Getting About (cont'd)

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hit someone, and then you'll be there for 1/2 an hour apologizing to each other (see "Sorry").

Petrol - Gasoline that is apparently, based on the price per volume, mixed with gold and precious gems. You can buy some of this to power your car provided:

1. You have taken out a second mortgage to pay for it,
2. You can remember enough high-school math to successfully convert gallons to litres and dollars to pounds at the same time (kids, don't try this at home), and
3. You are stupid enough, after having read all this, to be driving in the first place.

Roundabout - Okay. I know I've been talking about roundabouts all the way through here. These are those infernal circular intersections where everyone coming from every direction has to get on, spin about the circle a few times trying to get over to the side so they can exit, and eventually (if you're lucky) get off again going in something near the direction you were hoping for. These were devised by a joint committee of car insurance companies and city planners with weirdly cruel senses of humour as a really expensive way to play snap the whip.

The London roundabouts were memorialized in that excellent documentary film about travel in Europe, National Lampoon's European Vacation, where Our Hero, Chevy Chase, goes around one for nigh on ten hours or so, pointing out Big Ben to his family each time around. If you've ever driven in Boston or New Jersey, you'll know how frustrating these can be; now imagine trying to navigate one of these suckers while driving the wrong direction and sitting on the wrong side of the car at the same time.

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