Saturday, February 20, 2010

Cycle path on the loose

Walking back from the shops along our local cycle path yesterday, I had a strange encounter. At a junction, I'd walked across and as soon as I had, I heard a bicycle moving slowly behind me. I made sure that both I and the dog were on the side of the path marked out for walkers and carried on. The cyclist moved to the half of the path marked out for bikes (the one with the big bike painted on it), and as he passed, I saw he was a child (of no more than 12) in a hooded top on a BMX. No sooner had he passed me than he turned around and shot me a look of purest contempt. I met his gaze. He turned to the front briefly, before looking back over his shoulder again, maintaining that look. I kept looking ahead, that being the direction in which I was going. When he was about 20 feet away from me, still cycling, he broke the silence. "Fucking cunt". To which I replied "Turn around and face the way you're going. You might fall off". The reply came: "Fat fucking twat". To which I responded: "Face the front and keep cycling". He got a little further away and stopped, before delivering another volley of insults. Unfortunately, he was too far away for me to hear them properly. I merely reiterated my suggestion that he should go about his business and leave me to get on with mine. As I drew closer, he resumed his journey, taking a short cut through the cemetery, which was slightly annoying as that was what I was planning to do, and now I couldn't without appearing slightly creepy. That was the last I saw of the wee chap. So, I'd been on the right side of the path and been facing the direction of travel, but I was the cunt of the piece? Strange. Or was he simply hoping that I'd bite and get angry with him? Even more strange.