I was pootling down to Oxford this morning to fetch His Nibs – chatting to Best Beloved on hands free about what we thought we have bought the children for Christmas – when the following happened. Some bloke drove right up to my bumper on the A40. I was forced to pull in so I gave him a two fingered salute.
He then whisked back in front of me and applied the breaks. Presumably to teach me a lesson. So, following the guidance in my speed awareness course, I slowed up to create a sensible distance.
He then swerved into a right hand turn lane from where he rolled down his window and flipped the bird at me. I flipped back. A reflex response. So far so tit for tat.
But then he reversed out of the slip road into traffic – which he held up at a busy roundabout – to pull up alongside me and give me an earful. I checked that I was locked in and looked the other way so his volley of invective was ineffective, courtesy of the passenger door window.
When he kept this up as we all pulled onto the roundabout I got very worried and started plotting how long it would take me to get to the Police station in Kidlington. I was quite discombobulated, giving a running commentary to Best Beloved on the phone who was helpless.
At some point he gave up and I continued to my destination in wary watchfulness. Upset and a little teary.
As Best Beloved observed, this driver wouldn’t have been quite so keen on his pursuit had I been a 6’4” bloke or even if I had said 6’4” bloke sitting next to me.
Something similar happened to our youngest the other day. And to another friend of a similar age to me. After posting the above on FB, several people commented that they had experienced something similar too.
My daughter drove into a petrol station and confronted the perpetrator, asking him if he was stalking her and getting out her phone to call the police. He backed off. I am proud that she dealt with it so well, but also furious that she had to deal with it in the first place.
Minnie’s Musings 
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