m99dws
18th March 2008, 16:27
I've been on the road for a reasonably long time, and in that time have had several NDE's or Near Death Experiences. For example, when I lived in the UK I had a car that was devoted to trying to kill myself, my wife and my (then) unborn child. My favourite was coming over the brow of a hill only to see a car overtaking in my lane, coming towards me. We clashed wing mirrors as he forced his way in front of a van and kept going, presumably like me to get home and change pants for unsoiled ones.
Today however was my 1st NDE in NZ. Filtering through slow moving traffic has its hazards I know, it also has its idiots. Dealing with Mr "That lane is moving 1 metre per hour faster so I'll just cut across now" isn't an issue, you can kind of predict that and leave enough room to get out of the way.
Today wasn't Mr "That lane is moving 1 metre per hour faster so I'll just cut across now", today I was re-introduced to Mr "There was nothing in my 4x4's mirrors 500 metres ago, there won't be anything there now so I'll just pull out without looking". Actually, that's quite a long name, I wonder if it fits on his credit card? Anyway I digress.
Basically my front wheel was inline with his rear passenger door as he decided that being in the outside of SH2 when the inside was clear was something he'd like to do. I sped up as a truck behind meant no breaking, and I was just screaming past about half a metre off the centre barrier with the horn blasting when he finally noticed me. He didn't actually attempt to deviate course though, even at that point, not a slight swerve or acknowledgement of an error.
Still, now that I live here I have a fridge full of Monteiths to relax with, it can't be all that bad can it?
Today however was my 1st NDE in NZ. Filtering through slow moving traffic has its hazards I know, it also has its idiots. Dealing with Mr "That lane is moving 1 metre per hour faster so I'll just cut across now" isn't an issue, you can kind of predict that and leave enough room to get out of the way.
Today wasn't Mr "That lane is moving 1 metre per hour faster so I'll just cut across now", today I was re-introduced to Mr "There was nothing in my 4x4's mirrors 500 metres ago, there won't be anything there now so I'll just pull out without looking". Actually, that's quite a long name, I wonder if it fits on his credit card? Anyway I digress.
Basically my front wheel was inline with his rear passenger door as he decided that being in the outside of SH2 when the inside was clear was something he'd like to do. I sped up as a truck behind meant no breaking, and I was just screaming past about half a metre off the centre barrier with the horn blasting when he finally noticed me. He didn't actually attempt to deviate course though, even at that point, not a slight swerve or acknowledgement of an error.
Still, now that I live here I have a fridge full of Monteiths to relax with, it can't be all that bad can it?