We journey in hope...

Paraphrasing the great John Cleese, “It’s not the disappointment, it’s the hope I can’t cope with.” I don’t think he was talking about the business of being a follower of football but, if he wasn’t then he surely should have been.
After many years of trying I’ve pretty much given up attempting to explain to those friends and colleagues around me who don’t like football what it is that keeps me eager to shell out the old hard earned in order to follow my team of choice, the fact is that if they don’t get it already, they probably never will get it. What I don’t understand though, is why quite so many people who don’t like football are quite so keen to say so, and indeed are quite so keen to disparage those of us who do. I mean, I have no interest in ballroom dancing but I don’t go out of my way to have a pop at people who might watch ‘Strictly’ of a weekend.
Luckily, attending home games doesn’t involve a long journey for me – just enough for my son and me to sort out our match predictions and, if we’re feeling very daring, our crowd predictions too (no, not an attempt to name them all but to guess their total number, thank you).
Having been to a couple of away games this season, though, I’ve rediscovered the joys of travelling long distances in Saturday traffic – combined with having to be somewhere by a 3 o’clock deadline.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind the moving traffic, when it is moving. It’s the delays caused by road accidents and overturned caravans that frustrate me and, I suspect, everyone else.
One of the most common bits of advice given by road safety professionals is to ‘Leave plenty of time for your journey.’ How do we know how much time is plenty of time?
Our first away trip was to Nottingham Forest, a relative hop and skip at just 120 miles – all well and good until we stopped for a sausage sandwich on the way. To be fair, we were warned that the kitchen was busy but we, in a sadly misjudged display of overconfidence, agreed ‘That’ll be fine.’ As we left the greasy spoon an hour later I realised it was 1 o’clock and we still had about 60 miles to do. Even that shouldn’t have been a problem (how naïve am I?) and perhaps it wouldn’t have been had we been the only people wanting to get into Nottingham that afternoon. Still, we just made it in for kick-off, job done.
Next up was a 220 mile journey to Preston North End, 4 hours 20 minutes according to my Satnav. After we’d been stationary on the A1 for 15 minutes and then on the M62 at Saddleworth Moor for 20 minutes I started to doubt whether get there for half time this time, let alone kick-off.
I should throw into the mix here that we’d earlier had another abortive attempt at getting breakfast en route when, after sitting for 45 minutes without food in a well known roadside eatery, we gave up and pressed on, unfed but unbowed.
Once off the M62 we made good progress, got parked and, again, arrived comfortably in time for kick-off.
On both occasions, we got where we needed to be by the time we needed to be there so, you may say, what’s the problem? On both occasions, I believed I’d set off in plenty of time for the journey and I’d added some time on for delays but I’d still ended up feeling stressed during the journey wondering whether we were going to be on time. It’s when drivers feel stressed and anxious that mistakes get made; mirrors don’t get checked before lane changes, reactions are slow to brake lights ahead and frustrations at other drivers can spill into road rage.
I think the answer is, yes, to leave plenty of time for the journey but also to accept that travelling a long way is likely to involve delays and minor frustrations and to treat them as part of the deal. Being philosophical about traffic hold-ups is never easy but, really, it’s the only way to approach it on today’s busy roads.
By the way, because I know you are wondering, we drew at Forest and won at PNE – excellent results and enough to make me feel those uncomfortable pangs of hope for the season ahead.

Safe to School

I was pleased to take part recently in BBC Radio Norfolk’s ‘Safe to School’ campaign, aimed at raising awareness of road safety issues across the county and timed to coincide with the return to school after the summer holidays.
246 children were injured on Norfolk’s roads in 2009, 21 of them seriously, and BBC Radio Norfolk’s initiative revolved around bringing together a number of interested professionals and volunteers in the area of road safety in order to get the message across to children, parents and drivers.
I spent an enjoyable morning with Stephen Bumfrey, afternoon presenter on the station, the brief being to drive around the Norwich area commenting on driving habits and issues that occurred around us. As any police traffic officer will tell you part of the frustration of the job is that they tend to drive around in a ‘bubble of good driving’, the visible presence of the marked police vehicle leading to motorists temporarily improving their behaviour, at least until the police car is out of sight. While this is a good thing – part of the aim of high visibility policing is to positively affect behaviour after all – it can be a double edged sword when it comes to actually detecting offenders. Anyway, since Stephen and I were in an ordinary, unmarked car none of this was an issue and despite the atrocious weather on the day of the recording we managed to get some good material and also managed to find some amusement at the habits of other motorists.
We’d barely set off when a useful chap in an Audi A3 tried unsuccessfully to cut me up on a busy roundabout before, in a show of great determination, he succeeded on the next. He then undertook a number of other vehicles on a restricted dual carriageway before charging off at a great rate of knots down a bus lane towards the city centre. An excellent example of impatient and aggressive driving which, by my reckoning, committed at least three moving traffic offences.
Later we stretched the ideas of chance and coincidence even further. While we were having a conversation about pedestrians needing to take some responsibility for their own safety, we spotted a couple of young women, one of whom was on crutches, walking along the side of a road (another restricted dual carriageway) despite there being a ‘No Pedestrians’ sign right above their heads. Of course, we have no offence of jaywalking in this country but it would have been interesting to see, or hear, their reaction to being given a fixed penalty ticket.
These incidents can be inconsequential in themselves but when something goes wrong and there’s a collision, whether vehicle to vehicle or vehicle to pedestrian, it’s too late to point out the lack of judgement shown – it is a forlorn hope that one day all road users will take responsibility for their actions at all times, but starting by getting the message out to school children has to be a laudable aim.
Let’s hope that a few more children complete their journeys safely this winter as a result of BBC Radio Norfolk’s excellent campaign.