My arrival at work today was somewhat delayed by a rather entertaining incident taking place at the junction of Hampden Road and Monash Avenue. Here the casual traveler will find a small roundabout (or as the Americans would have it a “traffic circle”), although this morning our traveler would find – in addition to the roundabout – one of those double length buses with a concertina section in the middle to allow it to go around corners.
What made the presence of this bus entertaining is that the driver – possibly new and unfamiliar with this particular intersection – had taken his bus around the roundabout at completely the wrong angle, resulting in said bus’s rather large and elaborate arrangement of wing mirrors getting tangled up with one of the signposts announcing the presence of said roundabout to other motorists.
He couldn’t go forward without tearing off his impressive collection of mirrors and probably taking down the signpost. He couldn’t go back because his bus was already bent around the roundabout at a rather extreme angle, and reversing could well rip the concertina section apart. He was trapped – trapped with such remarkable efficiency that it seems incredible it could have occurred without forward planning and careful maneuvering.
The driver of my own bus got out to lend a hand, but after a few minutes of poking at the mirrors, poking at the sign, and standing around scratching his head he had no choice but to get back into his bus and continue along his route (by this point many of his passengers had got out and started walking in frustration). And inevitably, just as we got underway no less than five more buses turned up, one after the other, all seeking to go around the roundabout – a feat just possible (under the current trying circumstances) for a normal bus, but not for the two – normally extremely rare – double length concertina buses among their number.
We left them to sort it out on their own 🙂
Feeling somewhat more lively today – when I got home on Wednesday night I felt so wretched that I proclaimed “Liver detox be damned!” and ate properly for 24 hours. I’m back on the program today, but at least don’t feel like lying down and dying. I figure three days on, one day off is better than no detox at all, and if the naturopath doesn’t like it, too bad!
I’ve also just finished reading Three Men in a Boat (brilliantly funny by the way), which I’ve been meaning to do for years. This probably – along with the fact that I’ve only had Turbo Boost Detox Powder for breakfast – accounts for the rather odd literary style of today’s entry 🙂
Back to work!
