It’s one year down the road for the lovely Firebird Help site, formarly known as Phoenix Help and a couple of other things besides. I don’t think I’d have made the switch from IE if it hadn’t been for the well presented content on the site. The friendly, positive approach sure made a change from some of the more elitist Mozilla fan sites out there.
Here’s to many more annual celebrations as Firebird gains a foothold in the browser market.
I must have been around about 14 years old when I experienced my first taste of driving a car. Countless times beforehand crazy Uncle John had let me sit in his car and pretend to drive, but the ignition had never been on and I was always under strict instructions not to touch the hand brake.
When it finally happened it was Aunty Mary who suggested that I could have a drive of her old style Mini. The car was miniscule compared to the company cars she would drive a few years later – she could have kept a spare Mini in the rear of one of her more modern tanks if she had wanted, rather than a spare tyre.
Mary had told cousin Iain and I, on a trip to some forestry place, that she loved her Mini “because it goes like a wee bomb!” But to this day I cannot see the attraction of the things. They might be cute and toy-like, but being in an accident in one must be terrifiying. Would they even bother cutting you out? I used to wonder – it would be quicker just to bury the car if the worst happened.
Still, Aunty Mary was right – it did “go like a wee bomb” and on that memorable summers evening on the private roads of Inchinnan Industrial Estate, I kangarooed my way towards second gear as she nervously glanced behind us, in front of us and down at what my clumsy feet were doing. Once I was in second gear it was a piece of cake – the little Mini engine would emmit it’s strained, mid-pitch tone and all I had to do was steer.
The brief 20 minutes of my “lesson” seemed to be over all too quickly, and for the most part those minutes were filled with Mary shrieking because I was going too fast, or worrying that some dot on the horizon was a police car! In the excitement of it all I don’t think I realised I was actually driving until we were on the way back to the house, where a bemused uncle Peter gave a wry smile as Mary recanted the adventure.
We’ve been experiencing some very blustery weather over the last few days here in the north west of England. On Monday night, as I drove into town to pick Fliss up from the station it was almost scary, the way the trees were bowing and the leaves rushed around in the night air, spiraling frantically with each strong gust.
As I got closer to the city center the leaves were joined by numerous plastic bags, soaring and swooping in the earie glow of the street lights like polythene spectre’s.
Once inside the shelter of the station, all was calm, as if the storm had suddenly died without trace. I began thinking that maybe the swirling leaves and litter had made the conditions seem much worse than they actually were. However, the howling wind on the return journey and occasional thunk! as a conker bounced off of the car betrayed just how forceful the wind could be out in the open.
You know that e-mail questionnaire you get every so often? The one that begs you to fill in the answers to semi-intimate questions and then forward it on to friends? There’s a question in that along the lines of; “Storms – cool or scarey?”
I always answer “both.”