action on the potholes

Driving to work this morning I managed to remember that one of the lanes that forms part of my usual route is closed for five days for resurfacing.  The council is having a real blitz on the potholes, so hip-hip hurray for that.  Rather than patch them, many of the local B roads and smaller are being resurfaced.  It does mean that several of them don't have any road markings at the moment, but never mind.  I'm glad to think that at least my £25 parking fine is helping to fund a good cause.

Getting from here to the Suffolk border is slightly complicated by the need to cross the main railway line that runs between London and Ipswich and Norwich.  This is a very busy line, with lots of commuter traffic plus freight from Felixstowe docks, the UK's largest container port.  The trains are allowed to run at a good clip, with the line purposely divided into long sections for signalling, and there are very few road bridges over or under the railway, but mostly level crossings.  Traffic can't be let on to the railway once a train is too close to the crossing to stop, including if the train's brakes should fail, and an intercity or freight train travelling at speed takes a long distance to come to a halt.  By the time one has gone past one way, the one coming the other way is often too close for there to be time to open the barrier at all between trains.  I have waited for up to twenty minutes at one crossing, while up to four trains went through.  If I'm doing something I absolutely can't be late for and the obvious route to get to it involves using that crossing, I allow extra time in case I'm caught by the gate, but I don't want to end up being twenty minutes early to work on a regular basis to avoid being late sometimes.  My normal route to work avoids it, and I didn't feel like risking it this morning, so instead opted for another cut-through along the lanes.  As I set out I realised I hadn't actually checked in case any part of that route was being resurfaced as well at the moment, but fortunately it wasn't.

My usual route takes me past a friend's house, and I do sometimes feel mean that her lane has turned into a bit of a rat run, but not so much so that I'm prepared to risk the 20 minute railway gate, or add 4 miles to my journey, which is what I did this morning, or turn right across the dual carriageway, which is my other bugbear.  There is space in the middle to wait, so I suppose it is theoretically safe if you don't drive like an idiot, but it is an accident blackspot and there are periodic calls for it to be blocked or turned into a roundabout.  Blocking the central reservation gets ruled out because it would make life so difficult for the local residents, and the roundabout option gets ruled out on grounds of cost.  I just avoid it most of the time.  I try not to drive like an idiot, but there's always the risk that other people will, and too much scope for honest confusion if I'm trying to turn right across the main road at the same time as somebody is trying to turn right off it.  Watching in their rear view mirror as the traffic behind them in the outside lane advances on them at eighty, they might not be as calm, collected and communicative as you'd like your fellow road users to be.

The sun was beautiful, and the day felt less humid than the recent grey ones, though I don't know if it was or if that was the psychological effect of the sunshine.  We watered everything thoroughly at the start, but by close of play some pots had dried out again.

The boss said we made last month's budget.  I don't know what that means in financial terms, as I don't know how the budget is set or how often she revises it, but I took it to mean that the boss was happy, which is the main thing.  Once upon a time we used to get cake following months when we'd made the budget, but that custom seems to have died, a sign of these austerity times.  She did say she'd show two of us how to do the till reconciliation, and we are getting some new uniform shirts, so we're making progress.