Funeral for Cat

I third that last statement. Was one of the most bitter-sweet events
I've taken part in.
A big thank you for the family for making us all feel welcome and
letting us invade their space at such a delicate time. Another big
thank you for Dale for more things than I can type here.

TB

 

It's hard to explain, but at the moment I don't feel the need to fall in a heap. I certainly do weep for Cat here and there, but for
the most part I feel the need to carry on and make the most of life. Who knows, that may well change sometime down the track, but
for now........I feel like I'm coping well under the circumstances.

After all, if I didn't I'd probably be haunted by an angry 5 foot tall redhead *grin*.

Interlopers? Sheesh, Cat saw you lot as extended family. And her family know and understand that very well.

 

It was a beautiful day to see Cat off. I liked what was said at the
funeral; that there isn't any reason for this kind of tragedy, but at
least we know that Cat squeezed every ounce of goodness out of her
time.

I'll always be impressed with how you and the family got through a very
difficult day. Cat's family were very kind to us, and all seemed to be
looking after each other which was great to see.

Aren't Tasmanians nice folk?

Here's hoping that you're able to keep it together when you need to,
and let it go when you need to.

 

And for those of us who took our bikes over on the ferry (and those
riders whose bikes live on that side of the Strait) I think I can speak
for everyone when I say it was a real honour for us to be invited to
ride with you and lead the congregation away from the service.

Nev..
'04 CBR1100XX
(...and thank God there was a long downhill between the church and the
cemetery where we could roll in neutral because I don't think my hand
would have survived riding the clutch in first gear for much longer)

 

Absolutely. It was an honour to be there representing all the
aus.moto riders who weren't able to ride there in person ...

-----sharks (in my case, largely representing those of you who
ride rattly old pieces of crap ...)

 

And I, for one, thank you.

Moike

(Just back from another funeral)

 

After all, if I didn't I'd probably be haunted by an angry 5 foot tall redhead *grin*.
Hehe true indeed

I didn't see Cat very often, I've met her three times to be precise,
but every time i saw her i felt welcome

 

More stuff from Tassie newspapers today.
Launceston's Examiner:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c237/kevgl/cat2.jpg
Hobart's Mercury:
http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c237/kevgl/cat3.jpg

While I applaud the Mercury for following up, they are running a daily
rant about road safety and I don't entirely agree with the way they
are doing it. I do think they have handled the situation with Cat,
Dale and family very well though.

The rest of their road safety articles tend to be a big News Limited
"band wagon" jump on board with the pollies.

The frightening one is the one in the Examiner about an elderly lady
driving up the wrong side of those barriers. Those of you who came
down here would have seen how frigging hard it is to get over there.
That's what scares me. I think it quite ironic that it was a
motorcyclist who drew this woman's attention and probably saved her
life.

 

In aus.motorcycles on Tue, 31 Jan 2006 09:54:57 GMT

The writeup makes it sound like she was just about level with the bike
and hadn't noticed the car!

I expect the bike was well ahead of her though. I hope it was...

Zebee

 

There are investigations underway from various departments and angles, but one frightening stat is that the Police receive reports
of people travelling the wrong way down that stretch of road on average twice a week.

And they say it's almost exclusively elderly drivers who have become disorientated and confused and somehow turned around to go the
wrong way.

It's amazing to consider that the Southern Outlet has been open for 10 years, and that Cat's incident was the first of it's kind.
How people have not been involved in similar accidents before now is beyond belief.

 

The journo from The Mercury mentioned to us that the campaign is underway because a few of them had realised they were simply in the
habit of reporting crashes, and ignoring the fact that people's lives are turned upside.

They are trying to highlight this sad fact and hopefully wake a few people up in the process.

Whether it works or not *shrug* who kows. Whether he is sincere in his motives, I can only take him on face value. But I see no harm
in it.

 

Yeah - no criticism there. Just having three weeks of sensationalist
"you are 3km/h over the limit and should be shot" editorials is
wearing very thin. They even had one full page feature where the
people they interviewed about how to stop carnage on the Midlands
Highway were a barmaid and a farmer. ****, they have all the facts
don't they?

But, as I said, the Mercury handled the whole situation well with you
guys and I'm glad to see that.

 

Smee R11S wrote:

When I first arrived in Oz, in 1975, I was staggered when I saw those
red "WRONG WAY GO BACK" signs on the approaches to the Harbour Bridge.

I couldn't believe that drivers could be that dumb, and road design,
that bad.

But I learnt otherwise fairly quickly.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

So those sign we have on off-ramps on our freeways in WA that say "GO BACK
YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY" do make sense after all.

Theo

 

Sure do. We have them all over the place here in Victoria as well. But for some reasons those signs are not being erected in Tassie
until something happens. There's another highway that was sufferring similar problems down there, and it took a fatality for that
stretch to gain the "Wrong way, go back" signs.

 

Depends. Which way are they facing?

(How about putting "JUST GO AWAY" signs at Norseman?)

-----sharks

 

Towards you, you wouldn't be able to read them otherwise. Geez!

They have a border stop at "Border Village" where they search you for fruit.
"Sir, we received a tip you have a pineapple with you, please bend over".

Theo

 

Even have them over here... after a fashion.
When the various marauding Vikings drive/ride/pedal off the ferry at
North Shields and for several miles thereafter the Johnny Foreigners
are advised to "Links Fahren" and other transaltions.
You'd be surprised how many crashes it has averted (as evidenced by
the frequent near-misses, especially on the dual carriageway
(freeway?) about 1/4 of a mile after the ferry landing with the nice
big roundabout (which also have nice big Keep Left type arrows).
Mind you, I have also got it wrong in France a couple of times - but
then those bastards can't drive anyway... on either side of the road!

Jeffles