A sober update

[azekeil]

Ugh, well. Brief update. The weekend was good and relaxing. I don't know what people make of my entries/calls/state of being at that time - I've been told by a select few who may be rather biased that they find it funny.. leave me a comment to let me know what you think.

Sunday was rather hectic. kissycat1000 and her daughter Tianna came down for lunch at the pub and we had an enjoyable reunion with friends - for example I hadn't seen dylan for weeks despite supposedly living with him!

In the evening I ended up running around with a friend called Rik who I haven't really seen since the housewarming in this place over two years ago! We finally decided to set up a FreeBSD box to fulfil all my needs. After some messing around I managed to swap the processors around so that I had the final hardware configuration for the FreeBSD box and as a bonus still had internet access!

chocojon helped loads as well by transferring the disks out of the ailing gateway machine into one of his spare machines temporarily so I could shuffle hardware around some more. It was then that we discovered that one of the disks in the array is in danger of failing, meaning that some data might be unrecoverable and at worst it might render the whole lot kaput! I've had plans to move to RAID5; none too soon it would seem.

In the evening we ajourned to go and see DareDevil, another Marvel comic hero made into a film. Quite Batman-esque, but good action-movie fun. I'm so out of touch with the film world. Apparently Matrix 2 as well as a couple of other matrix-like films are due out soon - viewing pleasure in the waiting :)

kissycat1000 headed off home as I had a lot to do and I didn't get another chance to speak to her that evening which made me feel rather bad.

I can forsee a busy few days ahead of me trying to get computer stuff sorted out.

In other news; today I have made good progress on the speeding thing. Someone reminded me about the firm Logica employ for employee issues and I contacted them. There is one chap there who is really very good, knows his stuff and is able to give direct advice. This is a great relief, added to the fact of course it is free!

With his help, I have ruled out most loopholes. However, I have found a load of articles in Bristol's Evening Post (thanks again to my colleague for the suggestion) talking about the speed limits around that particular section of road and the council even admitting that they are going to do something about the signing in that area.

I'm now in two minds, whether to bite the bullet and get it over and done with; plead guilty. Or explore all options and see if I might be able to get off with an illegal conviction. How will I feel if I didn't explore all the options and I end up facing hardship in the future (in the form of a ban) as a result? Or if I find out that others got together and got acquitted because of the publically (and even the council accepts this) accepted atrocious signing? Suggestions people?

I forgot to add that this morning my bike wouldn't start, so after being really good and attempting to get to work at 9am I actually arrived at 9:20am all told. I woke chocojon and borrowed his car keys and jump leads to do the trick.

This is annoying because my bike does not start reliably enough for daily use - I think I'm going to have to look at some way of keeping it charged/starting it with a mobile battery I can keep on charge. This is a pain - I have no garage so I can't just leave the bike's battery on charge unfortunately.

Also, whilst pulling away from the traffic lights on the roundabout under the M5, I pulled quite a large wheelie without even meaning to *grin*. The wheelie didn't happen straight away, but I suddenly realised my wheel was above the ground by quite a way (when I let the throttle go and took a while to bump back down to earth *grin*).

I've found that if you're in a car, you've no chance of getting to the next set of lights which change to red a while after your set turn green. On my bike I never miss them *grin*.

Comments

[serena-lesley.livejournal.com]

Well what you need to do now is look into whether anyone has used a badly signed road SUCCESSFULLY as a defense against speeding, and how likely it is that it'll work in your case. If it's unlikely, it's probably not worth the money you'd spend on a solicitor.

Oh, and try not to get caught again as you race for the next set of lights.. :P

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Well, hmm, yes. But the useful legal chap seemed to think that I'd got something worth looking into as the Bristol City Council admit they're looking into improving the signing. He said I should write to the courts asking for an ajournment while I gather evidence, and write to the council asking them for the traffic regulation order for that road, and also to confirm if they are changing the signing in that location, or at least if they are looking into it. Apparently there should be one despite the chap at the council telling me there wasn't one. Why's that??

Interestingly here is a link to an article on the evening post with the bit about a council member admitting they are looking at changing things. Also, this article, backing up my feelings on driving/riding through there at the speed limit of 30mph.

There is no legal footing for any of this, but public opinion is definitely with me. So now what? Do I go through the pain and aggro?

[stuartl.livejournal.com]

If you wanted to plead "not guilty" I think you'd have to feel 100% confident that you could get off, i.e. know that it is an illegal speed limit.

Because you have a previous speeding conviction and the trailer incident the court aren't going to listen if you try to take a moral stand against an immoral speed limit.

Do you see what I mean?

Re:

[azekeil.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think I'm going to plead guilty. I can't justify the expense and angst of fighting it.