Doug
when you are out walking in the country strangers say hello, while the
proximity to a city can be spotted without looking at a map when people
stop doing so. Crowd pressure, I reckon.
Best
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On 22 August 2014 16:27, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> low population and no one to clear up a mess both make for politeness
>
> you may be expected to stand on your own 2 feet etc but if you really need
> help then you'll be recipient of enormous help - same goes for
> thoughtfulness and courtesy
>
> not just in this country
>
> i've known that in Greece and ex Jugoslavia and Scandinavia
> once you're out the cities
> I'm sure it's the same everywhere
> give or take the odd crazy
>
> L
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 22 August 2014 16:15, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Wow: all that information!
> >
> > I was reminded, NB, of 'single track with passing places,' which we ran
> > into on the Scottish islands. Fun those, but the drivers were generally
> > polite as I recall...
> >
> > Terminology shifts from country to country & can confuse...
> >
> > Doug
> > On Aug 22, 2014, at 4:51 AM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Many Aussies have said this. I understand. Might even sympathise. But
> > > I'm not sure we need motor vehicles for private transport here. (The
> > most I
> > > ever had was a provisional licence around 20 years old.)
> > > I think the desire to have a car must be strong. A woman on my
> favourite
> > > island, where you can't go a mile in one direction before you hit the
> > sea,
> > > has said she hopes one day they get a car just so that they could use
> it
> > > when they go to the pub. That's an expensive self-drive. Or would be.
> > > In the wilder emptier stretches of the country, and it empties quite a
> > bit
> > > in the north, though still densely populated by some measures, one used
> > to
> > > be able to travel on the post bus. It took planning; but so does
> getting
> > > the money for a car. Now it seems the post will be abolished as we know
> > > it...
> > > There's so little land, I'd hate to see more flattened.
> > > People do just pull off the road on the moors.
> > > Stone hedges etc of antiquity matter to me even if there is no money to
> > do
> > > pollen counts etc under them. I like em being there. Now and then one
> > finds
> > > survival of double hedges, the now tarmaced road between where the
> cattle
> > > walked, and sometimes you can still see how the tops of the hedges were
> > > cobbled. There's a stretch near Lizard Point where you can walk atop
> them
> > > cross country. I jumped down into a field a few years back and
> startled a
> > > labourer who said he'd been working there n years and it had never
> > occurred
> > > to him you could do that.
> > > Fragments of social history if nothing else. They began taking them
> down
> > on
> > > Scilly, to use them for building, and the wind began to destroy
> > > agriculture. No one had thought of that.
> > > Your sunburnt country is of course somewhat larger, and you don't all
> > speak
> > > of lawnmowers all the time, thank gawd. We have no space and a high
> > > incidence of historical artefacts.
> > >
> > > L
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On 22 August 2014 11:06, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
> > >
> > >> 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
> > >>>
> > >>
> > >
> >
> > 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
> >
>
--
David Joseph Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
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