A Moan and Some Tangential Meanderings.

Today’s major cause of high blood pressure was the incidence of delays and frustration caused by traffic issues. You’d think that a short journey of seven miles to make a shopping trip to Ashbourne would be simple and uneventful, wouldn’t you? And usually it is, but not today. Today produced a plethora of delays mainly occasioned by three sets of road works in and around the town, two involving temporary traffic lights causing reduced traffic flow, and the third preventing any traffic flow at all because the road was blocked. And they were so strategically placed as to ensure that no amount of amending one’s route would miss them all unless the amendment was so extreme as to be farcical.

The problem is this: The schools are out at the moment, and when the schools are out there are far more parents with children visiting the town. August is also the height of the holiday season in the UK. It’s when Ashbourne gets visited by a monstrous regiment of Peak District tourists. In short, August is Ashbourne’s busiest time of the year unless you count the week leading up to Christmas.

So why do the clever people in Traffic Management – or whatever it’s called these days – at Derbyshire County Council arrange for three sets of road works to take place concurrently at the busiest time of the year? Could they not have been done at a quieter time, or at least spaced out rather than all being done together? On the surface it appears to be another example of the brainless tendency which often infects the bureaucratic machine, but what would I know?

OK, moan over. So now for something completely different…

Mel mentioned the ‘Opening of the Lion’s Gate’ tonight. It’s something to do with ancient myths, apparently, but she couldn’t remember the details because Mel is generally given to skipping over details on the way to the bottom line. In this case it seems to be about delays, frustration, and a feeling of heaviness in the matter of life in general.

I had a couple of videos on the subject in my YouTube recommendations last night, but skipped over them on my way to a medley of Irish folk music. Tonight I will search the topic and see whether I can find a reason for the brainless tendency coming to the fore among the Derbyshire bureaucrats.

(Couldn’t end without reprising the moan, could I? And given the subject of a recent post, I might add that a black beetle died in my house tonight. Such an incident always bothers me because I like beetles and venerate life even when it’s small and seemingly insignificant. But when it also happens to coincide with the Lion’s Gate opening, well…)