NOT content with reclining in the passenger seat while someone else does all the work? Here’s how to be so irritating they drive into a tree:
You are the in-car DJ
Come prepared with a playlist or several. If the car has a CD player, bring a stack of CDs to clatter. Focus on only playing music you enjoy, no matter how unsuitable. Then sulk when the driver switches to Magic FM an hour into your musical journey of abstract Bjork remixes, Mike and the Mechanics deep cuts and Napalm Death’s more accessible stuff.
Be a hindsight driver
You’re not in control, so you don’t have to live by the relentless pace of the roads. Give advice when you’re good and ready, like ‘You should have passed that caravan back there, before this narrow bit’ and ‘that was our junction, didn’t you realise?’
Explore the wonderland of motorway services
When the driver needs a piss, seize your chance. After all you’ve been bored for hours. Consume a massive Cumberland sausage meal, have a go on the fruit machines in Lucky Coin and browse WHSmith at length. You have now added an hour and 15 minutes to a six-hour journey to Glasgow. Get back in the car and have a little sleep.
Be moody
If your partner is driving, the confines of a car are ideal for simmering tension. Be awkward, grumpy and monosyllabic. At a confusing and crucial roundabout, reveal you’ve been brooding over the shittest grievance ever: ‘You never bought me those jeans you promised me four years ago!’
Eat throughout
Every year, millions of people starve to death on two-hour journeys. Well they don’t, but they act like they do. Buy way too many crisps, sweets and sugary drinks. The constant crunching, sucking and rustling of wrappers should be so distracting the driver almost hits an HGV and wouldn’t care if they had if it stopped you slobbering like a dog.
Need the toilet
Brush off reminders to have a wee before you set off, resulting in a tense detour to find somewhere to relieve yourself in a built-up area. Ignoring advice a four-year-old can grasp will make even the most caring partner want to throw you from a moving vehicle.
