2 October 2015

Don’t you just love the many and varied customs and dialects you find when driving around in your motor? I am not sure I fully understand everything I see and hear - in this country never mind abroad - but it can be jolly amusing and keeps the old brain active. I soon spotted that the lady admiring the motor in Manchester was enquiring as to the value and not introducing herself as Emma Chissit.   

 

In Scotland it seems that “erra perra” means there are two of something and “och eye the noo" means yes.  In Wales, where there is a dreadful shortage of vowels, one needs a mackintosh when asking directions!    

And as for the yokel in deepest Essex who could only say “Well I wouldn't have started from here" !!

     Indeed it is often better not to ask directions if one is anywhere but the Home Counties. After all a gentleman is seldom lost - it is usually the road that is just not going in the desired direction. I find that ladies often fail to understand this basic logic and suggest things like turning round, as if that would improve matters!

    Gestures and hand signals are also very interesting. The gentleman who couldn't overtake me for a while on the A38 and made a sign indicating a horn on his head, obviously thought I was a bit of a devil driving such a magnificent motor. How true! There seem to be quite a number of Churchill imitators around, but I have not yet worked out what a single middle finger stuck up in the air means. Pointing towards heaven perhaps - well the car is lovely to drive. I think tapping the side of one's head either means that one should be wearing a cap, or that one has forgotten something.

    What is noticeable is that I seem to be the only person on the road who is using the correct hand-signals for turns, slowing down etc., as set out in my book of the Highway Code (1932 edition). 

The book does have one error however - the picture of the carriage driver with his whip held aloft does not mean he is stopping. It means the carriage is about to accelerate rapidly - as soon as the horse catches sight of that upraised whip!!

    However, when it is raining and I have to have the hood up, rather than stick my arm out I would rather leave it to other drivers to work out what I am about to do – my Harris Tweed does tend to pong a bit when wet.

A presto