Ha, L. Last time I drove in the UK, maybe 1992, up Chester way and into Scotland, I thought exactly the same as your button-holing New South Welshman. Layovers were so far spaced. You couldn't pull over anywhere, a big shock to one used to roads of a certain width or at least having flattish spots parallelling roads. Greece, Italy, I did not dare on four wheels. Trains and buses sufficed.
B
> On 21 Aug 2014, at 8:26 pm, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> You were right. That's all news to me. Our rough is getting narrower and
> narrower often with stone hedges. I met a man - he buttonholed me - in a
> Penzance pub, a man who had sold lawn mowers in NSW for decades and wanted
> to talk about all the issues. I sidetracked him, fearing for my will to
> live, and he complained about stone hedges either side of narrow roads in
> the surrounding areas. They, he said, should be moved or taken away to
> facilitate traffic flow. I remarked that they have been there centuries
> perhaps millennia. More evidence on his side as far as he was concerned.
>
> Very different perspectives, though I am familiar with the behaviour of
> psychos - I watch them parking and unparking if there's such a word every
> morning while I wait for the bus. And there is Greece.
>
> In UK, flashing your headlights means Do go ahead dear boy. In Greece, it
> means get out of my way; am not stopping. I discovered that crossing a
> multi-lane road at Piraeus. They didn't stop but were adept at going round
> me at speed. I didn't even need a loose plaster.
>
> I'll leave you to incorporate what you have told us into your narrative.
> Good luck!
>
> L
>
>
>
>
>> On 20 August 2014 23:12, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> Ah, Doug and L, I see now that I perhaps need to explain expectations on
>> Australian bush roads. Many roads are still dirt roads but influence,
>> council decisions etc lead to some roads which start to carry a bit more
>> traffic over the years, getting the go-ahead for a bitumen strip down the
>> middle which is wide enough for one car to get a bit more of a hurtle up.
>> When you come across a car coming from the other direction, both cars are
>> expected to slow down and ease the two passenger side wheels on to the
>> 'rough', the dirt 'shoulder' of the road while the passing is done. If one
>> car goes early into the rough, sometimes the road is adjudged as wide
>> enough by the driver of the other to remain hogging bitumen and he doesn't
>> even deign to slow down.
>>
>> In my poem, the 'I' formed the impression early that the truck was fully
>> intent on ploughing on, going nowhere into the rough with his bounty of
>> piled pineapples, so he jumped early on to the shoulder. If any of you have
>> seen the film Mad Max, the first one, you will know what a psycho can do
>> bearing down straight at you on the road.
>>
>> Clear?
>>
>> Bill
>>
>>>> On 21 Aug 2014, at 12:32 am, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> I sort of feel the same as L, Bill, but also can't quite 'see' the
>> situation:is the 'me' on the road or a sidewalk? What exactly is that
>> 'rough'?
>>>
>>> The 2nd one cuts close, & fast..
>>>
>>> Doug
>>>> On Aug 19, 2014, at 3:37 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On Jealous Street
>>>>
>>>> A truck rattles towards me
>>>> not caring to take two wheels
>>>> into the rough
>>>>
>>>> so I swerve off bitumen
>>>> noting his passing tray
>>>> piled high with pineapples.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Laser removal
>>>>
>>>> Now thou
>>>> inkless
>>>> naked form
>>>> bears
>>>> closer inspection.
>>>
>>> Douglas Barbour
>>> [log in to unmask]
>>>
>>> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation
>> 2 (UofAPress).
>>> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press).
>>>
>>> Something else is out there
>>> godamnit
>>>
>>> And I want to hear it
>>>
>>> C.D.Wright
>
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