Diary Of An ADI

Archive for July, 2009

I haven’t found an official announcement yet (I have now – see the edit at the bottom of this article), but on this forum a BSM instructor is saying that their cars are changing to FIAT 500s.

So, all the doom-and-gloom halfwits were wrong (as usual). BSM is still going to survive, and it will be with FIAT 500s instead of Corsas and Astras. Good luck to all BSM instructors.

The only people still mouthing off are the usual morons who think they know it all. Seeing as a lot of instructors teach in Yaris and other cars which you’d expect to see parked outside an Old Folks’ Home, they can’t really shoot their mouths off too much about FIATs, can they?

If I find anything else about this I’ll add it to this post.

EDIT 23/07/2009 #1 – I didn’t know FIAT were in the frame for the BSM contract, but whilst doing a bit of scouting I found this from May. FIAT is offering free dual controls on cars to instructors in a bid to increase their use as school cars. It isn’t directly connected with the BSM deal (which I haven’t seen officially announced yet), but it does tie in if it is true about the deal.

I must admit that the 500 does look a bit small, even though it is a nice car otherwise. But you have to face facts: a Corsa wasn’t exactly big, and no one complained about those. I’m sure there will be plenty of complainers.

I’m not sure if the car FIAT will be supplying is a 3- or 5-door, but either way it raises some interesting questions about the proposed requirement for all ADIs to sit in on candidate tests. It is likely to be a tight squeeze in most cars for many ADIs, but a small car like the 500 just doesn’t seem to be designed for an ADI (and possibly the examiner’s superior doing an assessment) sitting in back during a test. Maybe the DSA will see sense and change its plans for this to be a requirement of all tests…

EDIT 23/07/2009 #2 – The BSM Instructor Academy site refers to the 500 and Grande Punto, and that they will be discussing the launch this evening (23/07). Maybe it isn’t just the 500 ADIs will get. More information as it becomes available.

EDIT: 24/07/2009 – I notice that the BSM site has taken off the announcement of the launch it was doing yesterday (which makes sense as it is no longer going to happen, as it has happened), and still there is no official news that I can find.

EDIT: 27/07/2009 – I found some more references on the FIAT Forum here. From what people are saying the car that will be issued has no air-conditioning, and will be the basic 1.2L model. Longer-serving instructors will get the ‘sport’ edition (I’m guessing this will have aircon).

As usual on a web forum, there are the usual crop of ‘experts’ telling you how bad the cars are. I noticed elsewhere someone questioning the ‘reliability’ of these because he’d heard a single story of a clutch going after 12,000 miles. I guess he conveniently forgot (or didn’t see) the raft of stories over the years about Corsas and other cars’ clutches sometimes going after 9,000 miles. It happens and is not an indictment of the car. No one will sell a car which has a clutch that fails after 12,000 miles on every one sold!

It’s a car, for Heaven’s sake. The only issues I can see are no aircon and its size. But lets not forget the huge number of ADIs who don’t use the aircon anyway (because it costs money, though there’s usually some other reason given), and the fact that only the largest of ADIs won’t fit in the 500.

EDIT 28/07/2009 #1 - At last we have something official. This is from The Times.

Apparently, FIAT will supply 14,000 cars over 4 years – although it doesn’t say if BSM will be paying for them or not (the Vauxhall ones were free, and it appears that Vauxhall trying to charge was a main cause of the breakdown of the original arrangement). BSM franchisees can expect to start seeing their new cars within 3 weeks – again, it isn’t clear if the roll out is as the existing car lease expires or an en masse replacement to get rid of the Vauxhall stock as soon as possible.

On the basis of new drivers tending to buy the model of car they learnt in, FIAT is offering a discount on new cars of £500 to those who trained with BSM.

It’s interesting that some of the comments on the forums were that it was ‘a girlie car’.  According to the Times story 60% of BSM’s pupils are female.

The story also suggests that the new deal will result in a significant loss of market share for Vauxhall, which is already experiencing difficulties.

I think there are still some details which BSM franchisees will be interested in missing from that story, but at least it gets things out into the open.

EDIT 28/07/2009 #2 – And there are now further news sources picking up on the story…

BusinessCar, AMOnline, Sky… in fact, take a look at Congoo for dozens of news stories. But remember that you read it here first. Several days before, in fact.

The Daily Mail is off on one. Again.

The front page of the paper version trumpets:

Swine Flu: So Who Can Pregnant Women Believe?

The online version involves a number of stories, but obviously they’re all geared towards having a dig at Labour.

Yesterday, the news included advice for pregnant women to avoid situations where they might increase their chances of getting Swine Flu. Commonsense would suggest that pregnant women should avoid any situation whereby they might contract a potentially nasty illness – colds, normal flu, anything. So the news yesterday was just reminding people who might not be all that bright in the first place to be just a little bit careful. This is exactly what the Health Secretary has said: be careful, just as you would anyway.

All of this is because a woman – one woman – died from the illness shortly after childbirth (at a time when she was vulnerable to such infections and their effect on the body).

Of course, saying nothing at all would have had the journos at the Daily Mail crying for blood. Labour blood. And saying something has had exactly the same effect. No surprise there, then.

There’s a photo in the online story linked to above: people at Gatwick all wearing face masks (I seem to remember some other such stunt during the last Armageddon (Bird Flu)). Talk about stirring up fear deliberately.

Of course, politicians don’t help themselves. One cannot help but wonder at the mental state of someone who would declare that Swine Flu is a ‘bigger threat than terrorism‘, as the Home Secretary said yesterday.

It isn’t. Swine Flu is just flu. It’s no big deal – well, no bigger than normal flu. If you get it, you feel ill – like with flu. Some people can die, just like with flu.

This is interesting on the BBC website. A recently-launched lunar probe has photographed the Apollo landing sites and identified equipment and footprints from orbit.

These first pictures are low-resolution compared to what will come in a few weeks time. You can see more images on the NASA website for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) - though I can’t find the ones on the BBC site anywhere! I guess they haven’t archived them yet.

I wonder if it will shut the conspiracy theorists up? Or will it just create more of them?

I noticed in The Sun today the front page headline:

Shock Leap In Victims… Swine Flu Kills 12 in 4 Days

Just for comparison, each year there are 3-4,000 deaths associated with flu in the UK – that works out at 11 every day over the whole year! And if you allow for the fact flu season is only about 4 months long – December to March is the peak time – then daily deaths could be as high as 33! In a typical year up to about 8 million people in the UK could catch flu. This is normal flu, you understand.

Yet The Sun is trying to stir up Swine Flu panic over 12 deaths in 4 days. You get more people killed in car accidents than that!

Then you have to consider how many cases there are: in the UK, 7,447 cases and 7 deaths (as at 6 July, 2009) – or less than 0.1% death rate - and most of those had other health complications.

If we use The Sun’s figures of 85,000 cases and 29 deaths then the death rate is 0.03% – it’s actually gone down, and yet they’re still talking it up!

(Note that I make no claims for good statistics with those simple numbers – but they’re a damn site better statistics than The Sun is using to try and create panic).

Swine Flu is no more deadly than normal flu (and I’d love to see an animation for an annual outbreak of normal flu like the one they’ve done for Swine Flu on the BBC site). The current epidemic (I use that word in a very general sense for brevity) is just an outbreak of flu. If anything, it looks like more people will have had it by the time it dies down, but that’s all.

It won’t wipe out the Human Race – but don’t forget to take your Oinksip just in case…

Oinksip - For Swine Flu

I wrote a while back about how Vauxhall was stopping its supply of free tuition cars to BSM.

I’m hearing rumours that a new deal has been struck with another car manufacturer. I can’t find out any more than that at the moment… but watch this space!

*** Click Here! BSM and FIAT sign deal (23/07/2009)***

I forgot to mention a first time pass last Monday (6/7/2009) – well done PW for just 6 driver faults.

And well done also to MT for his first time pass yesterday (14/7/2009) with 8 driver faults. Don’t forget the foo dobber – you’ll need it!

Both will be good, safe drivers and I wish them well for the future.

This caught my attention on the news during the day – The Telegraph has a reasonable write-up, and you can watch the BBC news story here.

Scientists at the Northeast England Stem Cell Institute claim to have created human sperm from embryonic stem cells. If the claim turns out to be true, it could have implications for people unable to have children. On the innocent surface of it, childless couples could have children via IVF which are genetically their own. On a more sinister level, women might also be able to have children without the involvement of a man at all!

The whole thing has sparked controversy on numerous fronts.

Some groups are suggesting that the sperm are not viable – that is, they may not allow fertilisation to take place (although the technique used has already been used in mice and offspring have been produced, though all died shortly after birth). Others are questioning the ethics involved.

It will be interesting to see how this one develops.

As I’ve mentioned before, I do a lot of work on my PC when I’m at home.

Ever since I can remember, whenever the weather warms up a little – and this includes potentially every day of the year – the moths, flies, and gnats have driven me crazy. Even in deepest winter, if the temperature rises even a little above average they start hatching. And what do they head for through the open window?

Hinged Flyscreen

My monitor!

Last year it suddenly occurred to me that this is why (well, one reason) Americans have flyscreens. OK, I know this might sound stupid and obvious, but it was like a sudden flash of inspiration to me at the time.

A quick search and I came up with FlyscreensUK. You can get different mesh types, so I requested some samples – the company was extremely helpful with this and a few other questions about the kinds of insects they stop. In the end I decided to go for the finest (midge mesh), which I was assured would stop just about anything,

Retractable Flyscreen

Once it started getting a bit milder after the snow this year I sent away for the appropriate kit. It was easy to measure up (though you do have to cut the frame material using a hacksaw, so be aware of this) and assemble. They attach to the window using continuous magnetic strips to ensure no gaps.

I have to say I was sceptical about the ability of the midge mesh to keep out what I think of as ‘midges’ – those tiny little black things that get everywhere around this time of year. But after sitting outside the test centre the other day in the boiling weather we’ve had, and getting covered in these things, I’ve not had a single one get into the room where I have my computer (nor anything else with wings).

I also had a few reservations about the midge mesh blocking out light, but it doesn’t do that much at all. In fact you hardly know it is there.

Mine are just for normal windows, but you can get them for doors and French windows. These flyscreens are excellent, and I’d recommend them to anyone. They are one of the most useful things I’ve ever bought – and when I think of what I’ve put up with over the years…!

They really do work (and that seems to be a search term being used to find this topic via Google), and FlyscreensUK is a company I can highly recommend.

Another collection of music from the past, featuring the likes of Gordon Giltrap, Be Bop Deluxe, Johnny Winter, Thin Lizzy, Jimi Hendrix and so on.

I’m not so sure I consider The Jam, Status Quo, or AC/DC as ‘guitar heroes’ – but the BBC does like to screw up and rewrite perfectly good history to make it accessible to all. When Still More Guitar Heroes is made, I expect they’ll have Dizzee Rascal and Jay-Z on it!

I’ll post a link to the show once it is online – it is being broadcast live on iPlayer at the moment.

The show is now online here.

Why is that I am watching The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly (with Clint Eastwood) for about the 1,000th time and – even with the most ridiculous number of ad breaks imaginable – I am seeing scenes I have never seen before?

There was one with Tuco meeting up with some friends immediately after Blondie dumps him in the desert, then another just now with Angel Eyes going to a semi-deserted and ravaged Confederate town and meeting up with some soldiers to ask about Bill Carson. And I’ve just seen another one where Tuco has taken Blondie into the desert and is washing his feet to torment him! They’ve never been shown before – and  there’s another 2 hours to go yet (well, maybe 90 minutes, not including the adverts).

TV usually has that irritating habit of cutting bits out, not putting them in.

I’m not imagining it. The original Spaghetti Western trilogy with Clint Eastwood is my favourite, and I’m a big Eastwood fan anyway. I’ve seen them lots of times, and I know these scenes are additions (the Tuco one was noticeably poorer quality and badly dubbed).