People like me

Another slow journey home last night. On the A42 in Leicestershire, the traffic stopped at 8.40pm. It didn't slow down, it just stopped. It must have been a bad accident ahead (I couldn't see anything from where I was), because as the traffic stopped, people left a passage for emergency vehicles to pass through.

For the sake of the environment, I turned off my engine, and listened to the football, and looked at some paperwork (home-related - I don't do work unless I am in the office!). People got out of their cars, and while it would be overstating it to say that there was a community spirit, some people were talking to each other.

I was gobsmacked though, when the lorry driver behind me and the blow-dried middle aged man (driving a Megane convertible) started talking and immediately said words to the effect of, "I can't believe that I am going to be late because someone else is rubbish at driving". Well, the language they used was stronger, but you get the message. I didn't want to talk to anyone after that - it was clearly a bad accident, so you don't know if anyone could have been killed or injured. Also, you don't know what caused it - it could have been driver error (such as the way that the lorry driver and Megane man drove three feet away from the car in front), or it could have been a blown tyre, or a fox running into the road - you just don't know.

It reminded me of Go-Kart Mozart's excellent song (championed by Mark Radcliffe about six years ago): "People like me, well we don't give a damn ... people like me, we are selfish and lazy and greedy".

For the record, the traffic stopped at 8.40pm, and didn't move again until 10.30. I left work at 8.10, and got home at 10.50. Nicola had kindly put my dinner in the oven, but it had waited for two hours and was rather chewy!