Dantesque

I'd just been to the flicks. Gravity, good film I thought. The cinema is in a shopping centre and the car park was mayhem - people and cars everywhere. The centre was ablaze with light. The Seventh Circle of hell but with writhing vehicles rather than contorted bodies.

A Spanish chum riding in my car a while ago told me that it is a mortal sin, or at least 300€ worth of fine, not to signal whilst moving between lanes on motorways. I sniggered. Spaniards are not big on turn indicators.

I picked my way through cars going in each and every direction. Going against the direction arrows in a car park is normal behaviour, moving without lights too, not signalling is as common as acne on teenage faces. I was about to move through a gap when I noticed that a supposedly parked car was rolling slowly forward. I waited and watched as the car bumped gently into a wall. The driver had been too absorbed in his wasap (that's WhatsApp to you and me) to notice till he felt the jolt. I laughed out loud and waited for the chap to restart his car and reverse it back into his space before I continued.

Out through the industrial estate where the street lights were not working and the strange urban version of Le Mans continued. I was happy to reach the safety of the motorway. I dropped right onto the slip road heading for home whilst the car in front continued along the main carriageway. Then he or she changed his or her mind and veered right onto the slip lane in front of me. It wasn't a problem it was just a bit unexpected but obviously this driver was worried about that possible 300€ fine. Thirty or forty metres after making the turn he or she put on the turn signal.

Splendid stuff.