Desperately late...

...with this week's blogging - sorry, folks! Had another luvverly weekend back in the sticks with C's parents. Went to the theatre all posh and dressed up Saturday night. Wasn't bad at all, some sort of musical done by the local troupe of actors with help from a light sprinkling of pro musical people. You could really tell the difference, though I have to say the regular actors have my respect for taking on an all-singing, all-dancing role whilst accustomed to speaking roles only. What was the piece's name? Well, it was "Triumph der Liebe" in German, which would be "Triumph of Love", a Birkenhead/Stock adaption of a play written by Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de Marivaux. Or 'Pete Mouthful', as he was affectionately known to friends and family...

(image courtesy of Minh's Notes mxn.f2o.org/.../03/16/pierrot_nemo_suit.html)

Anyway, I came across this question this morning while completing my return journey from the bank (where employees were wearing fancy dress costumes while retaining their eternally grim and world-weary demeanour when serving you - oh, the wonders of German carnival). Why is it that people in small cars seem to have the biggest problems positioning them properly, e.g. when attempting to park them in a normal-sized parking bay? This has occurred to me on several occasions. I used to notice it most back in the days when my company vehicle was a white van (or more precisely, an 18 foot Mercedes Sprinter with the raised roofline - yes, I am showing off) which needed accurate navigation to fit into almost any parking slot. For those Americans among you who've never been to Europe; you have no idea. I've been to your country and your parking spaces are HUGE - and I don't just mean parking areas, I mean the individual partitions. By comparison, you could park a European semi truck (without the trailer) on an American slot, whereas something like a Dually would never fit a typical German/English/French parking bay. So, anyway... I was watching this not entirely unattractive lady attempting to reverse her new model Mini Cooper(not the one pictured - that is courtesy of www.carl.wellington.name/interests/mini/) into a parking space that would have fitted something over a foot wider and several foot longer. I would have helped, but she wasn't having any of it, sawing away at the wheel and generally getting herself nowhere except into a huff. (BTW, check here to see how that is done properly) No, I'm not laughing at this lady's plight as an individual, I'm just pondering the fact that the owners of smaller vehicles seem to have a harder time achieving things that other drivers rarely even think about. Another example; I know somebody who considers themselves incapable of parking their own car (note how I'm carefully avoiding gender denotation). Therefore, this person resorts to accosting a stranger every morning - no, I'm not making this up - and has them park their car. The vehicle in question? A compact hatchback - again, for you Americans, this is a category of car almost unbeknown to the Land of the Free. Think "smallest rental car category ever" - something like a Geo Metro.

(image courtesy of www.utexas.edu/learn/graphics/imgtag.html)

So, anyone have any ideas? Is it just because in order to survive everyday traffic in a big car, you have to learn the skills? Or could there be some underlying correlation between size of chosen vehicular mode of transportation and, I don't know, anxiety, claustrophobic tendencies, or issues of similar ilk? Your comments, thoughts and inspiration are welcome as always...