Driving me potty.

As I was sat on the M25 today, in nose to tail traffic, surrounded by ENORMOUS lorries (that'll teach me to go to Lakeside), a whole new blog topic suddenly came to me: The joys of driving in this day and age.

Saying "in this day and age" probably makes me sound about 65, rather than the tender age of 27 that I am. But it got me thinking about "the good old days" (there I go again), when I was merely a passenger enjoying the view from the back seat.

Is it just me, or did pot holes not exist back then? I don't ever remember sitting in the back of Mum's car, thinking "Wow, this bumpy ride is fun!" whilst hearing her mutter "Bloody road surfaces. Just think what it's doing to my car..." I don't remember Dad ever having to drive slalom down the A127 to avoid huge gaping holes as if it was some kind of 80s video game. (I do remember him pretending that the car was filled with kangaroo petrol though, as he bounced the car down our road. Bless.)

But this is what my driving experience has been reduced to. On routes I drive often, I've come to remember where these black holes are, meaning I can skillfully avoid them. (This also probably means I look like I've had one too many white wine spritzers to the person driving behind me, but I digress.)

My MOT is always due at the start of January (Happy New Year to me!), and this year, the DAY BEFORE it was due, I was driving a fairly unknown route near Rainham. What happened next was that my poor little O.A.P. car met possibly the BIGGEST pot hole it has ever had the sorry chance to encounter. There was no avoiding this one, as it spanned my entire side of the road. Disaster. I thought the steering was pulling a bit on the way home but tried to ignore it.

Whilst waiting patiently at Kwik Fit the next day, I thought the car would probably fail, but on lots of little things as had happened the year before. But no. Had it not been for that bloody poxy Rainham pot hole, my worn-out little S reg Fiesta would have PASSED its MOT!! I couldn't believe it. The impact of the hole had broken some coil shaped whatsit (that's as technical as I get) and the whole thing on both sides had to be replaced. I could have cried. Actually, I think I did.

Did you see those pictures of the roads in Japan that got torn apart in the recent earthquake? If I remember rightly, they were back to normal, good as new, within six days of the event. Six days. So why can't the road maintenance people of Britain pull their fingers out and fix a few little pot holes?! It makes me so mad.

On top of all that, my car itself has started to turn against me. Not only does the electric window or speaker not work in the passenger door, but now the whole central locking on that side has bust too. This has resulted in passengers having to climb over the driver's seat to get in. As if to taunt me, the door handle on the inside is now constantly sticking out. My car is giving me the finger! I swear I can hear it laughing at me as I switch on the engine.

There's lots more to moan about on the roads, so perhaps this topic needs a second installment... I just think it's such a shame though; before I passed my test, I couldn't wait to start driving. Now I think I'd rather walk.