I’m starting to think a long-standing joke among my family may have some truth to it. The route into town on foot crosses several road junctions - and while you may not see any traffic for entire minutes while walking on the footpath, as you approach junctions, cars “spawn in” within fifty yards of the junction - preventing my crossing. Or at least they do if I’m there. Even my other half has started to laugh about it - if I’m in the car and we approach a junction, we’re going to be there for some time.
“You’re with us, aren’t you”.
This morning I almost started laughing out-loud. While turning a corner behind the supermarket towards home (I walked into town to stretch my legs and picked up some lunch along the way), I checked the road behind me, stepped into the road, and at the moment I turned my head, a cyclist and a car came bundling through the junction - obviously realising that I might make it before they reached it, and doing their level best to be in-place as arranged. I stepped back away from the road, and started swearing.
While running this morning a similar episode happened - where I had no choice but to run in the road to avoid several people walking in such a way that they (intentionally) blocked the footpath I was running on. The moment I put a foot on the road, a car pulled from a blind side-road, and accelerated straight at me.
Running on a morning really has pulled the curtain back on the true nature of the simulation. The number of times I meet not one, but several cars from different directions at junctions when the minutes preceding have been filled with completely deserted roads has become amusing in a way.
I’ve almost thought about grinning, and saying “well played” out loud to whoever is watching me with a long lens.
Don’t even get me started with pedestrians. On the high street the rest of the ensemble cast have obviously been told to ignore my entire existence. It makes no sense. I’m over 6 feet tall. I’m very visible. And yet people walk straight through me - or straight through my path. When out with my daughters, they laugh as I struggle through crowds - being left behind at each and every step.
I wonder if my daughters are in on it too?