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Friday, June 24, 2011
Flashy men in flash cars flash by
News shock just in! Men who drive fast, flashy cars are more interested in quick flings than they are in long-term relationships.
For what it’s worth, I think the Rice University, University of Texas-San Antonio and University of Minnesota study which has brought us this nugget of information could have saved a lot of time and money and simply asked us women what we thought.
Women do not always automatically see a man in a flash car and think “Wow! He’s the man for me,” and most of us are not influenced by a man’s ability to afford an expensive marque. In fact, many of us have already probably worked out the correlation between men of a certain age driving Ferraris and their marital status.
What this study doesn’t answer, however, is the question of what it means when a man in a long-term relationship suddenly goes out and buys an expensive and flashy car. Could it mean that his fidelity is suddenly in doubt? Hmmmmmmmm…
For what it’s worth, I think the Rice University, University of Texas-San Antonio and University of Minnesota study which has brought us this nugget of information could have saved a lot of time and money and simply asked us women what we thought.Women do not always automatically see a man in a flash car and think “Wow! He’s the man for me,” and most of us are not influenced by a man’s ability to afford an expensive marque. In fact, many of us have already probably worked out the correlation between men of a certain age driving Ferraris and their marital status.
What this study doesn’t answer, however, is the question of what it means when a man in a long-term relationship suddenly goes out and buys an expensive and flashy car. Could it mean that his fidelity is suddenly in doubt? Hmmmmmmmm…
Image by FotoSleuth via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
To the beach, to the beach
It’s summer, it’s raining and I’m British, so I shall moan about the weather – it is my lot in life.
But no, I’m not going to let the clouds bother me because life’s too short.
So, I’m going to dig out my bright blue wellies and find the biggest, most colourful umbrella I can and I’m going to get in my car and drive to the nearest beach so I can have a nice seaside walk.
It’s June, the Longest Day has almost been and gone and my little car hasn’t been out on a long trip in a while.
A nice long drive is always good for a car which only does short urban journeys. Getting it up to a good, but always legal, speed on the motorway helps recharge the battery fully, and gives the old internal combustion engine a work out and a decent clean through (so my dad tells me).
And while I’m at the beach I shall have some fish and chips in a seafront café while I watch the waves crashing onto the shingle.
And just in case the sun decides to come out, I shall pack a swimsuit, towel and sun cream – well, you can never be too sure, can you.
But no, I’m not going to let the clouds bother me because life’s too short.
So, I’m going to dig out my bright blue wellies and find the biggest, most colourful umbrella I can and I’m going to get in my car and drive to the nearest beach so I can have a nice seaside walk. It’s June, the Longest Day has almost been and gone and my little car hasn’t been out on a long trip in a while.
A nice long drive is always good for a car which only does short urban journeys. Getting it up to a good, but always legal, speed on the motorway helps recharge the battery fully, and gives the old internal combustion engine a work out and a decent clean through (so my dad tells me).
And while I’m at the beach I shall have some fish and chips in a seafront café while I watch the waves crashing onto the shingle.
And just in case the sun decides to come out, I shall pack a swimsuit, towel and sun cream – well, you can never be too sure, can you.
Image © kyle simourd via Flickr, uner Creative Commons Licence
Labels: internal combustion engine, long drive, motorway
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Lady Penelope
Many of us would like a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce – but Thunderbirds’ Lady Penelope actually had one, and a pink one at that.
Yes, we know that the part of the well-dressed secret agent of the famous television series was performed by several different puppets – but the impact the show has had culturally makes us feel that we are entitled to feel envious of Lady P’s lifestyle anyway.
She was an aristocrat with flattering designer clothes and a large house in the British countryside!
Well, although we may never be able to get into the back of a pink chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce and say, “To the shops please, Parker,” we could own Lady Penelope herself since one of the original puppets is being auctioned off on the 29th of June this year.
Being sold dressed in a white 60’s summer dress, cream-coloured cardigan with light pink embroidered flowers on the shoulders and dusty-pink ballet-pump shoes – the Lady is estimated to make about £10,000 at auction.
Good luck, Lady Penelope, we hope you find a good, and very upmarket, home.
Yes, we know that the part of the well-dressed secret agent of the famous television series was performed by several different puppets – but the impact the show has had culturally makes us feel that we are entitled to feel envious of Lady P’s lifestyle anyway.
She was an aristocrat with flattering designer clothes and a large house in the British countryside!
Well, although we may never be able to get into the back of a pink chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce and say, “To the shops please, Parker,” we could own Lady Penelope herself since one of the original puppets is being auctioned off on the 29th of June this year.
Being sold dressed in a white 60’s summer dress, cream-coloured cardigan with light pink embroidered flowers on the shoulders and dusty-pink ballet-pump shoes – the Lady is estimated to make about £10,000 at auction.
Good luck, Lady Penelope, we hope you find a good, and very upmarket, home.
Image by cousin-hub via photobucket
Labels: auction, chauffeur, Lady Penelope, Rolls Royce, Thunderbirds
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Feeling a little congested
We all like winning things, even though it must be stressed that it’s the taking part that counts, but recently Britain has “won” a title which does not make us want to celebrate.
Britain has the biggest traffic congestion problem in Europe.
Sat-nav company TomTom compiled the figures, which are automatically updated onto its network from its satellite navigation product.
Areas of congestion are noted as being highways on which journeys that, for example, should only take one hour end up taking 20 minutes more.
On the list of 50 of the most gridlocked cities across the continent, the UK has 16 cities included. Furthermore, eight of those are proudly sat in the top 20.
TomTom reassures long-suffering motorists that congestion is improving little by little in the UK, but, as a spokesperson for the company stated, “many [cities] have a long way to go.”
We await smooth-running traffic in our capitals with bated breath, but although improvements are being made we may be quite red in the face by the end.
Britain has the biggest traffic congestion problem in Europe.Sat-nav company TomTom compiled the figures, which are automatically updated onto its network from its satellite navigation product.
Areas of congestion are noted as being highways on which journeys that, for example, should only take one hour end up taking 20 minutes more.
On the list of 50 of the most gridlocked cities across the continent, the UK has 16 cities included. Furthermore, eight of those are proudly sat in the top 20.
TomTom reassures long-suffering motorists that congestion is improving little by little in the UK, but, as a spokesperson for the company stated, “many [cities] have a long way to go.”
We await smooth-running traffic in our capitals with bated breath, but although improvements are being made we may be quite red in the face by the end.
Image by barry.pousman via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: gridlock, motorists, sat-nav, satellite navigation, TomTom, traffic congestion
Friday, June 10, 2011
Bat-mobile parked at 26:00pm half way up a wall
A very lucky group of 500 motorists in Bristol have recently discovered that they no longer have to pay the parking fines which they were issued. This can all be chalked up to errors on the part of the traffic wardens in the area.
The mistakes being recorded range from marking down the wrong location a car is parked in, to getting the times and even the details of the vehicles themselves wrong.
In fact it has been estimated that all the mistakes added together has cost the Bristol City Council over £17,000 in unenforceable fines.
This information was released via the Freedom of Information Act, which also brought to light how the authority normally makes around £2 million every year from parking fines by issuing about 6,000 tickets every month.
A council spokesman said, “If the revenue raised through the issuing of enforcement notices exceeds expenditure on parking services in any one year then the surplus is used in line with the requirements of Section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.”
For those of you wondering what Section 55 says – as we did before researching it – it says the surplus will then be used for things such as ensuring road safety through traffic lights, concessionary fares and traffic surveys.
Well that sounds good – but we’d quite like not to be given innacutate parking fines in the first place, thank you very much!
The mistakes being recorded range from marking down the wrong location a car is parked in, to getting the times and even the details of the vehicles themselves wrong. In fact it has been estimated that all the mistakes added together has cost the Bristol City Council over £17,000 in unenforceable fines.
This information was released via the Freedom of Information Act, which also brought to light how the authority normally makes around £2 million every year from parking fines by issuing about 6,000 tickets every month.
A council spokesman said, “If the revenue raised through the issuing of enforcement notices exceeds expenditure on parking services in any one year then the surplus is used in line with the requirements of Section 55 of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984.”
For those of you wondering what Section 55 says – as we did before researching it – it says the surplus will then be used for things such as ensuring road safety through traffic lights, concessionary fares and traffic surveys.
Well that sounds good – but we’d quite like not to be given innacutate parking fines in the first place, thank you very much!
Image by alicegop via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: Bristol, motorist, parking fines, road safety, traffic wardens
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Car buying gone bonkers
A new survey of 2,000 people in the UK has revealed that five per cent of men took longer to find a new car than they spent choosing their wife.
The Netcars.com survey, also found that more than one in ten males took longer deciding what make and model of car to have than what they should call their children or what house they should buy.
Apparently, the over-55s are the easiest to please when it comes to buying cars as 70 percent of this age group said they took less than three months to make a purchase.
Meanwhile, drivers aged 25-34 are more deliberate and more protracted in making their purchase – four percent of this age group owned up to taking more than 12 months to make a decision.
Netcars.com marketing director Liz Rix said, "We conducted our survey because we were keen to establish just how important car purchasing was for our customers.
"I have to admit we were very surprised by the results; who would have thought that people would spend more time looking for a new car than they did for a wife? Or that buying a car was more important than giving your child a name?”
However, here at CoverGirl, as specialist providers of car insurance for women, we know that it only takes a few minutes to decide where to get your motor cover from &ndash: because you’ve already done it by finding CoverGirl.
The Netcars.com survey, also found that more than one in ten males took longer deciding what make and model of car to have than what they should call their children or what house they should buy.
Apparently, the over-55s are the easiest to please when it comes to buying cars as 70 percent of this age group said they took less than three months to make a purchase.Meanwhile, drivers aged 25-34 are more deliberate and more protracted in making their purchase – four percent of this age group owned up to taking more than 12 months to make a decision.
Netcars.com marketing director Liz Rix said, "We conducted our survey because we were keen to establish just how important car purchasing was for our customers.
"I have to admit we were very surprised by the results; who would have thought that people would spend more time looking for a new car than they did for a wife? Or that buying a car was more important than giving your child a name?”
However, here at CoverGirl, as specialist providers of car insurance for women, we know that it only takes a few minutes to decide where to get your motor cover from &ndash: because you’ve already done it by finding CoverGirl.
Image © Alex Dixon via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: car insurance for women, car purchasing, motor cover
Tuesday, June 7, 2011
One wedding, two motorways and telematics car insurance
Recently, for the first time in my short driving career, I have had to do a long car journey on my own.
After passing my driving test, I mainly just took my car to work – about 15 minutes drive away – or to the shops, and I usually had someone with me.
Although it was great to be able to get to where I wanted to go without having to stand in the rain waiting for the bus, and to be part of the car-sharing scheme at work, I had never really felt that I was using my car to its full potential.
So, when the need arose for me to travel to a friend’s wedding, on my own, I was happy that I was finally going to use my vehicle, and my women’s car insurance, for something a little more adventurous.
But then I realised it would be the first time I would drive on the motorway without my Pass Plus instructor and I got a bit panicky because I was going to be a long way from home. What if I had an accident on some remote road with no-one around and what if my car was stolen when I stopped to get a coffee at a service station?
All these things came crashing into my mind as I planned my route and then my mum reminded me that I had bought telematics car insurance and that the little box under the dashboard acted as a GPS device to help the police locate the vehicle if it was stolen.
And then she remembered that it also had the capability to give off an accident alert warning if the signals sent to my insurer’s technical centre showed the car had experienced a strong impact or unusual G forces and then someone would contact me to make sure I was safe.
Aaaaagh! Peace of mind.
So, I was set - my sat nav plugged in, my telematics car insurance in place, a full tank of petrol and my comfy driving shoes – and off I went to the wedding. It was just a pity that my all-singing, all-dancing car insurance couldn’t reserve me a space in the car park as once I found a parking space it was almost half-a-mile’s walk back to the church.
After passing my driving test, I mainly just took my car to work – about 15 minutes drive away – or to the shops, and I usually had someone with me.
Although it was great to be able to get to where I wanted to go without having to stand in the rain waiting for the bus, and to be part of the car-sharing scheme at work, I had never really felt that I was using my car to its full potential.
So, when the need arose for me to travel to a friend’s wedding, on my own, I was happy that I was finally going to use my vehicle, and my women’s car insurance, for something a little more adventurous.But then I realised it would be the first time I would drive on the motorway without my Pass Plus instructor and I got a bit panicky because I was going to be a long way from home. What if I had an accident on some remote road with no-one around and what if my car was stolen when I stopped to get a coffee at a service station?
All these things came crashing into my mind as I planned my route and then my mum reminded me that I had bought telematics car insurance and that the little box under the dashboard acted as a GPS device to help the police locate the vehicle if it was stolen.
And then she remembered that it also had the capability to give off an accident alert warning if the signals sent to my insurer’s technical centre showed the car had experienced a strong impact or unusual G forces and then someone would contact me to make sure I was safe.
Aaaaagh! Peace of mind.
So, I was set - my sat nav plugged in, my telematics car insurance in place, a full tank of petrol and my comfy driving shoes – and off I went to the wedding. It was just a pity that my all-singing, all-dancing car insurance couldn’t reserve me a space in the car park as once I found a parking space it was almost half-a-mile’s walk back to the church.
Image © Eleventh Earl of Mar via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence
Labels: telematics car insurance, women’s car insurance