People Carriers and 4x4's

Am I becoming a grumpy old man or am I not the only one who finds these ever increasingly annoying?

The roads I drive on are narrow, it's part and parcel of living in Devon. In the old days I used to get held up by vans and Lorries as I drove through narrow lanes. These days however I increasingly get held up by people carriers and 4x4's which are just as wide as vans and routinely hold up traffic.

It wouldn’t be so bad if the 4x4’s had actually ever seen a speck of dirt or a field. The majority of 4x4’s are owned by quite well off people who just want to show off that they drive a big vehicle. They never reverse back to let me pass or others pass. The other day 5 normal cars all had to reverse just so a 4x4 could get past us.

The same goes with people carriers. Next time you’re driving look out for people carriers with only 1 or 2 people in it. I bet it’s 90% or more.

In a World where time is money I am regularly seeing my money going down the drain stuck in traffic because yet another 4x4 or people carrier has gridlocked a road. The days before this “Fashion” were happy days indeed.

There are people who have genuine needs for these types of vehicles but they are so few and far between that can you have a competition while you drive to try and spot just one people carrier which is actually carrying more than the 5 you can fit in a normal car.

Our roads were never designed for cars let alone vehicles the same widths as vans.

The gridlock can only get worse until this fashion switches to something else. I just hope the next fashion involves something more the size of a standard car.

The only way I can rebel against these people is to never ever let them out in front of me. I will quite happily let half a dozen caring car owners out and then shoot forward before a 4x4 or people carrier can get out in front of me. It's only a small rebellion but at least I cause them a small amount of extra journey time to slightly make up the hours they cost me each month.

I had my chimney swept today by Avenue Chimney Sweep in Torquay.

Great service and I 100% recommend them to anyone looking to get their chimney swept before the cold weather comes our way. I was so impressed I made a little page for them. so for a Chimney sweep in the Torbay area click here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG!

It was one year ago yesterday that I started this blog. There was none of the boring old "Welcome to my new blog" rubbish. Just Straight in with a normal post.

It's hard to believe I started this section a year ago already. Doesn't time race by :(

A few updates over the weekend for ya:

Torbay's tide times for this weekend has been added.

I now have a Beginners guide to shore fishing which was also updated today. This section is for people new to shore and sea fishing or people who have fished for a while but want to improve the chances of catching fish. Page one is the real basics for when you have decided to start sea fishing but don't know where to start. Page 2,3 and 4 are for new and old alike with tips and tricks on baits, accessories and your welfare.

I went fishing with my nephew Tom at Brixham Breakwater yesterday. Not much about but I did manage to catch a nice sized Ballen Wrasse:



Only weighed in at 1lb 13oz but it was my best catch of the day. Which reminds me. Time to embarrass myself :)

I have electronic scales that I carry with me so I don't have to take fish home with me. When I caught it I knew it was bigger than most fish I catch because the rod tip when it took the bait was really strong. Anyway as I was pulling it up the side of the pier I was saying "This looks like it's around 2lb". So I weighed it and it came up as 1lb 13oz. "It can't be" I said, it looks closer to 2lb. For some reason yesterday I thought 13oz wasn't anywhere near the 1lb mark. Must have been all the coffee I had yesterday :-)

While I was there a guy called Andy came up to me asking about my gear etc. He was new to fishing and openly admitted it which made a very nice change. Anyway he said he didn't like going alone and could he come along with me sometimes. I didn't have a card with me so I asked him if he had the internet, which he did. I said to him "Would you remember a web address". He said yes so I told him go to TorbayFishing.Com and email me from there. I couldn't believe my ears when he said not only did he know of the site but he has it in his favourites and goes to it all time to see what's about and to read up on all the guides. How chuffed was I hehehehe

The Google Sandbox effect

I've known for many months that Google has been limiting or completely stopping new sites from getting the ranking they deserve. For the last few months I have completely stopped trying to find out what's been happening with Google but then last week I had a look to see what's new. The answer is the sandbox effect.

What is the Google sandbox effect?

To put it simply when a new site is submitted to Google it will quickly get the page rank it deserves, the back links will appear and it will even get a nice page rank. Then for no reason it will drop way down the list or drop completely. It will remain this way for months because it's in Google's Quarantine zone until it's sure the site isn't a spam site.

I have sites I launched back in March this year that are still sand boxed. If I type in my keywords in other engines like Yahoo or MSN I'm at the top or in the top 10. Other engines know my site is exactly what it says on the tin but Google still keeps my sites on hold.

Old sites have none of these problems. I create back links between all the sites I've designed and the annoying thing is for my keyword searches these links pages all appear with a better ranking than the actual site. Even typing in the domain name will show these links pages higher than the actual domain itself. What a stupid situation to have!

What can be done?

Nothing. Until Google deems the site a legit one you will remain in the sandbox. People have been saying figures around 3 to 4 months but I have sites that I designed 6 to 7 months ago still not showing as well as they should and yet they are in the top spot on other engines so the actual design is still search engine friendly.

Google hasn't been the accurate engine it used to be since the end of last year and this kind of tampering will just push people even further away from using it. Since the start of the year I have seen sharp increases in hits from other engines like Yahoo and MSN simply because the results are more accurate.