Quote: Gordon Bennett @ 6th March 2016, 1:06 PM GMTI got up relatively early (for a sunday) to do a 12km run....it's the hilly middle bit of the marathon I'm going to do in April. Now I'm back...and knackered.
The tiredness I'm suffering from for the last few weeks is not that bad anymore...but I'm still not my former self yet.
Oh to be young and fit. 
Quote: A Horseradish @ 5th March 2016, 10:45 PM GMTOn Wednesday, my 86 year old mother was due to go to the OAPs club just up the road. She said to her 87 neighbour that she would meet her there at 10.30am as usual. My 85 year old father opened the neighbour's garage door for her as he does every week and watched her drive out of the close at 10.15am. She only drives to the club and to Tescos as she doesn't like driving more than a mile and hasn't turned right in her car for years.
Well, she didn't appear at the OAPs club and the car wasn't back at 3pm so people in the road were getting worried. At 7pm we formed various search parties and looked in all the adjoining roads. Several set off in a car to scan the other roads a mile away. In the end the police were called. None of us could remember the registration number but we told them to search for the car within a mile by just turning left. She couldn't go anywhere else.
At 9.20pm I noticed a police officer helping her out of a police car. I ran to help him take her indoors. She looked quite shaken but hadn't been injured. They had found her and her car nearly 20 miles away on an industrial estate in Crawley. She is quite unable to say how she drove there, who she met there if anyone and how she spent the 10 and more hours. It looks like she could have driven the entire M23 without actually knowing it.
I have to say, it sounds like she shouldn't be driving any longer. Don't know how easy it will be to convince her of that, though, unless the Police are able to intervene in any way to have the driving licence stopped.
Quote: keewik @ 6th March 2016, 5:06 PM GMTI have to say, it sounds like she shouldn't be driving any longer. Don't know how easy it will be to convince her of that, though, unless the Police are able to intervene in any way to have the driving licence stopped.
I have to have an eye test every three years because of glaucoma in my left eye (have just passed the current test, thank God) and it should now be made law that anyone over 70 should be made to take a test like that.
There was the tragic case in Colchester three years ago when an 84 year old was shown on CCTV to be driving erratically in the town centre through failing eyesight where he was overtaking another car by mounting the pavement!! A few minutes later he mounted the pavement again and ploughed into three girls, killing one. Quote:-
"It later emerged that three days before the incident in Head Street Mr Horsfall had been spoken to by police following an incident in a supermarket car park.
Police said no-one was injured and only minor damage was caused following the incident at Tesco in Highwoods on February 4.
Police and the DVLA refused to comment on whether traffic officers took any action against Mr Horsfall after the incident."
If they had had the power to make him take an eye test, that girl would be alive today. 
Thanks GK, HGT and Keewik.
Yes - it was worrying and scary. I was amazed at how quickly the police found her and her car and can only assume that they have a lot of registration plate sensors on the roads now for national security. We arranged for the vehicle to be towed back the next day. The officer did say informally he felt she shouldn't be driving and that she would need to go back to her GP. A neighbour is holding on to the garage keys and will do so until/unless she insists she wants them when they will have to be passed to her by law. She is 88 next birthday which is when she would need a new licence on the 3-yearly review and I doubt that the authorities will agree to issuing one.
Unfortunately I think the three year renewal is self regulating and that needs to change.
This evening I have spent an hour looking for my card/buying tickets for the comedy festival, which I knew was on but have been so busy at work I forget to organise anything. Still managed to get tickets for Hannah Gadsby and Sam Simmons though. The other show I was thinking of going to was on last week so guess I've missed that.
I then spent a hour trying to kill three flies.
By the end of July, Ben should be a father.
Quote: Ben @ 12th March 2016, 2:20 PM GMTBy the end of July, Ben should be a father.
Congratulations! Hope everything goes well. 
Is this a goal or an announcement?
Quote: Ben @ 12th March 2016, 2:20 PM GMTBy the end of July, Ben should be a father.
And that's why you couldn't post on the BCG for the last eight months or so? That would have taken me about 30 seconds! 
Congrats and all the best!
Thanks, all! I knew you'd be glad to hear there was a Ben in the oven.
I hate to say it but I suspect you have created human life just to use that pun.
(Also, congrats!)
That gag's been in use since about 2006, but this time I am the father!
The question is - will you take it for a haircut when it's a week old?