Blog of Leonid Mamchenkov

More and more often I am getting reminders that I am an adult and should act like one. Having been childish on my life (and enjoying that too) acting like an adult is tough for me. Even when I do it just to make fun of it.

Anyway, I was thinking over some things that I, trying to find a way to substitute one or another with an adult alternative. And I guess I found at least one.

Drunk driving no more. If I can predict that I’ll be drinking anything more than a glass of mine or a pint of beer – I’ll take a cab from now on.

And I did it today. I knew that I’ll have some vodka with friends in the evening, so I just called in for a taxi and it took me where I wanted to go. About eight hours later I called for another one, and it took me back home. I have to say that it felt good. It was better than I expected. Not only I wasn’t streetracing my way back home intoxicated, but I didn’t even have to think about if I was still capable of driving while drinking. I was totally focused on vodka and on having good time. And guess what – I had much more of both than I usually get while having considerations about getting back home. There is a minor price tag on that though, but I can manage.

In fact, I liked it so much that I’ll do it regularly from now on. And I recommend you do the same.

Today was the second (third?) time in my life when I ran out of fuel. I am trying not to push my luck and so I usually drive around with enough petrol to take me at least across the country.

Doesn’t always work it turned out. Since my car is in the repairs, I am driving someone else’s Mazda. This car’s fuel meter is not working at all. It always points to empty. The trick is to put 10 CYP and drive less than 220 km.

Last time I was at petrol station I had 180 km done only. And today, when the car stopped, I had only 140 km since last dinner. Either all the meters are working bad, or the car changed its appetite for unleaded.

The worst thing was that I couldn’t troubleshoot the problem down to the fuel myself. The owner of the car had to come and try to start and check it. He then suggested that it might be out of petrol, despite the indicators and meters. So, we put some fuel in, and it worked.

From now on, I’ll be having full tank as often, as possible…

I am still pretty hyped up about the whole thing, but there were a few things to calm me down.

First of all, Dmitry offered me a helping hand – he gave me his second car. We drove to the insurance today and added me as a temporary driver for the next month. Thanks a bunch, man! Staying without a car for the holidays would have been pretty tough – now I can finish up holiday preparations.

Secondly, I passed by my insurance and did all the paperwork. The other driver, it seems, haven’t admitted his fault, and so the full round of paper football will take place now. My claim will be faxed to Nicosia, where the insurance agent will gather the reports from the police and from the other party insurance and they will decide who is guilty. Sometime next week they should arrive to the conclusion and inform the garage masters on who will be paying for repairs.

I have arranged with my garage to evacuate the car today. We came and spent about 40 minutes trying to put on the transporter. One of the back wheels is pointing to the side and turns the car around a lot. But finally we managed.

I’ve also made a few pictures with my camera phone. You can see them here.

I was hoping that all good and bad events for this year were over. After all it’s just a couple of days left, and with New Year spirit all over the place, I didn’t need anything serious. But I was wrong.

I had a car accident today.

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I made an interesting observation – listening to podcasts makes me drive safer.

In fact, previously, I was driving safer whenever there was a good show on the radio. I was driving slower because I wanted to listen until the end of the show before I’d get to my destination. I’d pay more attention to the road because I were thinking that radio can disturb my focus. My braind would be more active processing the stuff I was hearing.

But since there just isn’t a great choice of radio stations in my area. And since my reciever can get only on decent station – catching a good show was a rare occasion for me. So rare, that I couldn’t notice the pattern in changes of my driving behaviour.

With podcasts though it became obvious. Podcasts are like a personal radio program. I choose exactly what I want to listen to, and thus every show is interesting for me.

I also noticed that I started to use more features of my mobile phone – my podcast listening device. I installed more new software, learned more ways of the old software, etc. But that’s a total other story, isn’t it…

The other time I was issued a fine that I didn’t consider fair. So I wasn’t going to pay it. The thing is, if you don’t pay your fine within the two weeks or so, it goes to court, and than you can either pay more in court or debate the fine. I wasn’t going to turn it into any serious case or anything like that, but I was hoping to debate it and get out of it.

Surprise, they say, can win you a lot of battles. When people are confronted with circumstances there weren’t prepared for, they are easy to manipulate. Especially, if they had a plan that couldn’t be applied anymore to the different circumstances.

That’s what happened to me. Since I was fined way too long ago, I was waiting for a notice from court. Instead I got a phone call. It was from Germasoia police station. The guy in the most polite and kind way reminded that I have a fine due. He said that it was only 15 CYP and that I should pass by and pay it.

I don’t know what got into me, but he was so nice that I didn’t even think twice before picking up my wallet and driving all the way to Germasoia. I paid it and actually felt good about. About two hours later I realized that it was the surprise that caught me offguard…

Shared bookmarks for del.icio.us user tvset on 2005-10-18

• The Definitive Guide To Speeding Tickets
  Tagged as: cars driving guide speeding stats tips

Today I almost got into a car accident. My car’s breaks use ABS. The other car was a bit older and didn’t have ABS. And it was exactly this combination that helped to avoid the accident.

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Next meeting of Road Safety and Advanced Driving Society (RoADS) has been scheduled for 19:00 on October 20th, 2005. The meeting will take place in The Haven Coffee Bar, Pafos. You can find the map and more information about the location here.

I am very interested in getting there, but with my schedule for October 20th I am not sure I will be able to. I’ll keep my fingers crossed though and maybe I will get lucky.