4 June - Factory on fire. Fiery fools
Erith burns
I called Hugh of Maggot Sandwich fame this morning to ask how he was getting on
with his Covid related problems but he was more excited by the factory fire
raging at the back of his garden. He said there are new houses dangerously close by.
Why are new houses allowed to be built where industrial danger still exists?
No doubt Hugh will have something to say about it
next Sunday on his blog.
Meanwhile a much cropped photo to give you an idea of the fire’s ferocity while
Hugh gets on with preparing more and better ones before more formal publication.
About 5 a.m. this morning.
Motoring morons (Featuring BC70 UNU)
My driving licence will have its 62nd birthday next month. My test was
passed first time (when that was not very difficult) but since then I have never
had my car come into contact with another nor offend against any law. Speeding,
parking or getting trapped inside a Yellow Box Diment.
As such I think I can deny any suggestion of being a reckless driver with no consideration
for others. Last Saturday I drove to Malmesbury and took only three
minutes longer than the Waze App said the journey should take, I don’ְt always hang about, but yesterday
it took me 70 minutes to drive the exactly ten miles to an address in Pett’s Wood.
While there I admitted to being fed up with driving because there are far
too many people driving and too high a proportion being apparently
brainless. It is only a matter of time, I feel, before one of them crashes
into me but I keep going mainly in order to raise two fingers at the bastard Khan.
“Don’t let the buggers get you down!”
No sooner had I left my friendְ’s house
I found myself in nearby Oxhawth Crescent just before school out time. I am not sure where the
school is but the narrow 1930s built road was lined with parked cars on both
sides. Yellow zig-zags included.
I drove gingerly down the middle of the carriageway; firstly because
of the barely adequate width and secondly because as ‘Crescent’ implies,
forward visibility was restricted.
I was about 250 yards through the parked cars (I was back there today and measured it with the odometer as 0·2 miles)
without meeting anyone and was just on the final straight (see Photo 1) when BC70 UNU
emerged from a drive, presumably without looking, straight into my path.
No one was doing more than a walking pace so there was no danger of collision
and I expected the driver to merely acknowledge his mistake and back into the
drive. (Me in red and him on full lock.)
But no. He kept his thumb on the horn and absolutely refused to reverse. As
a silly old you know what, it was all my fault and I should not have
attempted to pass the parents waiting for their children as that was
dangerous. As he became increasingly aggressive and overbearing I decided it
wasn’t worth risking him pulling a knife so I reversed until I found a convenient
dropped kerb that was not fully obstructed by a parked car. Fortunately at
no time during the confrontation did any other vehicle come up behind me.
How is it that such stupid and aggressive people are not behind bars? White,
early forties, should have known better.
During what passed for a conversation the moron claimed he could not reverse
back over the dropped kerb he had recently used because the drive was not his.
Apparently he had used it to effect a three point turn and didn’t want to
use the drive a second time. A three point turn down there? He must be nuttier than I had at first assumed.