Post by Athel Cornish-BowdenPost by Katy JennisonPost by Athel Cornish-BowdenPost by John DunlopPost by philThough I notice (and this may be primarily a northern UK
usage) that Brit truck/lorry drivers often seem to refer to
their vehicles as 'the wagon'.
I wonder if any non-Brits use, or are aware of, "juggernaut" in
the sense of "heavy/articulated lorry".
The word was introduced (or adopted from India), if memory
serves, for the huge lorries that, according to the people who
have become Brexiteers, the French and Germans wanted to impose
on idyllic English villages. Nonsense, of course, but what else
do you expect from the people who have become Brexiteers?
What, you mean that the devilish sat-navs which send these things
down the sort of minor roads where they get stuck and have to be
hauled backwards by someone's tractor for half a mile aren't really
programmed by wicked Brussels bureaucrats?
I lost a lot of my faith in my GPS when I used it in England for the
first time. I know perfectly well how to get to Bath on the A36,
following down the hill to the London Road and then turning right.
However, before I got to bottom of the hill the GPS told me to turn
right onto a smallish road. Thinking there might be roadworks (though
this was more than ten years ago, and I'm sure if it was
sophisticated enough to know about roadworks) further along I obeyed,
after several more turns I was back on the A36, a bit higher than
where I'd started the detour. After that I decided to trust my
knowledge of Bath.
One of mine, a Garmin several years ago, took me on a "short cut"
through fire trails. After a while I developed a genuine fear of
breaking an axle somewhere among the rocks and the puddles of unknown
depth, but it was the sort of track where a U-turn would have been
physically impossible, and I didn't like the idea of driving in reverse
for several kilometres on a rough bush track, so I pushed ahead. The
detour added an hour to my travel time.
As soon as I got home I dumped that device and bought a more reputable
brand.
--
Peter Moylan http://www.pmoylan.org
Newcastle, NSW, Australia