The Snug

Picture the scene...a lovely sunny morning, roads clearer than the lass at the end of a Clearasil advert. Crank up the stereo to earsplitting proportions, decide you're going to go retro and scare a few grannies with some Rage Against the Machine, plus it reminds you of being in VIth Form. Shades on and then suddenly you are brought to an abrupt stop by a rolling roadblock. Normally this occurs when the local farmer decides he is going to travel from his farm to a field he bought 30 miles down the road, but no on this occasion the rolling roadblock was supplied by a Saab 1.8t Convertible.

In theory the Saab 1.8t has a top speed of 127mph and can do 0-60 in 10 seconds. The registration plate said it was bought in September 2005 so it isn't a year old yet. Now it is just a tad quicker and a bit newer than my current vehicle of choice, and I am not about to threaten a late challenge to the F1 title, but please can we have a little more speed. Fortunately the eventually came to a very short stretch of dual carriageway that allowed me to amble by...I have only one observation on the situation...why buy a car, that is capable of getting you disqualified if you hit top speed, if you're going to drive it as though its wheels are going to drop off. I can only assume that the driver was unsure which pedal was the brake and which was the accelerator - of course that could never happen in real life could it!

Jimbo's Advice for the Welsh: So you don't get all upset by people flying red cross flags, go out in your car at about 8.30pm tonight and you'll notice a distinct lack of cars whizzing around the roads with said flags flying. Interestingly enough I saw someone with a German one the other day (English plates on the vehicle), I may see if I can find an Irish one.