Ok, here's a hypothetical situation. Let's say you're waiting at a very busy roundabout waiting to turn when suddenly your phone rings. Bearing in mind that answering your phone while driving is illegal where you are (UK), do you:
- Answer it anyway and keep driving like everyone else seems to do. So what if it's illegal? You are teh 1337 dr1v3r and you will ttly not crash. Srsly.
- Leave the phone til you get to somewhere you can stop then call the person back
- Stop exactly where you are, turn your engine off, flash your hazards and answer the call
Guess which one I encountered yesterday morning, which added an extra 20 minutes to my journey. Oh yes, it's C. Some woman decided she would stop exactly where she was in the middle of the road, right next to the roundabout, so neither could anyone see what was coming nor could they get past. She just sat there and talked away for a good half an hour or so while people beeped at her and tried to squeeze round her. But nooo, we all had to wait til her oh-so-important call had finished. Sure enough, as soon as she had finished, she drove off again, completely erasing any illusions anyone might have had about her having broken down.
I mean, seriously. What about that phone call was so important that she had to stop there for 20 minutes and block everyone else off?! URGH. Some people really need a good slap. I was hoping someone would have called the police or something but then I'm not sure they would have been able to get through the blocked up traffic even if they had been called, grrr.
In other news, it appears to be Christmas next week. ... I want the person who let that happen to explain exactly what they have done with all my time.
Amanda
18/12/2007 at 10:59
What the?! What kind of place do you live in Amelie? I would have gotten out of the car and just marched right up to her car and lambasted her...
Amelie
18/12/2007 at 11:11
^ Oh, but this is England. Nobody likes to disturb anybody else (except this one woman, obviously). *Eyeroll*
Annie
18/12/2007 at 11:35
How considerate of her...not. I know I would've just sat in my car and waited but my mum would have berated her. I'm surprised someone didn't actually.
Amelie
18/12/2007 at 11:44
^ Well you see I think everyone thought she'd broken down... I know I did at first, but when I eventually got close to her and saw her put her phone down and drive off, that's when I knew she'd just been an idiot.
Rachael
18/12/2007 at 15:50
What car do you have? Because if you've got a giant Range Rover or something, you could have given her a helpful nudge out of the way, hehe. :P
Julie
18/12/2007 at 19:09
What the furry rabbit?
There are roundabouts here in Canada and I've seen some in Cuba, so maybe there are some in the USA too?
Catherine
19/12/2007 at 0:55
Now, who in their right mind does that?! She's lucky she wasn't rear ended! If someone did that to me I would simply after about ten min. go up to her window and say "Well aren't you a waste of two billion years of evolution." courtesy of Rachael. My god, people these days. |:
Kaylee
19/12/2007 at 3:09
Maybe the call was from her dying husband who only had 20 minutes left to live.
Or, maybe she was just crazy ;P
valerie
20/12/2007 at 5:12
@Julie - we've a couple of roundabouts yeah, but the few I've seen are nothing compared to the ones we see of the UK... on tv, lol, since I've never been there :P
@Amelie - that woman is psycho! I would have called the police after 5 minutes if that, especially if I got out and went to see what the deal was because I'd first assume that her car had died. But once I found out it hadn't, there'd be hell to pay! Crazy!!!!!
Claire
20/12/2007 at 18:19
If you find out, let me know lol.
Rilla
25/12/2007 at 1:21
That's one of the coolest traffic stories I ever heard! The woman's so amazing. :P
Amelie
25/12/2007 at 12:33
^ IT WAS YOU!!!11 I'ma have to go over there to NZ and knock some sense into you, tsk tsk.
Jamie
27/12/2007 at 0:50
Wow, that is quite nuts. I would have been going INSANE. I hate stupid people!
cole
29/12/2007 at 11:25
Rawr. I must admit, being able to use the tab feature in the comment form would be nice. Aside from that, people are dumb. It's fact. Here, in Japan, the locals have a tendency to pull off to the side of the road to chat on their phones. It wouldn't be a big deal if the roads were reasonably sized but, in some places, a 2 way road is smaller than a normal 1 lane road in the states. Ugh.
Amelie
29/12/2007 at 11:51
What do you mean (re the comment form)? I can use tab perfectly in IE, Firefox and Opera (Windows)... I can't use it in the comment box in Firefox but that's just because Firefox is weird :P