Friday 22 February 2008

The hell that is ul. Poloneza

Just gone eight in the morning. This is ul. Poloneza, my daily route into town avoiding the jammed-up ul. Puławska. As you can see, no traffic at all. The road runs from ul. Jeziorki north to ul Poleczki, nearly three kilometres, all but the last quarter kilometre of which is entirely untarmacked. Fine when it's dry.

But when General Mud takes over from General Winter, this can be a treacherous road. The deep, wide puddles play havoc with the car's electrics, water-logged potholes with bricks at the bottom do bad things to the floorpan and tyres (two punctures this week), and long stretches of treacly mud will bring the car to a stop and bog you down entirely unless you have enough forward momentum to carry you through it. The faster you go, the bigger the mud splashes and the greater the risk of damage to the undersides. Right now, the Nissan's utterly filthy with mud and salt and oil. On days like this I yearn for spring, the sunshine, warmth and dryness.

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