Eating late.

             

   'Too much tarmac after midnight makes for a restless night's sleep.'

Something my mum might have said if she'd have been knowledgeable of such pursuits.I suspect that Dad wasn't lured to such adventures on the (more) open roads back in the late 60's... in his Ford Anglia.

Question is, did they need 'blats' back then? (For it is indeed a 'need'.) They may not have had to make special arrangements to avoid traffic and to rendezvous at ridiculous times of the day just to find some time and space to ...errr... 'get a bit of pace on' with a few friends of similar outlook.The all seeing spectre of spy cameras were still only prophesied in controlling population activities, 1984 and Big Brother dictates were a long way off back then and ANPR systems were the stuff of fantasy. So, maybe they didn't have to blat. Every trip out could have been a wheel twirling self expression event if they chose...now wouldn't that have been nice? Something tells me, that even then, the horse box and caravan would still rule mighty over the need for speed.

A bit of research tells me that caravans were restricted to 30 mph in 1958 ... Has no one told them this has actually changed?

Of course, we imagine that we're the first generation to suffer virtually unusable roads with the burgeoning population of car users ... and we don't want to be told otherwise ! For then, gone is the crusade to find that small window of opportunity for us to conquer the tide that is technological availability, and social necessity, for everyone to have a vehicle and to damn well use it just at the very same moment that we (Sunrisers and similar) have chosen to do so!!

'Rise up and demand time on the road' we say....so we do... rise up, very early as it happens, and demand that our tired aching remnants can make it to the garage and that something of the form enjoyed in the usual waking hours will soon energise the soul enough to make the physics of driving possible and, eventually, enjoyable, at these otherwise unreasonable times.

The truth being is that it's really just an adopted cause, isn't it? A reason to get out in the car when sense would suggest otherwise. It's a raison d'etre that we'll foster and grow, if not for a real purpose, then perhaps for a bit of fun. Long live the thinly veiled challenge that offers crisp clear mornings at sunrise and moonlit sprints after midnight I say!

And so the call goes up on a mid Easter weekend to meet at 10pm for coffee and a few litres of super unleaded, so as to perform a re-run of the Brighton Night Blat ( in May 2009 here). New man Andy hasn't done it before, so there's the reason to carve a different look into a Saturday night. So we did. 4 souls on board and Surrey and Sussex await. 10 pm is too early tho'. As mentioned in the previous post, who is it that uses the roads at this time of night? Where are they going? Fascinating.

Destination: The Market Diner in Brighton. Gone midnight, and the usual cross section of night time population sample appear on the streets and grub stops-

• The Hen party that finished a bit early 'cos mum's friend got tearful
• The lads on the way to a club that they'll never get into, 'cos they're totally muntered, but they want a kebab before they try.
• Two security guards, in black, with belts of radios, torches and egos.Their ID Name badges strapped to biceps and an over loud command for their 'usual, please luv'... outside: the smallest Nissan electric car: 'STRONGHOLD SECURITY' stencilled on it's door. (Oh, the dramatic irony!)
• Hospital staff, not, I suspect, on stand-by in the cafe just in case, but just about to start the late shift.
• Some pale people having their lunch.
• A tramp with a polystyrene cup...no tea in it, not for a long time anyway.
• Five staff cooking and serving, none of it in the right order and all blaming each other.
• Oh, and some 7 drivers, beamed into this 'reality', blinking in the grease filmed neon.

Late night, Brighton back streets, three 7's try to blend in with the graffiti and the gormless. Too often the 'shiny shiny' has the magpie drunk making a lurch in their direction. A taxi driver, again, demands 'how much for this cars??'

We drank tea and ate our choice (or perhaps it was someone else's , the blame game at the grill plate would last into breakfast time for sure.)

And so to the return home.... ahhh, the contrast, from the circus in Brighton to all the superlatives of that barely lit ribbon of road all the way to Guildford.

Other cars? Two maybe, and a welcome distraction in passing them with barely a check of pace. But there is a strange re-appearance: that of cyclists, out at this time? This is the full lycra type, grinding their way along unlit tree lined roads with all the intent and determination of trying to get a marshmallow in a money box. Surely that's not going to work? The chances of running into a pot hole , a badger or a spell in hospital are pretty high? I know they have lovely bright LED lights and that, but no other road user believes that there's going to be a cyclist out there, and in your way, at 1am ... and neither does the cylclmenatlist appear to consider that anyone else will be using the road, perhaps they should still keep to the left, even though it's late. One 7 can come up on your lycra ass pretty fast, three of them even faster. And the late shift at the hospital have just had a kebab and don't want to be stitching up what looks like dinner so that your helmet sits straight again. Two of them were out,separately, so not just an apparition or a single example of madness, and previous late outings on the road have shown it's not a one off. Is it a new thang? Bloody hope not!

You've spotted the duplicity here haven't you? We're out taking advantage of the empty roads, so why not them? Good point, well presented. Just wasn't expecting to add them in as a late night category road user. Any way, how much do they pay for their road tax.... ;-)

Another from Ma Carrots:

'You should never jump straight in the deep end of a blat after a whole kebab, you'll get indigestion'

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