london1967 | Rudeness all around

If there is one thing that I cannot abide, is people shouting.

So you can imagine my reaction when a policeman last night rudely shouted "Oi!!" when I was cycling past the side of Buckingham Palace and made me step off the bike and on the pavement.

My crime? Squeezing through the parked cars (on double yellow, and double red) and the stationary traffic (the lights were red). Apparently I should have seen another policeman on the other side of the carriageway stopping the traffic (I don't know the reason but there was some kind of old, long limo (don't ask me what it was) and I assume that, given the location, some important people had to be somewhere urgently.

I told him the truth and apologised that I hadn't seen his colleague but I was really taken aback by his uncouth behaviour. Ah, what happened to good manners and to a nice "Excuse me, Sir?".

Of course I didn't tell him what I really thought, that he was just a bully in a uniform and that I wasn't doing anything illegal, because, you know, I didn't want to get a ticket or worse.

I know I let myself down because I didn't speak up.

*

When I got home Adrian was also furious.

He had been around the estate earlier in the afternoon to deliver a flyer for the next residents' association event.
When he was about to put one in Gary and Luca's letter box, one of the two Lithuanian builders who are currently re-doing the front garden, shouted "Wait!", got the flyer off Adrian, then had a look, scrunched it up into a ball and threw it in the rubbish!

Adrian has now e-mailed Gary to let him know, but if he doesn't hear anything back, I'm planning to go round one morning with a fake flyer that just says "You don't live here - mind you f***ing business!" and see what happens!