Avoidable Diplomats Under Scrutiny,

He finally knocked at the door, yesterday, and announced that he’d be leaving tomorrow. It was a lesson and the end to a strange relationship.

A couple of years ago, I was head-hunted by a guy who had challenged another guy to a football match. The teams met on a rainy, windswept November night. I was unfamiliar with my team mates and I had largely forgotten about them. Many months afterwards, I was puzzled by a chap who kept on saying ‘Hi’ to me. He moved in to the office next door and would wave at me through the window every day. I eventually remembered that he was a team mate during that distant one-off match.

The morning’s garbage men placed the couch in the crusher and were seated in their lorry before the chewing had begun. The show was a triviality to them; just a small potato blighting their schedule. It’s a sad day when people can no longer be excited by crushing things.

Of course, if I hadn’t been gawking at the demise of a couch, I’d have been a couple of further yards down the road and I wouldn’t have had the chance meeting with an ambulance and a police van at the junction. It was awkward; I had right of way so they had to wait until I passed and then pulled in, but of course, if they had had their sirens on, I’d have known it was an emergency and pulled up earlier to allow them to emerge. Small flashing lights on the grill are the only things that are visible on an ambulance emerging from a junction, thus it makes sense to approach junctions with sirens on. I am quite sensitive about people letting ambulances through, someone smashed into the back of me when I was making room for one once. Admittedly, they are tricky situations and the emergency makes some drivers panic, but at the same time, some of these blunders could cost lives.