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Life Spugs because...

Started by Dog Deever, 04 March, 2009, 08:00:25 PM

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Peter Wolf

Quote from: COMMANDO FORCES on 30 July, 2009, 09:00:15 PM
By the way Peter, I am quite happy for you to run anyone down who is walking in the cycle path. I have been to Brighton many a time and know the area you speak of and I have seen the fools walking along the cycle path even when they can see a bike approaching.

That whole stretch of seafront is a Dickhead magnet.I hate it in summer when its busy and i will choose an alternative route or use the road because i find it too stressful  to plough my way through them as they just wind me up in the end especially when you get some lairy drunken dickheads who thinks its clever to start waiving their arms around and shouting and causing an obstruction deliberately .Luckily i have always been able to avoid physical contact with them but there have been times in the past when i have just felt like knocking them out and shutting them up permanently.

Further to that any adult that rides on the pavement and shouts at a young child to get out of the way deserves to have the shit kicked out of them in my opinion.Its inexcusable behaviour so well done for doing the right thing.


Worthing Bazaar - A fete worse than death

Old Tankie

Shoot the prats, that's what I say!!  The centre of Peterborough is pedestrianised and cyclists are supposed to dismount but, of course, they don't.  The wallys just carry on cycling, causing grief to everyone in their path.  Should have machinegun posts mounted at each end of the high street; one warning shot, and if the b******s don't dismount, take 'em out!!

Family groups of cyclists make me smile; Mummy, Daddy, Jane & Jimmy.  The kids are wearing helmets but the parents don't bother (so "uncool").  So, when the car ploughs into them, Jane & Jimmy will probably be okay but Mummy & Daddy will be 'brown bread'!!  Ah well, they'll just have to grow up in an orphanage!!

TordelBack

I'm not entirely sure that cycling helmets are proof against a car running into you, OT.

johnnystress

van loaded, dog sitters organised, just about to hit the road..and the venue cancels the gig at the last fucking minute

cunts

>:(

I, Cosh

Quote from: TordelBack on 30 July, 2009, 08:36:37 PM
Can I endorse this statement, and add cyclists who still cycle on the road when there's a bloody cycle path or lane provided for them?  I speak as a cyclist of long standing, incidentally.
Nay, nay and thrice nay. These are optional and, in the case of cycle paths in particular, I'd say geared towards a completely different kind of cycling than simply getting from A to B.

Perhaps if there was a nationwide network of cycle lanes and paths analogous to the road network which had been properly thought out and developed rather than a slapdash smattering of broken, irregular routes located wherever was cheapest and most convenient for council planning departments desperate to look like they've done something towards encouraging increased cycle use without, in many cases, actually employing anyone who is likely to use them. And perhaps if cycle paths weren't dimly lit backwaters litterd with dogshit, broken glass and potholes frequented by gangs of feral youths and requiring the user to bump up and down kerbs (which their wheels aren't built for) every 100ft.

I don't know what it's like in Ireland, but we're quite a long way from achieving that here in the UK. Off the top of my head, I can think of two places within a mile of my flat where to attempt to use the provided "cycle lane" would contravene anything a child learns in cycling proficiency tests and be far more dangerous than adopting a proper position in the road. Using a cycle lane, particularly a discontinuous one, on a busy road can actually be more dangerous because you're taking yourself out of the flow of traffic but you still have to move in and out of that flow as lane stops and starts, as you pull out ot avoid the morons parked in at and so on. This gives drivers approaching from behind the opportunity [not the right word] to pay you less attention than they should which can be lethal as you approach a left turn. The flipside is that you have to wait in the same queue of traffic at the lights rather than sidling up to head of the line, but that isn't much of a price to pay for being safer on the road.

There are one or two places where I will get off and use the alternatives (crossing the Newbridge roundabout Eastbound) but a bicycle is a road vehicle which can and should be ridden perfectly safely on virtually all roads. The best way to make the roads safer to ride on is to ride on them safely and visibly, adopting a space in the road which forces drivers to treat passing you in the same way as they would another vehicle.
We never really die.

TordelBack

#470
Quote.. but a bicycle is a road vehicle which can and should be ridden perfectly safely on virtually all roads.

Yes, but not (as is the case on my journey to and from work) where the road has been narrowed to make two separate cylce paths to such an extent that there really isn't room for two cars travelling in the opposite direction plus a bike going either way, while a deserted raised cycle lane on each side of the road mocks us.

QuoteThe best way to make the roads safer to ride on is to ride on them safely and visibly, adopting a space in the road which forces drivers to treat passing you in the same way as they would another vehicle.

By the way, I completely agree with this part.

House of Usher

I can't sleep. The thought of teaching 600+ hours next year for not much more than £13,000 is keeping me awake. Hourly paid teaching sucks. Not being on a salary always means you end up doing work for free. I can't go on like this indefinitely. It takes a heavy toll.
STRIKE !!!

Bolt-01

Ush- I'm sure you have a really hefty workload, but 600 hours over a year (even allowing for naff all in August) is still only 54-55 hrs a month.

I'm assuming there is a significant amount of prep work and marking to do, but it still doesn't seem to match up with the amount of hours that, for example I pull.

I work for 1700 hrs approx per year allowing for leave, and a great many folks here do the same, if not more.

So whilst I'm sure you work plenty hard, and do the best job you can, you are still pulling over £20 an hour. For teaching. Mrs Bolt works in an A&E dept for less than that, and she is qualified in all sorts of stuff.

So, forgive me for telling you to just get on with it man, there are lots of folks worse off than you. This is meant to be in the vein of 'hey, come on, it isn't that bad- at least you are still working' though I am aware that it may not read that way.

Now I'm off to letter comic strips and put together comics for free...

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Bolt-01 on 01 August, 2009, 08:05:57 AM
Ush- I'm sure you have a really hefty workload, but 600 hours over a year (even allowing for naff all in August) is still only 54-55 hrs a month.


Careful on this one Bolt old boy. I speak from a well placed position to observe but with relative neutrality as a librarian in an FE College were 600 is the standard teaching year with remission for various other roles tutors are required to take. Its an incredibly demanding years work load. Remember those hours are confined to typically about 36 weeks in the year and include only face to face contact time, every hour of which can be exhausting depending on who you're teaching .

The fact that teachers get a great deal of holiday (and in FE it is most definately not all the times the College is on 'holiday') is not a reason 'cos a great proportion of that time is spent doing numerous administration functions that are impossible to do in the typical term time week.

On top of the generally acknowledged and recognised work teacher shave (marking etc) a good tutor, one you would like your kids in front of, will have an incredible amount of pastorial work, one to one to help with the specific needs of individual students at heart, a need to constantly redefine and redevelop their teaching methods in line with new opportunities available today and the changing learning style of students various college meeting, working groups etc etc.

Teaching, when done well, is an incredibly hard job and the first couple of years are particularly so. Don't forget those teaching contact hours are in front of typically a group of teenagers who are often testing their boundaries and learning so much at such different paces that the group of people in front of you can be stunningly intimidating.

Don't underestimate the pressure of teaching its massive.

COMMANDO FORCES

Pah 600 hours a year.
Now when I was a lad we used to work 600 hours a week and if we didn't...... ;)

Old Tankie

Ush, if you're up at 1.45a.m., stressing about your job, it's time for a change of career.  You're obviously an educated and intelligent guy, there must be other careers open to you that would make you happier.

My son recently changed career after 10 years in a well paid, high-pressure job that was slowly sucking the lifeblood out of him.  He has now bitten the bullet and is doing something that he's wanted to do since he was five years old.  I've never seen him happier.  The change of career, combined with being a new Dad, has left him a very happy, if knackered, 30-something!!

Remember, life's too short, and there are no pockets in shrouds.

House of Usher

#476
Old Tankie, you're quite right: I should move on. The person who answers the phone when you ring up the council gets £18,937 and for that they only want A-levels or a year's call centre experience. I'm having to apply for jobs in order to qualify for Jobseeker's Allowance, and if I get any salaried job offer I'm taking it.

My 600 hours' teaching is only spread over 10 months, and £13,000 was a very rough over-estimate that includes holiday pay. Teaching 20 hours a week involves being there 25 hours and a minimum of 10 hours' marking and 10 hours' preparation. Last year it was more than that because of the amount of new material I had to originate. Nine to five would be civilised by comparison, and better paid. A salaried teaching post would be luxurious. What's bugging me at the moment is receiving memoranda from work all through July and August when I'm not even on the payroll!

Thanks for the pep talk, Bolt-01. I appreciate it could be worse. Having a lifetime's qualifications at least keeps me in the £10-20k earnings bracket and means that realistically I don't have to go back to retail again, for which I'm thankful.

I know I could make hourly paid teaching work for me if I only had to teach GCSE. That's the easiest part of my job. The hardest part is teaching leisure learning courses assessed by coursework over 30 weeks to make up the hours, because they generate about 10 times more marking and admin. As Colin_YNWA points out, it's the first couple of years that are hardest, and I'm not past that stage yet.
STRIKE !!!

Kerrin

I'm sure I mentioned this before when you were having a hard time keeping your enthusiasm up Ush (I know for a fact that I couldn't do what you do) but have you considered taking your skills abroad for a while. Better pay, living conditions, cost of living etc, obviously there are downsides but...

House of Usher

Nope. Can't do it. They don't need sociologists and social anthropologists abroad, because they've got their own; and if there's an opening for a Brit they'll always prefer one who's middle class, public school and Oxbridge. There are loads of new universities opening up in the middle east, but they don't want what I teach, because all the demand over there is for technical education, not humanities. I don't really want to teach English abroad because it kind of makes a mockery of everything I've learned since, and besides there are loads of willing teachers half my age who are willing to work for travel money. It's not an old man's game. Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not really looking for solutions, just having a whinge, as is the purpose of this thread!

:) ;)
STRIKE !!!

Peter Wolf

#479
Quote from: TordelBack on 31 July, 2009, 05:44:05 PM
Quote.. but a bicycle is a road vehicle which can and should be ridden perfectly safely on virtually all roads.

Yes, but not (as is the case on my journey to and from work) where the road has been narrowed to make two separate cylce paths to such an extent that there really isn't room for two cars travelling in the opposite direction plus a bike going either way, while a deserted raised cycle lane on each side of the road mocks us.

QuoteThe best way to make the roads safer to ride on is to ride on them safely and visibly, adopting a space in the road which forces drivers to treat passing you in the same way as they would another vehicle.

By the way, I completely agree with this part.

So do i.

A lot of cyclists simply should not be allowed on the roads because they are a hazard to themselves and others.Wether i am driving or cycling i keep as wide a distance from them as possible as i dont want to be near them.They are unpredictable and irresponsible but having said that its easy to differentiate between a competent cyclist and an incompetent cyclist.


Worthing Bazaar - A fete worse than death