So, if I have misused the term "Chelsea Tractor" in this blog I am sure that one of the UK citizens will be more than happy to correct me after a sound flogging.
So, I was on my way to Ilwaco, Washington to pilot my brother's boat whilst he caught Salmon, gutted them and packed them away. Perhaps he has finally understood.
I was sitting at a traffic light and a great huge Chelsea Tractor gave me a bashing in the boot, smashing it down so far that the stern wheels would not turn. Perhaps it was Cathy's Porsche Cayenne? His tank was in good enough condition that he drove it away, and mine had to be put on a great huge lorrie.
I spent the evening in casualty where they x-rayed, CAT scanned and poked and prodded.
This morning my Muslim cultural experience paid off. The bloke said I was at fault. In Islamic culture, women are often blamed for something that the man had done, so no surprise there. Finally he calmed when I asked his representative if it was illegal to sit at a red light, even if it had only just changed to a green? The man seemed to think that an industrial street was a place to race or do Saudi style drifting perhaps. Of course in KSA women do not drive.
Comments
Why?
OK, Gwen, why the lapse into "Brit-speak" ???
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
Anglophyle
Actually, I've had quite a lot of contact with UK folk. A woman from the North of London once lived with me for two months, and I have friends from the UK that I speak to on skype. Foreign Accent Syndrome is a real phenomenon and I have a light dose of it, thought the doctors are not concerned about it, saying it is simply my way to deal with stress. It is quite fun actually.
Lady Gwendolyn :)
From Wiki. What is a Chelsea Tractor?
First of all, I'm so glad that you are okay. A rearend hit can be much more serious with long lasting injuries.
Secondly:
For our non-U.K. members: A Chelsea Tractor is:
A sports utility vehicle, or suburban utility vehicle (SUV) (sometimes called a sports utility wagon[1]), is a vehicle similar to a station wagon, estate car, or van usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on-road or off-road ability. Some SUVs include the towing capacity of a pickup truck with the passenger-carrying space of a minivan or large sedan.
Catherine Linda Michel
As a T-woman, I do have a Y chromosome... it's just in cursive, pink script.
The E$timate
I am surprised. It was almost $6000 and included replacing the front windshield and the roof. Did I break the windshield with my head?
Thanks!
Thanks for that... was totally clueless what she was talking about. The Brit's have all kinds of weird names for vehicles (like Trolly, i guess their congestion is so bad they put them on rails?). Hell i was picturing a Combine... after all you said Tractor.
"Boot" sticks out like a sore thumb to me, even though i've over time guessed it's meaning. (I mean who the hell put's things in their boots? unless your trying to smuggle a flask of booze...Trunk! dangit, big box with a lid on you store items in... makes much more sense)
still... im sure we've got a few words that dont make any sense to them either.
Sounds Very Familiar
My Chevy Malibu was totaled the same way three years ago. The driver who hit me was distracted (read that: texting). I was stopped in a left turn lane waiting for the light to change. BOOM!
Portia
I was rear ended when I stopped for stop sign
The truck driver told me that he had no idea that anyone actually stopped at stop signs for a right hand turn anymore if there were no cops around. He had at least slowed down enough that the damage was less than $1000 dollars.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Where do they get these guys?
Again, a man trying to blame a woman when she is right.
Gwen
I was t-boned back in 1981
It was days from graduation. I saw the guy and realised if I proceeded he would hit me. So I changed lanes and then changed lanes again. Finally I drove up on the sidewalk and he still hit me. Then he backed up tearing metal from my driver's side rear quarter. I was stopped on the sidewalk my path blocked by a huge cement power pole.
He then drove ahead and I followed. I honked my horn has he proceeded down the road dragging the metal from my car sparking on the road. After 5 blocks or so he pulled into a closed KFC and I pulled in beside him. He accused me of getting my hunk of junk in front of his dad's brand new truck! My piece of junk was a 1969 Parklane in MINT condition after being restored by my mother. He kicked and kicked at the quarter panel until it fell onto the pavement. I picked it up and placed it in what was left the of trunk. I then asked for his license and registration so I could write down the details... He gave it to me and I sat in my seat with the door open. As I'm writing down the info he starts punching me in the face and kicking my legs... I turns to get into the car and he continued to punch my face... I pulled the door closed and he stuck his arm through the window to continue hitting me. I'm bleeding now and blood is all over my t-shirt. I start the car and he is now grabbing my hair and pulling me against the door screaming open the fucking door. I manage to get the car started and start to drive away... his arm is at an awkward angle and he is partially dragged until he falls off and tumbles along the parking lot.
I drive home still bleeding and I walk up stairs and give my mother the fright of her life when I wake her up and say "I've in in a car accident...okay?"
She rushes me to the hospital.
The father declares the boy was driving with a suspended license and had taken the truck without permission. (I'm sure he did this not to be personally liable)
After two years of fighting with our provincial insurer I get a settlement of 1500 and mom's beautiful car is declared to be only worth 300$.
Sigh. Where do they find them indeed.
Dayna.
Classic cars
Unless you pay for classic car insurance, the insurance cars look at the age of the car and assume it is not worth anything. Which is a rip off IMHO.
Come to think of it
I got rear-ended at a valve stop once too. A valve or meter stop is the red and green lights that control access to the freeways from the on-ramps in CA. I was the second car waiting for the light to turn green when someone just plowed into me. I saw them coming in my mirror and realized they were going to hit me but I had nowhere to go since someone was in front of me. I watched both cars with my foot on the brake and luckily the one in front of me moved just as the guy behind was about to hit me and I eased the brunt of the collision by getting off the brake and onto the gas.
Very little damage done that time, though the guy hit me going about 30. He was from out of state and said that he had never before seen a stoplight on a freeway onramp. I didn't ask him if he had ever seen the signs announcing the light coming; they are huge.
He was also surprised that I didn't want to sue him since he had heard that Californians will sue about anything.
As to where he came from: Ohio.
Which, come to think of it was where the idiot who ran a stop sign and tore the bumper off my car ten years earlier had been from. I had to put the car into a skid to keep him from t-boning me.
No offense intended to anyone here who is from Ohio. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
A giggle
A friend of mine always said, "Thank you, François," when the valve light turned green. This was because a flashing sign on the onramp always announced at rush hour, "Meter ON". :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
It's Derogatory
We call them Toorak tractors in Australia. Toorak is a very wealthy suburb of Melbourne, and the term usually refers to rich young folks who own huge SUVs/4WDs to drive around town, never actually going anywhere where they have to engage 4WD or use any of the features necessary to drive on unpaved roads in rural areas.
It is generally assumed that the drivers are selfish yuppies who are flaunting their supposed superiority. It's a real pain in the arse to park next to such a vehicle in a public car-park because they make it impossible to see what other vehicles are approaching when you are trying to get out of your parking space. They are often associated with young mothers picking up their little darlings after school.
We call them SAVs in CA
Suburban Assault Vehicles. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Another UK term
Wank panzer.
just fer balance
I used to drive a Nth Shore Tractor... an old Range Rover wagon.. Nth Shore Sydney, the yuppie designation as referred by Jo applies as a general reference. I never qualified being poor. So.. classic traffic bank up at lights, dude in silly getup dancing on footpath for Dominos store. I stopped, guy behind did not, plus he was driving a loan car from... a smash repairer. Snort. So, I blame it on Pizza.
k
"Chelsea Tractor"
Chelsea Tractor is a derogatory term used to describe a luxury 4x4 such as a Range Rover etc, driven by someone who does not need a four wheel drive car as they never drive off road and mostly never leave the city ( i.e. Chelsea in London) and mostly seen parked on the kerb (edge of the sidewalk) being used to pick the kids up from school. Oh, and yes, first seen being used like this in Chelsea, hence the name.
ps Should have read all the posts first as Joanne has said the same except for Oz rather than the old country, the UK.
Lovely
So women just get in the way and are just a burden then in Islamic society. It is this 'we are required to take care of you so just be thankful mindset'. The whole current ISIS thing is bewildering to me as who in their right mind would just want to become breeders for folks like those.
SUV's
Here in Massachusetts are actually very useful even in urban environments. During the winter months we get plenty of snow which can make driving in a 2x4 vehicle challenging. Especially if you live in an area with lots of hills. Of course, just because you have a 4x4 vehicle does NOT mean you can drive around like there is no snow or ice on the road so even here we have derogatory terms for these drivers. In this case, we are not talking about the vehicle but the driver, usually associating them from someplace that has no snow. :)
Tractors
The Guardian newspaper used to have a weekend feature where an odd statistic was plotted on a map of the UK. One examples was "likely to go to the pub", which I immediately thought could have been explained by a parallel map covering the local price of a pint of beer, but never mind.
One map was "Likelihood that your first car was a 4x4" (4WD, SUV, etc.) The obvious areas were well represented, such as the Scottish Highlands, the Pennines, rural Wales and so on, with one tiny little area in SE England.
Yup. Chelsea.
So many accidents
I had a different experience with the driver of the snow plow that assaulted my Ford Taurus. He knew that he was in the wrong and could not stop apologizing to me. Fortunately, he buried the plow blade in my engine block. If he had been going a bit slower, he would probably have cut the car in half and me along with it. (He was totally in the wrong). He made an illegal left turn and then chased my car across the intersection when I tried to get away. I walked away with a broken leg...literally.
Traffic laws?
I am beginning to think half(maybe more) the divers out there have not got a clue about the rules of the road, both the laws and just plain courtesy. People don't signal, zip through stop signs, blow horns at cars wating to turn, etc.
.
Two odd examples:
I had a relative rear-ended at a red light. When the guy who hit him got out he asked why were you stopped.
I was walking and got abruptly cut off by turning car with no signal on. I made quick little finger flap motion and pointed to the tun indicator. The driver pulled over and asked "what?". I said your turn indicator is out. She had no clue she had on and what it was for. Maybe she had no license, otherwise I haven't a clue how she got one.
lol
be careful it's dangerous out there,
>i<