Eejits in Thunderstorms

So the ride in this morning was a full on waterproofs affair. Having been woken up by thunder it wasn’t a good sign and sure enough the weather was fairly torrential. Which was fine – I have no issue with riding in the rain, even less so when prepared for it. What I do have issues with are people trying to kill me in cars.

I roll up to the second set of lights and there’s a car in the oncoming traffic lane waiting to turn right across the junction. He’s stopped so I assume he’s seen me. There’s no other immediate traffic so I assume that he’s waiting for me to cross before making his manoeuvre. As I start to cross the lights he starts executing his turn. At this point I may have uttered something along the lines of ‘Don’t be a sitting duck’ and put the pedal down, not that it was going to do much good in avoiding the several tonnes of steel bearing down on me.

Then just as I think I’m going to be kissing him through his windscreen he stops. My heart’s dancing like Jimmy Somerville on speed. That was close. I can’t remember what car it was, even what colour or whether it was actually a male driver. Must having been thinking about something else at that point…