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@veLLo
I had an exchange of words with a white van this morning.
I was arriving to work, a woman was cycling ahead of me and that white van turned left into a builders merchant yard, just in front of her, she had her hands on the side of the van to protect herself, at a faster speed this could have been nasty. She shouts, they don't seem to hear her, they go park their van and she does not bother going after them and cycles of.
I am upset about what I just saw, I go to the van and start:
"BLABLABLA"
The driver goes:
"BLABLABLA-MIND-YOUR-OWN-BUISNESS"
Me:
"BLABLABLA-MY-BUISNESS-CYCLIST-GET KILLED" (I'm nervous and I don't make much sense, I remember mentionning millions of death, hehe, I'm no good with my speach in tense situations like these)
The Driver
"BLABLABLABLA-FUCK-OFF" and he goes at his buisness buying timber and god knows what.
His mate
"BLABLABLABLABLA-GO-BACK-TO-YOUR-OWN-COUNTRY-BLA-BLA-FUCK-OFF"
So I fuck off then, I won't start a figh with 2 builders, I can't even express myself properly, I don't know how to figh, and it's not even my own country!
I go to work (just couple of streets away) feeling bad about this. The woman did not feel necessary to go to them, I went to them, sarted to argue, but no important message was said really, just disgracefull insults, at the end of the day, the cliche about white vans is stronger in me, and these guys hate cyclists and possibly foreigners even more now... FAIL.
I was an hour early at work this morning, so I have time. I leave my bag and bike at the office and go back to the builder's merchant.
I see the driver about to go back to his van, I go to him, and tells him that I am sorry about the way our little chat turned into a haters dialogue, that I understand that nothing constructive came out of this, and I strongly feel this is all very wrong: IT IS THE FIRST TIME IN 6 YEARS IN LONDON THAT I AM BEING TOLD TO GO BACK TO MY OWN COUNTRY.
He apologised straight away, I could see he was embarassed about the xenophobic words, it was not his words but his mate's and I could feel he does not necessarely approve (he had gone to the warehouse when his mate said that and probably did not hear). He said he was sorry he did not see the woman cycling (which of course is not an excuse, but you all know how rarely people recognize they made a mistake on the road - including cyclists). I think he was as unhappy as me things had gone this way: he offers to shake hands, he does not seem to hate me anymore, I don't hate him anymore, we could almost go to Vegas and get married!! WIN
I felt a lot better after...
Sorry if TLTR - Peace!
L