Definitely turning into a grumpy old woman!

I've just called British Gas to report bad, potentially dangerous driving by one of their engineers!

On a stretch of road that I know very well, the resident shave to park in the road. It is narrow, goes downhill (unless of course you are going the other way and curves. We always go cautiously on it, as it is not uncommon to meet a vehicle coming the other way in the middle of the road.

I had been tootling along, seen nothing in my rear view mirror for ages, then suddenly there he was coming out of nowhere like the proverbial bat out of hell. I rounded the bed slowly, and sure enough in addition to the usual cars parked there was the recycling lorry. How the van driver didn't go straight into the back of me heaven knows. I was happy to wait until the recycling lorry moved off, but Mr Gas Engineer wasn't, and decided to pull out and overtake both me and the lorry. He was very lucky that there was nothing coming the other way, because there was no way he could have seen it if there was.

I found myself parked next to him in Lidls car park, and then found him behind me in the checkout queue clutching a pair of Crocs. (Yes, they were a bargain if you like that sort of thing, but I don't think that they would have sold out if he had just waited instead of driving as if a spanner short of a tool bag)

I think I may have earned back some brownie points though, as on the drive home I was following a car that looked as if it's exhaust was about to drop off. I flashed lights, then tooted and eventually they pulled over in a safe place. I pulled up behind them and ran out to explain. The woman (who wasn't in the first flush of youth, shall we say, but then who of us is?) seemed quite relieved to see that I wasn't a mad axe murderer or about to hijack her car. I told her why I had flashed etc, then got down to have a look. It wasn't her exhaust, it was a large plastic bag that the council give out for recycling the newspapers but she seemed to appreciate it anyway.

I was about to tuck it into the verge, but then thought that it might blow out again and cause problems, so I took it home. No coincidence at all that I just happened to need one, honest!