8/6/08

Brit' Word of the Day....

Today's BWOTD refers to something you see everyday:

"I accidentally hit a bollard in town"

'Bollard' = a small concrete or metal post that stops drivers entering certain areas

I understand that you call these pylons! Well a pylon to us is a huge metal tower that carries the national grid power lines, I'm not sure if you call those pylons too?

I am not a lover of bollards, having at least twice wrapped cars I owned either around them or reversed into them! On one occasion I turned too early and didn't see the darned thing, until I heard it crunch into the passenger door of a car I had literally just picked up from the dealer - luckily it was a company car!

5 comments:

Kay said...

Ouch! That's painful!

Anonymous said...

Oh dear me, OH did this with a brand new Beemer on it's first day out too. It was also a company car, but not nice doing it on your first day on the job!

Pam said...

Yes, we call the big electric things pylons also. But a pylon can be anything from those little orange cones to those traffic thingies also.

The worst one I ever did was (when about age 16 and first driving), was gun my Mustang out of the parking space going forward, not realizing the pylon was there, and got it stuck on top of the pylon. Had to have all the men from the TG&Y where I was working come out and LIFT the DANG CAR off the pylon. Talk about embarassing!

Oh wait! I have backed into one too and left a big crease in the back of my little Jetta.

Dangerous things those pylons!

Wendy Hill said...

Yes, I hate bollards, too! They seem to be invisible one moment and next thing you know, you are connecting. Even the visible ones are pesky when you hit ice and watch your vehicle glide right into one.

Wow - look at your sitemeter number! You rock! I'm too timid to get a site meter and learn the reality of my traffic (if it really could be called that at all).

Kevin said...

Bollard is used in US english to describe a (usually) steel post used to tie a ship or boat to a pier.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollard

I had to join the Navy to learn it, so it's definitely not common knowledge.