Friday 1 July 2011

A good walk spoiled...

Thanks to Mark Twain for the title, but no, I haven't been on the fairway, in a natty pair of plus-fours, some two-tone wingtip loafers and a diamond-paned sleeveless sweater...

Image courtesy of sportart.ca
 ...or even the female equivalent.

No, indeed not.

I am talking about an actual walk, bright and early(ish) yesterday morning, spoilt by a really horrible incident. 

Mr U-t-B and I are going out for gradually longer and longer walks close to home, as part of his recuperation from the spinal surgery (he's doing really well and is now allowed to drive again, which he'd not expected to be able to do for another four weeks).

Yesterday we set off just before eight, with Miss U-t-B, who was walking to her friend's, where she gets a lift to the school bus stop.  A couple of corners away there is a little shop, and people often park partly on the pavement when they go in to pick things up, but today, there was a car skewed almost all the way across the pavement, so we had to edge round.  There was a young man 
- no, that's too nice a thing to call him -
yob 
in the passenger seat, with the door open.  As we approached I was glad that I was wearing my sunnies, because I felt he was really staring at me, and I didn't want to make eye contact.  

If I'd been wearing a skirt, I'd have thought I'd tucked it in my knickers.  
I even began to wonder if I had inexplicably, and quite suddenly, grown a second head.

I had momentarily wondered if this 'lad' was someone I used to teach, but from behind my sunglasses I could see it was not, and was puzzled by the staring.

We continued on our way, round the corner.  

A minute or so later, the car that had been on the pavement pulled up along side us, and the passenger started shouting foul-mouthed abuse at Mr U-t-B (mostly focused on his beautiful shiny head, but peppered with - no - laden with expletives that began with the letters f, c and b).  The passenger was 'asking' in the foulest of ways, why Mr U-t-B had been looking at him.  (Mr U-t-B had in fact been looking at the bottle of beer he was drinking.  This may be due to the fact that he only yesterday had his first beer in three months (not that he's much of a drinker, anyway) or it may have been that he was thinking about how you could be drinking at that time in the morning.)

The tirade continued for a minute or so, with the car crawling along the road and the driver joining in, as we walked and tried not to get involved.  (There was also a girl in the back.)  Then the car shot off, only to reverse up and start the abuse again.

Mr U-t-B did 'explain' that he'd been looking because the car was across the pavement and it was difficult to get round, and I told them to get on their way - without any swearing I hasten to add.  Luckily they did then drive off.

I was, needless to say, quaking in my sandals. 
We saw Miss U-t-B to her friends and carried on, only to see the car heading back up the road towards us.

More abuse followed from both passenger and driver before they finally got bored and drove off.

So this evening, to recover from the trauma, we had a well-earned glass of wine with our meal.  I toasted my 'bald freak' of a husband, and he toasted his 'skanky wife'.

What is the world coming to?

9 comments:

  1. How very scarey & menacing. You did well to keep calm. A friend's daughter was followed home once late one night in her car by another car full of boys who threw beer cans at her car. Luckily her boyfriend was with her & they got to her home safely but shaken.

    Thanks for your sweet message, shall email you .

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  2. What a horrible thing to happen. Thankfully people like that are in the minority, but they make life unpleasant for the rest of us. Hope you enjoyed your well deserved glass of wine!
    Liz

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  3. How awful for you all, but thankfully you came away unscathed physically. I can never understand what drives some people to be so vicious. Have a gentle day today. M xx

    PS: My Mr is a member of the 'bald freak' club too and I love it!

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  4. I can imagine how you felt, sounds like he had a massive chip on his shoulder or maybe the fact that he was drinking lager at that time in the morning had something to do with it. Either way it leaves a nasty taste in your mouth doesn't it? Well done for being so calm it what sounds like a very tricky situation. Rest assured that the people in the car will have only succeeded in embarrassing themselves in front of others through their ridiculous behaviour.

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  5. What a horrible incident - it's difficult to know what to do in situations like that, but you did the right thing. Some people.....Glad you had your wine though!

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  6. Oh Dear ~ I'm so sorry ~ what an awful thing to happen. The infantile and moronic behaviour makes you sick to the stomach! I've heard it said that men aren't really bald anyway ... they just have a very wide part! A local cafe here was offering free coffee to bald men not so long ago - so there are indeed advantages ;).
    Bless you both. Hope you have a sweeter day tomorrow! Love Brenda

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  7. There really are some disgusting people in this world...poor you. They will come to a bad end, you mark my words xx
    Sophie

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  8. OMG...that is so scary. Don't walk that way again for awhile. One day they will pick on the wrong people and get what for.

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  9. Sometimes I get quite depressed and think there is no hope for the world with quite a few people like that in it. In the US I would have called 911 (same as your 999) and taken the license # and car description and the police would have acted on it..no hope for that in the UK???

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