FIREWORKS: Is my daughter the only child in the world who seems to be petrified of fireworks? Fireworks are one of those things that everyone is supposed to love, from young children to pensioners. And the strange thing is she seems to love the idea of them. Just not the practice...
She’ll happily draw pictures of fireworks exploding all over the night sky. But as soon as the fireworks are there, in front of her, she’s desperate to retreat to a safe distance, to retire indoors and get the Lego out.
No amount of cajoling will persuade her that the fireworks are fun. The other night we went to a fireworks party at her grandparents. She was very exited, particularly by the bonfire. The first firework saw her quite excited, the second saw her walking backwards towards the house, the third had her breaking into a run.
They weren’t even particularly loud, just run-of-the-mill fireworks.
She wouldn’t even watch them from the window. It’s a good job she wasn’t born for the Millennium...
PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS: Well no, in fact I’m not ranting about pedestrian crossings. They are, in fact, a great invention which enables people to cross the road in utter safety...
Or at least that’s the theory of them.
In Llanymynech there’s a crossing on the main road through the vilage.
Anyone who knows that road – the A483 – will know it’s a busy old road, particularly with big old trucks and lorries. After all, it is the main road from North Wales to Cardiff...
So for that reason there’s a pelican crossing outside the Bradford Arms.
The problem – people don’t stop.
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve stood there with my kids, even stood there with a pushchair, and drivers have just belted on through.
And I’m not talking cars that could have stopped if they’d slammed their brakes on. I’m talking cars, and sometimes lorries, that would have had plenty of time to stop. Cars and lorries that probably saw me and the kids stood there. And cars and lorries that then made a conscious decision to just carry on motoring.
My wife, Anna, often steps out, forces them to see her and stop. It really shouldn’t be like that should it?
It particularly seems to be motorists driving south. Maybe there’s a reason for that, maybe motorists driving south just don’t see the crossing?
Maybe they’re concentrating on the crossroads and just don’t clock it? Maybe there’s something obstructing their line of vision?
Maybe they’re just rude and think that the person behind them will stop but they don’t have to... whatever the reason, something needs to be done about it, otherwise one day soon there’ll be a story in this paper about someone who’s been killed trying to cross the road in Llanymynech.
It’s difficult enough to try and teach your children the rules of the road. It’s even more difficult when motorists blindly ignore them.
On one side of the crossing there’s a school (about a mile down admittedly) plus both the village shops. On the other side there’s the village hall (including the village playgroup) and the park. So potentially there’s a lot of people crossing the road there, including a lot of young children.
If anyone is reading this with the potential to do something about it, please get in touch with me...