hotels en route inc as your journey is delayed, coffee bars en route, landmarks, maps and routes, hats, sunglasses, glasses, water, food, blanket in cold weather, first aid kit, emergency numbers.

Story
Do not over pack. I was on my way to a holiday in Wales still in England on the M4 which I was rear-ended by another vehicle. My car was a write-off. I had to empty the car of what I needed to take with me for the holiday.

I kept them waiting fifteen minutes whilst I unpacked from the smashed up car my bag of clothes and books. I was afraid I would never see again the items left in the car, which was towed to a car graveyard garage.

I had to carry all my luggage on the journey to my destination. First offloading it. Then hoisting it into the cab of the tow truck.

Then by train. First the departure station. Then the stop, with one change of train and the stairs at the station and running back to the ticket office to check the times and platforms since none were shown and I did not know which intermediate point station I needed.

Finally, two weeks later, go to the dump to collect my left behind possessions from the car. Nothing in it? There is always something. Your favourite pen under the seat. A coin. Maps. The tool kit, spare tire, towing ropes, first aid box, business card, spare key in box under wing.

You also need a photo of the damaged car to prove it was the other driver's fault (eg rear end damage). You need photos to claim for your injuries (eg broken windscreen, blood on car, or damaged driver's door showing impact. You might not even have noticed at the time, the tell-tale damage which your family or the insurers will note.

More Tips
http://www.traveller24.com/TravelPlanning/Suitcase-secrets-how-to-pack-a-car-boot-20140526
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/travel_news/article-4549930/Practical-Princess-Ford-infographic-pack-car

Finally - car keys
Do you have the spare key with you or back home? Do you know the number of the key and where to re-order a key?

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photograph, author and speaker. I have other posts on packing. Please share links to posts.

Huntingdon and Hungerford

Rem - which is which? Both begin with the letters Hun, and have a g in the middle, and the letters o and d further along the word.

Hungerford is west of London, along the M4 which runs west, near the Haro restaurant and Cobbs Farm which has a supermarket of farm produce and a cafe. Hungerford was unfortunately in the news for the Hungerford massacre a few years ago. Long before that it was a stop on the old road, and has a fine old pub which is a historic hotel. If you are hungry go the expensive gourmet restaurant The Haro at Little Bedwyn.

Huntingdon, however, is north of London, near the university city of Cambridge on the river Cam.
See my next post about the coffee and restaurant of the hotel on the bridge at Huntingdon. Hunting for students?

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker and author.