An annoying day

Road works. Photo taken from a pedestrian walk way over the A45/A46 traffic island towords the A45/A444 traffic island in South Coventry. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wednesday was one of those days that simply annoys. When I awoke all was fine and then I found one or two things to annoy me and throughout the rest of the day it continued. The day itself was bad as far as the weather was concerned, very wet and very windy but that in itself is never a problem with me. It used to be. I left the house in a good mood leaving myself forty minutes to get to my destination about 15 miles away. It shouldn’t have taken that amount of time under normal circumstances but nevertheless did and for several reasons. Within the first half-mile of my outward journey I encountered a speeding driver, two illegally parked drivers who caused the main flow of traffic to grind to a halt, an idiot waiting to make a right-turn at traffic lights but taking the whole carriageway to do it thus preventing the traffic behind from moving past on the left (we drive on the left in the UK) and goody two shoes keeping strictly to 25 mph in a 30 zone thus hindering traffic flow. Further ahead a motorist turning right at the lights who wouldn’t make the move despite their being nothing to prevent it. I turned right behind but was left standing as they were obviously speeding down the road to make up for the lost time waiting at the traffic lights unnecessarily! I stuck to the speed limit. A car pulled out from a road on my left without much thought for those on the main road, me! At the next junction someone else did the same thing. I was beginning to think those on the road that morning had death wishes. The onward journey was pretty much the same, drivers taking unnecessary chances and considering the driving conditions were somewhat treacherous, sheer lunacy. Occasionally the early morning sun shone through the clouds into the faces of those drivers too which made matters worse. Part-way through my journey I saw a refuse collection vehicle parked at the roadside whist being loaded with waste. The tail-back caused by that one vehicle was over a half-mile long! Why they had to collect at that time in the day, the rush hour, is beyond belief. You would think the council responsible would be just that, responsible. I was glad I was driving in the opposite direction but couldn’t help feeling sad for the poor souls being held back on their respective journeys. As I got nearer to my destination there was heavy congestion due to the road works in a couple of places along the same route. I was held back for some time at the temporary traffic control lights. When I finally turned into the road at my destination there were absolutely no places whatsoever in which to park my van. The road was narrow and vehicles stood nose to tail down one side leaving the other side free for moving traffic. No passing places had been left and chaos ensued. Fortunately I was able to squeeze onto the small space behind other vehicles on the driveway of the cottage I was visiting. The old lady invited me in and I assessed the work I was asked to do. Shortly afterwards the road was devoid of any vehicles and I was then able to park my van on it. I had to move the van because one of the cars on the driveway would be driven away ten minutes later. My task was to remove two lights from the dining area and replace them with others. One on the wall and one on the ceiling beams. Both were difficult as I had expected, annoying little problems with each of them. One of those removed was a brass spotlight which incidentally was faulty and couldn’t be repaired but I had been asked to re-site it upstairs. It was a low voltage unit and the transformer had burned internally. It had been moulded into the base and couldn’t be removed but it could be converted to a high voltage unit with some modifications and a little ingenuity. Why did I offer to do it? It presented me with all sorts of challenging problems but because the old lady had set her heart on having it upstairs I set about doing the conversion. A new unit it seems was out of the question and probably couldn’t have been purchased anyway as the old one was so old and out of production. It took me a while to do but eventually I got there after some cussing! Resiting it presented me with further problems, naturally. The lady had an old dog which continuously walked back and forth around my feet and was being somewhat of a nuisance. Well I couldn’t really object so I just tried to avoid it. I asked the lady what was wrong with her dog and she told me it was suffering from the doggy version of dementia. When I went upstairs to fit the two lights I had removed downstairs my phone wouldn’t stop ringing. Call after call most of which were nuisance or spam but they were enough to interrupt at the most inappropriate moment. Finally I was able to finish the work, pack up my things and after payment drive back home. I was held up for forty minutes in a queue of traffic controlled by more road works and arrived home late for lunch. Whilst sorting out my paperwork I discovered my phone wasn’t in my bag. Thinking back I remembered where I had left it, back at the cottage! Fifteen miles away! I have never done that before. Crikey, I had to drive back to collect it. I telephoned ahead to make sure it was there and off I went again. This time I took a different but longer route to avoid road works. I was there in half an hour. On my way back home I stopped at a farm shop and had a freshly made sandwich, made by the young girl serving me. Just like a ‘Subway‘ only better. Breakfast had been nine hours earlier so it tasted that much better. Once I was back home all the problems of the day had melted away.

Shirley Anne