Saturday, March 11, 2006

Street Life (Pedestrian Chicken)

There is an ebb and flow in the tide of commuters over Waterloo bridge. Such is the fluid dynamics of crowds that a pattern emerges with north-south one side of the pavement and south-north the other.

Every now and again you get some contrarian who clings limpit-like to the parapet side forcing oncomers to swerve. Whether they do it through ignorance or malice I do not know. Whether they are oblivious to others or indifferent I neither know nor care.

This behaviour offends the over-compliant adapted child in me. So with malicious delight I out-limpit them, striding straight at them till they crack and are pried away from the bridge's edge. But then as my friend John said, I become the very thing I dislike. Oh, well!

Note:
I do not do this to tourists; I want them to enjoy their visit to this fine city.

1 comment:

Rosa said...

Ha! Funny one. Yes, us "tourists" can be spotted a mile away. Alaways walking on the wrong side and always looking kind of lost. Yes, that was me who almost was run over by the doubledecker while crossing the street. You could see all the heads turn to see if "another" one had been struck! How embarassed I was. Never again though. I can mingle in with the best of traffic flows. And, I knew you would be the kind gent who sways to let a tourist by.