The Blog of G

On tuesday last, Ireland witnessed one of the worst traffic accidents in our history. It’s been covered plenty on breakingnews.ie so I’m not going to go into details here, my sympathy goes out to all those involved and their families and friends. This was a truly terrible accident, myself and Elly passed the scene about 10 minutes before it happened. I hope you’ll forgive me for feeling relieved that we weren’t involved.

Something positive has to come from a tragedy like this and I hope it’s helped others to think about the way they drive, the way it has made me think about how I drive. The question that comes to my mind is “so, how fast should you drive in fog?”

Tonight, I did some calculations and worked/puzzled this out. At 120Kph you move a little bit more than 33 meters every second. That’s obviously far to fast to be travelling if you can only see 20m or 25m and thats still only a light fog. If you come up to a stationary object it’s already too late to brake.

So what speed is safe?

Lets say you can see 20m. That’s about 65 feet. What distance can you stop your car in, from what speed? is 70Kph slow enough? Well, you travel about 19.5m in 1 sec. Could you react and stop your car in 1 sec? I know I don’t want to find out.

Even at half that speed you only have 2 secs to react and avoid something thats happened 65 feet ahead. Think about that next time you start your car, I know I will.

Lets make that the positive thing that comes from this, think about how you drive. Not just the speed, your road manners as well. Indicate when you’re going to make a turn or change lane not as you do it. Don’t stay in the overtaking lane if you’re not overtaking and leave earlier so you’re not in a hurry. and maybe we’ll all help make our roads safer for us all.

In my recent post, I mentioned that Myself and Elly will be at this years Belgian Grand Prix. That is of course providing the upgrade work is finished. Thankfully, they are ahead of schedule at the moment, at least according to Grandprix.com.

It’s important for us that this work is done and ready for the Grand Prix, seeing as how the tickets that I’ve bought are for the new grandstand cited on the “new” Bus stop chicane. If it ain’t finished in time what’s going to happen to our tickets? will there even be a race if the upgrades aren’t finished in time?

Here’s hoping it’s all done in time!

I think so! That’s why we’re planning a three week european tour!:D

So far on the schedule we have, Stonehenge, Dunkirk, Nurburg, Amsterdam, Wiesbaden, Innsbruck, Monza, Maranello, Monte Carlo, Cannes, Aix-en-provence, Troyes, Maastricht, Spa Francorchamps, Gouda, back to Amsterdam and then home. We intend to drive this! I think it’s about 6650km before we drive around any of the places we’re visiting. Are we mad? Ask me in October

Some of the more astute readers will have recognised that a few of these places would have significance to Formula 1 fans like myself and Elly. Yes, we are taking in not 1 but 2 Grand Prix. What’s more there the last 2 european races of the 2007 season, add to that the fact that Monza and Spa are 2 amazing circuits which have always had amazing races and your starting to get a picture of why were calling this a holiday of a lifetime!

We were at the european GP in Nurburg last year, so why are we returning? Well, were actually heading for the old Nordschleife circuit. We have managed to get a ticket for the Ring Taxi. Which if your not familiar is basically 1 Lap of the old circuit in a BMW M5 with 1 of 3 possible ex- BMW test-drivers at the wheel, a guaranteed sub 10 minute lap. Who knows I may be inspired to take my own car round and see if I can manange a sub 10 minute lap on the fiercest race circuit ever.

We’re also planning to spend a few days in Maranello, the home of Ferrari but also the birthplace of the performance car, where the legend that is Italian Sports cars was born. Were hoping to do a tour of the various manufacturer’s one of the days this covers Ferrari, Lambourghini,
Pagani and more.

For now, I think that’s enough details but don’t worry, I will be talking more about this as we get more details tied down.

So the PS3 launched, a game console that costs over €600! I have been a Sony fan but now I’m cured is your still searching for a cure this should do it. Thanks to Kevin Burton for this gem.

So saturday, Myself and Elly, along with some of her American work mates, went into Dublin to see the parade. I’ve lived in Ireland all my life and this is the first time that I’ve ever seen the Dublin Parade Live, as it were, so, after we all met up and found a suitable vantage point along the route, we settled in to wait for the parade, snapping a photo or two and chatting while we waited.

I took a few snaps of the masses as we all waited for our first sight of the parade.

Elly took a few shots in black & white. This one was just some random child in the crowd, but he seems to be enjoying himself:)

As the parade arrived Elly was closer to the rails and started to snap shots in both mono and colour.

Mono wouldn’t have been my choice for a parade but I don’t think either of the next two shots would have worked as well in colour

I’m not sure which one was scarier!

One thing, I noticed that surprised me, was the lack of any Irish Dancers. What’s up with that?

Well there were some interesting St. Patricks

These last 2 are my favourites I just love the colour and the energy. I am at times jealous of Elly’s ability to just pick up a camera and snap great shots, especially when she hogs the camera for an entire afternoon :p