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So, there I was last night, at 9:30pm, pitch black, driving along a back-country road. No houses. No street lights.

A car had just passed me so I put on my main beam for better visibility.

Then I pass a jogger. Yes, a jogger. On the pavement, jogging towards the oncoming traffic. Annoyed at my beam, he flashes a torch at me and then “flips the bird” to show his ultimate feelings. He’s jogging at night. Wearing dark clothing. And he thinks I’m being rude blinding him with my main beam. When I had NO chance of seeing him.

Sometimes people should really get a grip with the reality of situations.

I had a similar conversation yesterday with my brother-on-law about why people so rarely use their indicators any more. It’s simple – what’s in it for them? The indicator is to tell OTHERS what you’re doing. Why should they care about others? Why should they bother going to any kind of effort?

And equally, why shouldn’t the jogger get annoyed at me for blinding him? Why shouldn’t he be allowed to jog in an un-lit area wearing dark clothing and not expect it? Take it to it’s logical conclusion and we may as well just remove that full beam facility from cars – after all, when would you need to use them when such a situation wouldn’t arise?

And all this selfishness is just on the roads. Imagine the difference that can be made if we were less like this generally.

My Twitters and Facebook status’ over the last few days have been showing me as being rather nervous about an impending event. To say the least.

Well, it was a blood test that I had this morning. “That’s nothing”, you’re probably thinking. Well, for somebody with a fear of needles like me, it’s a big thing. I can’t even watch a film or TV programme that involves needles, blades or any sharp, piercing objects.

When I was 11 I spent 2 months in hospital. During that time I was used as a human pin cushion – my chubby arms weren’t not going to give away vein locations so the nurses just had to stab away and hope. I came away with arms like Amy Winehouse.

Since then, that I can remember, I’ve not an injection that’s required a vein (I’ve had Tetanus injections at school, etc, in the side of the arm, for example). And I’ve been happy.

Unfortunately, I’ve recently been showing some symptoms of being mildly diabetic. A friend of mine IS diabetic and after speaking to him, he urged me to see the Doctor. So I did and he wanted to do a blood test. Results will turn up in 7-10 days.

So that was it. But if you’re still thinking I was just being a bit wuss then consider two things…

1. Consider how many of you would probably act if a tiny spider crawled past you. Hysterics? Shock? Well, I’m sure that could be considered equally, if not more so, wussy. After all, the spider hasn’t done you any harm, in comparison to a damn great needle that’s been stuck in your arm.
2. My history caught up with me. The nurse this morning couldn’t find a vein so now BOTH my arms are sore and covered in plasters.

And all this after not being able to eat and drink since yesterday. By god, the bacon cob I had at work this morning was good.

A friend of mine has recently blogged about how he doesn’t get the lure of Twitter and certainly why somebody would run a blog and would want to Twitter as well. Well, that’s me.

So here’s my take… blogging is great but I don’t always have the time or inclanation to write one. Writing a single line can sometimes be a lot more convenient. However, I agree that simply Twittering about when you got up, eat, went to bed, etc, is rubbish.

I guess it’s down to HOW you use it, rather than the fact that you do. In my case I use it to indicate how I’m feeling – something I don’t always cover in more factual blog entries. You might have noticed that my recent Twitter entries have been just that, and I’ll be writing a blog soon to explain it all. See how that worked?

Like my friend, I really only use Facebook to keep in touch with people. Indeed one of the advantage of Twitter is that I can use it to update my Facebook status, so I have to visit it even less often.

And speaking of which, I’ve been playing around with WordPress and Firefox plugins for Twitter and will be reporting back on the results soon…