M11 madness

I could say that I was nearly killed yesterday, but that would be a slight exaggeration. Only, slight.

Around 5:00 I was driving south on the M11 and had just pulled out to pass someone who was maintaining the 40MPH limit past the end of the roadworks. I was doing about 50 or so myself. {I hadn't yet seen the new - why did it take so many months? - signs indicating that the 70MPH limit resumes just after the first Bray interchange.}

Anyway, as I said I was doing about 50 or so. I was keeping an eye on all that was happening around me - checking to see what, if anything, was entering the road from Shankill, trying to determine whether it was safe for me to return to the left lane. All of a sudden, I see a guy pull out in front of me from the verge on the right! He was barely moving. I had to slam on the brakes to keep from slamming into him. Neither I nor my wife had seen him until it was almost too late.

After I settled down I realized that he had decided to bale out on the northbound M11 because the traffic was so bad. He figured it was better to risk his life (as well as all of ours) to avoid a few minutes in traffic. I also realized that he was not alone as other cars were following his lead. Unbelievable.

I understand that road works happen, but I don't know why they can't be better signed? Why aren't there signs way back announcing that a lane is closed between Shankill & Loughlinstown? That would allow people who have other options (go through Bray/Enniskerry, whatever) to decide.

Still, nothing excuses what that moron (and the other morons behind him) did yesterday. I was really disappointed that the police weren't there to arrest him - a ticket would have been insufficient.

Posters

Driving across Bray this morning and through Shankill to Dalkey I saw quite a few posters still up. Mairead McGuinness on the main Bray-Shankill road was the most prominent.

Results found

I finally found the election results online. Wicklow County Council and Bray Town Council results can be found here. The results for Dun Laoghaire County Council are available here.

I have to be honest, I don't know enough about the politics of the area to know if any of these are surprises. Nice to see Caroline Burrell elected, even though I have reservations about the Green Party.

Results?

Where can I find the local election results?

Voting

I'm sure I'm not the only one who was (will be) surprised when handed 4 ballots at the polling station. The referendum and European Election were no surprise, but I hadn't realized that there were two separate local elections. We get votes for both the Bray Town Council and the Wicklow County Council. Now, many of the faces are the same on both ballots, which is strangely annoying.

I'm soothed

Went to the Bray Motor Tax office first thing this morning to apply for driving license renewal. Very friendly woman behind the glass (is that really necessary?) who helped put yesterday's frustration behind me. I handed in my application, old license and fee and was told a new license will be with me in a couple of weeks.

{By going in person, you can get a letter from the motor tax office that will suffice if the Gardai ask to see your license. If you post it to Wicklow's main office, they will not send you such a letter!}

One further note about the stupidity of government. On the official Irish government web site (I think that's what this is) the reader is instructed to "download and complete application form D.401 (PDF)", which I did. I brought the form with me this morning figuring that having a completed form would speed things up a little. Well, it doesn't.

As the helpful woman beind the glass pointed out to me, the proper form has a sticker on it for your signature. This sticker is then used on the actual license. And, of course, that sticker can't be on anything downloaded and printed out, so my completed downloaded form was a waste of time. Typical.

Renewing the driving license

Just had one of those ridiculous conversations that only seem to come up when you talk to people who work for the government.

I only noticed yesterday that my license had expired a few weeks ago. So today I called the Wicklow motor tax office to ask about renewing my license. First, I asked what are the hours for the motor tax office in Bray. 9-12:30 & 2-3:30. {I had hoped the web site was out of date now that they were working in that nice new building.} People used to use the phrase "banker's hours" to describe the short work day that bankers worked, but even bankers didn't manage these kind of hours.

I then asked if notices are sent out when driving licenses are expiring. Of course the answer was "no". It would be too much of a burden to send out notices to hundreds of thousands of drivers when their licenses are about to expire. It's the driver's responsibility to notice when the license is about to expire. {But, who looks at their license? I only happened to see mine was out of date when I was renting a car. Fortunately, the guy from Hertz didn't notice.}

I pointed out to the woman that even New York State's enemies of people - a.k.a. the government - managed to send out renewal notices to what was probably 10 times as many drivers as live in Ireland. "Well, you chose to live in Ireland, blah, blah, blah." As if a stupid policy is somehow justified because I chose to live here.

Then she informed me that the people in the Bray office couldn't actually process my renewal, but would be sending it on to them in Wicklow. But, I could post my application if I wanted. What followed was almost farcical.

• me — Do I have to send in my old license too?
• her — Yes.
• me — But, then I can't drive because I have to have my license with me in order to drive.
• her — that's the law
• me — So, no one should really post in their renewal application, should they?
• her — That's you saying that

It slowly dawns on me that these people are operating a system devised before the recent law change requiring drivers to have their licenses with them. Typical of government employees – they're afraid of any change that might upset their staid existence, so they're just using the same system and helpfully encouraging Ireland's drivers to break the law rather than implement any changes.
{Yes, it's not just Wicklow, but every county in Ireland that is asking for the old license while they process the new one. How many people in Ireland are driving without having their license with them because they had to post in their old one?}

More on the leaflets

I mentioned in the comments below that I generally pick up all deposited political leaflets and bring them straight to the bin (recycling, that is). Well, it was only yesterday that I was shown the error of this strategy. Some of the leaflets have my full name and address on them!

I couldn't believe it. I never throw anything away with my full address intact, so I had to go out to the recycling bin and start going through the pile looking for any leaflets with my address. I found 4 - two from Sinn Féin and two from Labour.

I presume these campaigns got my name and address (and my wife's, which is why we had two each) from the voting register. Is there any way to indicate that you'd rather not get such "droppings"? Can I take my name off the "mailing list" aspect of the voting register? Or do I have to renounce voting altogether in order to be safe from the local political parties sending me personalized campaign leaflets?