Monday 13 August 2007

Avoidance

On Saturday, I went to the gym. However, due to the local council wishing to tear up the roads at a moment's notice, I was stuck in a load of traffic on the way to my normal gym. Having a reciprocal gym membership with this well known fitness chain, I decided to go to another of their branches instead.

I got to said establishment and pulled into a parking spot. I reversed out a little, with the intention of straightening and tidying the parking up. Nothing worse than being outside your polygon - there's no excuse. Anyway, as I was slowly reversing out, some pillock goes by at a ridiculously fast speed and honks his horn. He then pulls up a little further down and has the audacity to stick his head out of the window towards me and make, what can only be described as, a Shaw Taylor Police 5 'Keep 'Em Peeled' gesture with his fingers. (Ask your parents.)

He looked bigger than me so, even though I had really done nothing wrong, I kept my fingers to myself. This is Wembley. You can lose your fingers for just blinking at someone in a funny way.

It was then that the charade began. He parked up a little way down, but refused to get out of his car, instead opting to try and stare me out through his rear view mirror, knowing full well I'd have to pass his car to get into the gym. By this point, I'd got out, grabbed my gym bag from the boot and was about to make way towards my hour of sweat and tears. But I saw his eyes. They looked menacing.

So, I began to do what many of us must have done at some point. In order to buy some time, I acted as if I'd lost something. On the surface, I was pretending to look for my gym card. In my head, I was thinking 'You look like a wally'. I opened the boot and rooted around. Looked up - he was still staring. I went to the passenger door and looked in the glove compartment - beady eyes still on me. I leafed through my pockets, 'sighed'. He hadn't moved an inch.

Buying time had failed. Only one option left for delicate folk like me. I got back in my car and drove home. It was the only sensible thing to do. I'm a realist. I like my face as it is. The muscles can wait a day, I'm just glad I still have a pair of eyes that point forwards, ta very much.

3 comments:

Jag said...

Wow. I wouldn't have done that. I would have carried on. What did you do wrong?

A Simple Man said...

I presume he thought that it was my fault that he nearly went into the back of my car. By thinking this, he cunningly seems to have forgotten about the fact that he was whizzing round the car park like it was a Grand Prix track.

To be honest, if he was deliberately waiting in the car for me to go past in order for him to start something, I really haven't got the time or patience for it. There's something I saw on the BBC News website this evening about standing up to anti-social behaviour (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6954778.stm) and, as much as I'd like to think I'd get involved if someone else was in trouble, I'd much rather prefer to personally stay safe by keeping myself to myself.

Anonymous said...

I am glad you left too! Your lovely eyes need to stay pointing forwards thank you very much!