I was riding my bike into Cambridge today, on my way to work, passing the Queen Vic Chippy and the No.1 Motels building, when I was flagged down by an elderly couple.
I thought they were going to tick me off for riding on the pavement, but actually they asked me whether I knew where there was a ready made roast meal shop. They knew it was around here somewhere. I said "I think it's just round the corner past KFC there". Then while we were talking, along came a woman in a mobility scooter, sitting forward with her hands like she was driving a ride on mower, and possessed of a very determined jawline.
She couldn't get through, because there was scaffolding on the motel building which took up half the pavement. I was there with my bike and the two people who were talking to me hadn't noticed her, or if they had, they were showing no intention of moving. So it began to get awkward, where the woman in the mobile scooter was waiting, and the two people just kept talking. All of a sudden, the woman in the mobility scooter lurched forward and shouted, "Come on, guys, I'm trying to get through here".
It was one of those situations where you hear yourself speaking and you realise that what you are saying has completely bypassed the usual filter. I heard myself saying to her in my best home counties English (and rather loud) , "Well, then, say 'Excuse me', and do try not to be quite so rude!".
The waves parted, and the woman shot through with an extremely loud "Harrumph!" and a thoroughly grumpy look on her face, and was gone.
Really, I'm very sorry for her that she's ended up in a mobility scooter, but it's not the end of the world. You don't have to be that bad-tempered, and you certainly don't have to be that rude.
My two people seemed blissfully unaware of it all - they were still talking about ready roast meals.
N.B. The image I've chosen is not the woman in my story, it's from an image library - and doesn't she look pleasant?