Honey, I’m (Really) Stuck On The Autobahn
German police had to rescue a driver after he moved out of the way to allow a police car with flashing lights to pass, and got stuck in setting concrete. Hans-Peter Wagner, 62, was driving on the A1 motorway near Ratekau in northern Germany when he saw police flashing to get past him in his rear view mirror. He instantly made way and pulled over but went straight into a stretch of road that had just been freshly concreted. His car was later pulled out of the concrete by traffic cops. To see the photograph, go to Ananova.
FOOTNOTE: Say tar.
Showing posts with label Concrete. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Concrete. Show all posts
Monday, October 22, 2007
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Hogan's Zeroes
C Is For Concrete Salesman With Feet Of Clay
What's the link between cement and Japan's Zero fighters? Read on ...
Having followed Mrs Nesbitt's lead on A and B in previous weeks, I am piggy-backing her C Is For Cow and posting on the C theme today. It was Singleton’s poignant post The Last Hello, that mentioned concrete (as opposed to concrete shoes) which acted as a memory trigger, reminding me of this incident, so I really have her to thank for this post. And I'd like to say a quick hello to Bruno, whose unusual run-in with a salesperson is chronicled at Sorry I'm Old And Edgy. Okay, so here goes ...
We’ve got a concrete driveway. Perfectly functional. In good shape. Beautifully contoured, because that’s the way I planned it, even before the house was built. But a coupla years ago, a leading company had set up one of those stop-and-sell stalls in our shopping centre. Because I’m the sort of guy who attracts the attention of salespeople like bees to a honeycomb, they got in my ear. Wouldn’t I like to upgrade the plain concrete? No. Wouldn’t I like to give it a makeover? No. Wouldn’t I like them to come around to the house and give me some ideas on how it could be improved?
At this point, I relented. Note – I didn’t surrender. I sort of relented. Which is very different from caving in. So the salesman came around at the appointed time. Very punctual. Very thorough. Very switched on. Very professional. I was given some compelling ideas and half an hour of great presentations.
``Right, now let’s go inside and sign the paperwork,’’ I was told. Paperwork? Er, no. The alarm bells were ringing in my head – which is not to be confused with the sound of bats fluttering in the belfry. I certainly wasn’t signing any paperwork.
Give me a quote, I said. And I would think about it. The quote arrived in the mail. I opened it and gasped in horror. I closed it quickly, hoping that it would magically go away if I studiously ignored it for long enough. Next day I got a phone call from one of their sales team. Was I happy with the quote? Er, no. Not really. I pointed out that I did not think a fully-functional driveway needed $1300 worth of colour added to it.
There was a slight pause. ``Does the quote really say $1300?’’ The salesperson sounded suitable stunned. So I fished the quote out of the envelope. It didn’t say $1300. My eyes began to spin and I felt as though the room was a giant roller-coaster. The quote said $13,000.
Eventually I found my voice, but it was more like a croak. ``Thirteen grand?’’
``Is there a problem with that?’’ asked the voice on the other end of the line.
All I could say was, ``That’s more Zeroes than the aerial sequences in the film `Pearl Harbor’.’’
What's the link between cement and Japan's Zero fighters? Read on ...Having followed Mrs Nesbitt's lead on A and B in previous weeks, I am piggy-backing her C Is For Cow and posting on the C theme today. It was Singleton’s poignant post The Last Hello, that mentioned concrete (as opposed to concrete shoes) which acted as a memory trigger, reminding me of this incident, so I really have her to thank for this post. And I'd like to say a quick hello to Bruno, whose unusual run-in with a salesperson is chronicled at Sorry I'm Old And Edgy. Okay, so here goes ...
We’ve got a concrete driveway. Perfectly functional. In good shape. Beautifully contoured, because that’s the way I planned it, even before the house was built. But a coupla years ago, a leading company had set up one of those stop-and-sell stalls in our shopping centre. Because I’m the sort of guy who attracts the attention of salespeople like bees to a honeycomb, they got in my ear. Wouldn’t I like to upgrade the plain concrete? No. Wouldn’t I like to give it a makeover? No. Wouldn’t I like them to come around to the house and give me some ideas on how it could be improved?
At this point, I relented. Note – I didn’t surrender. I sort of relented. Which is very different from caving in. So the salesman came around at the appointed time. Very punctual. Very thorough. Very switched on. Very professional. I was given some compelling ideas and half an hour of great presentations.
``Right, now let’s go inside and sign the paperwork,’’ I was told. Paperwork? Er, no. The alarm bells were ringing in my head – which is not to be confused with the sound of bats fluttering in the belfry. I certainly wasn’t signing any paperwork.
Give me a quote, I said. And I would think about it. The quote arrived in the mail. I opened it and gasped in horror. I closed it quickly, hoping that it would magically go away if I studiously ignored it for long enough. Next day I got a phone call from one of their sales team. Was I happy with the quote? Er, no. Not really. I pointed out that I did not think a fully-functional driveway needed $1300 worth of colour added to it.
There was a slight pause. ``Does the quote really say $1300?’’ The salesperson sounded suitable stunned. So I fished the quote out of the envelope. It didn’t say $1300. My eyes began to spin and I felt as though the room was a giant roller-coaster. The quote said $13,000.
Eventually I found my voice, but it was more like a croak. ``Thirteen grand?’’
``Is there a problem with that?’’ asked the voice on the other end of the line.
All I could say was, ``That’s more Zeroes than the aerial sequences in the film `Pearl Harbor’.’’
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