Lengthy and largely inexplicable absence, due in the main to going on holiday and then not really getting my shit together on my return to these pallid shores. Anyway, back now and raring to go (on holiday again). However, what has prompted this posting is something I read in a paper/on a website/scrawled on the wall of a toilet cubicle...whatever, I'm sure it's true. What I read was that there has been an increase in accidents involving pedestrians which is being attributed to the growing number of them who wear earphones as they walk. In other words they are making themselves deaf and do not realise they are about to be run down by a juggernaut, incontinent granny on an invalid scooter,cyclist or whatever.
The regular reader of this blog (me, me, me) will know that I've sounded off before about the risks pedestrians subject themselves to by wearing MP3 iPod type things. Well here is incontrovertible proof. I've had personal experience of the way these twats cut themselves off from the rest of the world. As I cycle along the Tarka Trail I ding my bike bell to warn other trail users of my approach. Most step in to the side and smile politely as I pass, and I ALWAYS say thank you. But some carry on as if they are the only people on the planet and it is an odds-on bet that these are the people who will have their ears filled up with earphones and cannot hear a dicky bird. What is worse is the glare they often give me as I pass, presumably because they are surprised at finding me on their shoulder. Ah well, you can't legislate for idiocy.
