Zoladex-Tipped Darts Are The Answer

[clovehitched]

On Sunday afternoon, Sylvia and I were driving back from London after a most fun afternoon working hard at the climbing gym. We stopped off at Birchanger Green Services on the M11 and enjoyed a KFC bucket between us. It was a lovely day, the Sun was shining, there was not a planecloud in the sky and my party was riding high in the polls. I speculated out loud that life didn't get any better than this.

On rejoining the M11, a couple of muppets tried to ruin it. At that point the M11 drops from 3 lanes in each direction to 2 lanes in each direction. I pulled onto the road behind a car travelling at about 65 mph, looked in my mirror, noticed the road was clear behind me, checked over my shoulder, indicated and moved out into the overtaking lane. I accelerated to 70mph to overtake the car to my left when suddenly, appearing in my rear view mirror, was a Porsche which had come out of nowhere and was rapidly gaining on me, while braking sharply. He must have been doing considerably in excess of 100mph, possibly as much as 140. He dropped down to my speed and sat a couple of feet from my rear bumper. I sped up a little bit to get past the car faster and get rid of this tailgater, indicated left to pull back in and was about to move when right in the very corner of my wing mirror I saw a motorcyclist come up between the Porsche and the car I'd just overtaken and, while I was indicating left, undertook me and sat next to my passenger window. The rider turned to me and gesticulated as if to tell me off.

He moved on and I pulled back into the left lane. The Porsche sped off after the bike. I think they were racing and irritated that I'd been in the way, part way through my overtaking manoeuvre, when they caught up to where I was.

The thing is, if I hadn't caught the glimpse of the motorcyclist just as I was about to move left, I'd have gone straight into him. If he'd fallen off, he'd have been on the floor about 10-20 metres in front of a car that was travelling at 65mph.

I tried not to let this get to me, and contemplated the likelihood that my life expectancy from this point on is probably about six decades longer than his.

Also posted at http://auntysarah.dreamwidth.org/234989.html - you can comment here or there.

Comments

[klonecaid.livejournal.com]

Sadly in these cases there's not much left for the surgeons to recover for donation...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That's the only sensible reaction to an incident like that - other than to pull off as soon as possible and drink some hot, sweet tea. "He won't make old bones", is something I tend to find myself muttering in such situations. It's oddly comforting.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I think I may have meant to say "pull over"...

[moonspark.livejournal.com]

porsche dude sounds like he may have been drunk, actually. drunk people tend to fixate on the rear bumper of the vehicle in front of them.

[inshadowhiding.livejournal.com]

as someone who uses a motorcycle as a primary means of transport, the kind of behaviour shown by the Muppet on the bike is upsetting.
Car do a large number of behaviours that are dangerous to bikes, but there is no reason for bikes to add to the risk.

sadly, that person sounds like he is a statistic waiting to happen, one can only hope that he doesn't take anyone else with him.

[valeriekeefe.livejournal.com]

Adding that to the reasons I am a smug user of public transport... now!