Mutter, mutter...

The news that a 15m long floating target was washed up on a Gwynedd beach the other day will probably make some residents of the Conwy Valley a little miffed at the idea that the RAF uses floating targets, rather than the houses of folk lucky enough to live beneath the main flight routes of the UK's main fast air defence training facility.  Low flying at high speed through the mountains is an essential part of any fast-jet pilot's training, yet it's sometimes hard to be totally generous of spirit when said trainees switch on reheat to climb over the mountain just as you're carefully pruning the prize roses. Having said that, it's fascinating to wonder if anyone was brave enough to go near the floating target after it had arrived on the beach.

 Meanwhile North Wales Police are encouraging people to lock car doors, windows and sunroof when leaving the vehicle, remove stereos, if possible, and sat navs including support and suction pads and to wipe away suction marks on the windscreen or dashboard, tuck in wing mirrors and put the aerial down. While most of that seems pretty straightforward, one has to wonder about the wing mirrors.   Is there something going on that we don't know about?  Perhaps a burgeoning but secret market in used mirrors?  Or perhaps it's to stop them being clouted by the inconsiderate parker in the adjacent space.  And that brings up another matter.

Why are parking bays everywhere
    too narrow
    at the wrong angle
    poorly positioned?
In the uk, we seem to think cars are only five feet wide, but that hasn't been the case for many, many years.  We also have bays which are almost inevitably at right angles.  Why not design them to they're slanted to favour direct forward drive-in?  We always reverse into spaces (you have a lot of time to park, but you don't know how quickly you might want to leave) but we'd happily drive forwards if the bays were slanted.  And can we the only ones who find the bends on the car park 'roads' are impossible to navigate easily? Asda and Mostyn Champneys both have bends which present a challenge.  Do Car Park designers ever use them, one has to wonder?