Driving up (pay careful attention to the upness) the hill into work on Friday, I rounded a corner to see a van driving along in front of me with one of its back doors open. One of those big cotton reels of cable (about two or three feet across) had fallen out of the back and was chasing the van along. The driver drove on, oblivious.
Much as I yearn for the comically satisfying realisation of the dream of a big heavy thing rolling down a hill, mowing down cars, I decided to do my hero act. I drove up as close as I could behind the big cotton reel, so that when it lost momentum and started to roll back down, it wouldn’t have far to go until my bumper caught it. I carried this out with great aplomb, and there is just a tiny scratch on my bumper as a result.
There was quite a crowd too, but I don’t know how much they saw. I didn’t get a round of applause, which I am quite pissed off about.