This morning I had to journey about twenty miles to a job but didn’t have to be there until 9.30 which was ok by me as it meant I would miss any peak hour traffic should there be any. I started out early enough to get to my destination at the time I’d agreed to be there. Usually I arrive early to anywhere I am going so that I don’t keep people waiting unecessarily. I did arrive on time this morning but only just. I had only gotten a couple of hundred yards or meters if you prefer when I came up behind a driver who seemingly had no road sense in that she had placed her car so awkwardly for the manouvre she was making that it made my passing her difficult. Time wasted. Oh well I thought, it’s going to one of those days. Do you ever get days like that where every idiot gets on the road at the same time as you? Finally I got past and continued down the road behind another driver who was giving the parked cars on her left a wide berth……a very wide berth. In fact she was on the wrong side of the road. I couldn’t see the reason for that because I was passing the same parked cars and was still inside the road markings separating our side of the road from the other! When we arrived at the next junction she placed her vehicle in the centre of the road as she was turning right. She had stopped to allow oncoming cars to pass. Unfortunately she had blocked the road so that nobody could pass her on the inside whilst she waited to complete her turn. Time wasted. I continued to the next junction and came up behind someone again turning right. I was turning right too so we both waited our turn. However when we did move off she was giving way to all other drivers when she didn’t have to as there was plenty of space for everyone to pass. Coming to the next junction the lights had just turned in my favour but an oncoming vehicle was turning left into the road I was turning right into. No problem, he had right of way and I carried on behind him. I don’t know how long it takes to find the accelerator under one’s feet but it certainly isn’t minutes…LOL. I was forced to stay behind a crawler. Time wasted. When I eventually got an open road I was met with a roundabout and thought, I’ll be here a while. It is a busy traffic spot and it is sometimes difficult to negotiate. This morning however I sailed through and thought great, nothing now but the main route between me and the next town. We were travelling at 30mph in a 40mph zone because some idiot didn’t want to rush things. It didn’t matter that there was a stream of traffic behind him. When the speed restriction had been lifted to 50mph he managed to creep up to 35mph. Seemed like a token gesture to me. Why is it that when we are in a hurry there are always people frustrating our need to get there? Time wasted. It didn’t end there either. When we reach the town (to drive through it to my ultimate goal) I got behind somebody who didn’t know what he was doing. He was undecided as to which lane he needed to be in. He indicated but made the manouvre in the opposite direction and did it all at about 15mph in a 30mph zone. Great! Eventually I made a left turn and was promptly stopped by some clown darting out of a side road in front of me. We reached the set of lights but were held up again for quite a while. Time wasted. After that all was plain sailing again until I reached my destination. I pulled up outside the house just as the occupant had arrived back from taking her children to school. I was spot on time! Don’t ask me how. I sometimes think things are all planned and we simply just go through the motions. I wonder what the drive would have been like had I started on my journey one minute later or one minute sooner than I’d done so? I’ll never know. I find I get days like this where everything seems to frustrate or the journeys are filled with dangerous occurances because people are not watching what they are doing. Do you have such days?

Shirley Anne