When were you last really scared?We'd been watching the Shining. We were staying in an old church building. In hindsight, taking the shortcut home after midnight, in the mist, through the old graveyard was a bad idea.
I'm not sure what started it, but suddenly all the hairs on my neck had gone up and I was crapping myself. It was almost as bad as when, after a few cups of coffee too many and buzzing on caffeine, I got freaked out by my own reflection in the toilets.
When were you last really scared?
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chthonic, Thu 22 Feb 2007, 15:43)
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Driving european styleI was taught to drive by BSM in London, a week after I passed my test I moved to rural Wales - so all in all I can cope with just about any traffic situation. However I now live in continental Europe where all rules of the road are ignored and indicators an optional extra.
I was driving to work a year ago and was running late, in retrospect very lucky as this meant that rush hour had passed and so there were fewer cars on the road. I was coming off one motorway slip road to join another motorway, checked my mirrors and saw a lorry on the main motorway. BSM would have had me allow the lorry to pass and I would overtake him at a convenient time. No, I am a european driver now, so I overtook on the inside. It became apparent to me that he had not seen me and he was pulling over to the inside lane. He was driving one of these enormous lorrys and I was in a VW Polo. I knew I wasn't going to quite make it so I tooted my horn... too late, he clipped the drivers side sending me crashing into the crash barrier at the side of the road. My car then flipped around and I was pinned driver's side to the front of his cab where upon he pushed me along the motorway for a hundred yards - all I could think was "christ, not like this!" before I was flung off, spun across 3 lanes of traffic and crashed into the central reservation.
I put the engine into neutral, turned off the engine and got out of the car. The lorry driver (French naturally) came running across the motorway to apologise (see, I told you this was european driving, despite me being technically wrong, he took full responsibility).
He said I didn't scream much for a woman who's been hit by a lorry, I can only assume he did this on a regular basis.
The funny thing was I'd been really suicidal at the time but that really sharpened my focus as to wanting to live. My insurance paid for the car and let me keep it (I sold it on ebay) and I spunked the money on a horse (which then later attacked me).
I now have a very large & safe car which I crashed last month, but with a feeling of utter calm.
Don't skimp on safety kids, buy the biggest, heaviest fucking car you can afford!
Apologies for length, but when a polo is hit by a 16-wheeler they do tend to compact a little.
(, Fri 23 Feb 2007, 9:02, Reply)
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