I wasn't able to post last weekend and with good reason... I'd spent much of Thursday driving across Europe to northern Italy and was determined to enjoy my time there. That's not to say I didn't take an opportunity to do a little observation while I was there!

But what has this got to do with metrication?

Well... it was a great opertunity to see full metrication at work and given the subject of conversations during the weekend measurements were used frequently. There were discussions about the snowfall in other parts of Europe (including Britain) and it was interesting to see that cm was as reaily accepted without problems or conversion as those who insisted on speaking in inches and feet. I also found that nobody had any issues with discussing walking distances to bars and restaurants in metres nor with the fact that I'd driven over 1200 km to get there.

What did strike me as odd though wasn't the local museum which is home to Ötzi the Iceman where the Iceman exhibit was the only part to contain English information (as well as the only part to show measurements in feet alongside metres), it was the local Irish bar at which a group of us managed to purchase several "pints" of Guinness one night. At the time I think I was too tired from the drive to take any notice of the size of the glasses and didn't see any markings that indicated either a metric or imperial size, but the other times I had any alcohol I did look a little more closely at the quantities, the normal sizes being 0.2 l and 0.4 l. It's worth adding that this particular part of Italy (Bolzano) is bi-lingual (Italian and German) and the local beer is generally Bavarian in origin so there were also a number of other larger sizes available. What was most notable though was that not one of the group ever seemed to complain about the lack of "pints" or the fact that the standard measures for beer were smaller. The only real comment was that the beer was better than at home!

Once again though, driving could have been the most frustrating part of the experience - except that I've now learned to ignore the car's own speedo completely. The odometer is as useful as a chocolate saucepan for distances and the speedo... well, given the increase in the number of speed cameras around Europe and the possibility that local police forces would be unwilling to use "mph" as an excuse if I got caught meant I just wasn't going to take the risk! That said I had no problems whatsoever with any of the signage - distance or otherwise. I will admit to being perplexed when I came off the Channel Tunnel on the way home to see that, once again (in clear ignorance of the latest Road Signs Manual) that width limit signs in roadworks on the M20 are STILL imperial-only which given the sheer number of foreign vehicles on that stretch of road (which at the time looked like 1 in 5 vehicles if not more) this, to me, is just plain irresponsible. It's great that the recent re-hash of the government guidelines recommends the use of metric but it's way past time that metric on these signs became mandatory!

This has made me think... I may have said several blogs ago that perhaps it's time that a foreign driver involved in an incidend with a low bridge or narrow road tried to take the UK government to court for damages, but now I'm wondering what chance a British driver would have if they insisted that the British Government paid their speeding tickets from metric countries on the basis that we're not given the correct tools to comply the their laws!

Or have any of the recent in-flux of Poles, Hungarians or Czechs had speeding tickets in the UK in their foreign-registered cars and tried this tactic?

Well... I'm off to Florida for 2 weeks so may or may not post a blog for the next 2 fridays!