Welcome back,
I just had to share with you all the rather surreal experience I had the other day, on the return trip of one of my many pilgrimages to the visit the Man in hospital. It was, quite possibly, the most random thing I have ever seen, and perhaps the most random thing I ever will see.
I'm driving down the Long Country Road, traffic doing about 60 clicks and almost bumper to bumper. Suddenly, the car two ahead of me slams on their brakes. So the car in front brakes. Me, being the excellent driver that i am (*ahem**cough*), hit my brakes in turn. Then, realising I was about to run square up the arse of the car in front, I pulled my wheel to the left, onto the shoulder (remembering we are in Australia here, and we drive on the left).
Now, before I go much further, allow me set the scene. Long Country Road (not it's real name) is, as the title suggests, long and rural. There are few houses here, the ones that are here are kilometres apart and the kind of properties that actually appear to belong to elves who live in the letterbox, because the letterbox is the only structure you can see- the actual house is miles away from the road. To top off the hostile environment, it's a stinking hot 35 degree day.
So there I am, careening up the shoulder, pumping the brake, and I suddenly find myself stopped. Good thing too. Because I have stopped a mere metre from the reason for all this traffic confusion in the first place- a guy, in a wheelchair, hitchhiking.
I'll give that a second to sink in. A guy, in a wheelchair, hitchhiking. 35 degrees, not a house in sight. To top off the total randomness, when cars weren't stopping for him, he was actually rolling out onto the road and abusing people.
Very, very strange. Really only advisable if you have one of these.
Being the good Samaritan I am, and figuring that with two car seats and a pram already in my tiny hatchback, a wheelchair just was not going to fit, I rang the local coppers.
"Erm, this might sound insane, but there's a guy-"
"In a wheelchair, on the the Long Country Road, hitchhiking? Thanks, we've got a squad car on the was out there. You're the third person that's rang."
Righto, then...