Day 99 - Car Crash

yep that'll do it

Over the last week or so, I've on several occasions flippantly referred to a metaphorical car crash.   Today, the Universe decided to repay my flippancy by involving me peripherally with an actual car crash...and as if to close the loop, this led directly to the rest of my day becoming a metaphorical car crash!

Hence me sitting here at 00.45am just starting my blog, whilst knowing that I have to be in work early in the morning too...like I said, bit of a car crash!

We'd been out for most of the day.

In the morning we visited Kim and Roob.  It was good to see them, catch up with the latest news on their house, share hints and tips on photography, which we're all dabbling in to one degree or another, it seems. 

Anna and I then drove up to Loughborough to spend the afternoon at our favourite bouldering centre.  We climbed quite well overall, but found ourselves tiring quickly, and generally running out of steam after around 3 hours, which is an hour or two less than we usually manage.   But still, it was good to get a session in, having not had a hard climb since we were in Spain a couple of weeks ago. 

We arrived home around 5ish and took Jazz for a stroll down the lane more or less straight away.   His limping has been less pronounced for the last few days, which is quite a relief after the state he was in last weekend.   But still, we didn't take him too far, wary of exacerbating whatever condition he has. 

As we arrived back at the house, we heard a mild screeching of tyres up the road, followed by a low thud.  I looked at Anna questioningly...did that sound a bit like a car crash?!   They're not uncommon on the little winding stretch of road that passes our house...

I went up to the main road to have a look, but couldn't see anything round the bend 50m away.  Looking for a better vantage point, I thought I could see stationary tail lights just around the bend, so ran up to see if I could assist.

Sure enough, rounding the bend I came across a car on its side, and several cars parked up and down the road around it, having stopped to help.

The drivers door was open, up in the air, and three men were gathered around the car, looking into the passenger compartment.   It was clear that someone was in the car. 

My climbing skills (and the fact that I was warmed up from an afternoons climbing) came in very handy over the next few minutes.

I quickly climbed the underside of the car and looked down into the passenger compartment.   A middle aged couple (perhaps a bit older than me) were in a bit of a heap on the floor...or more accurately, on the broken passenger side window.   The man was struggling to his feet and starting to climb out of the top, so I helped him up onto the outside of the rear door.   

It was immediately clear that as well as being fairly large (around my height but heavier) he was also, in fact, very drunk.    I managed to help him into a sitting position on the side of the car, and I stepped down to the ground, gently pulling him with me, until he started to slide off the side.   As his weight started to fall I basically caught him and lowered him to the ground, none the worse for wear. 

I hopped back up to find the woman now standing inside the car, also inebriated.

Conveniently, all afternoon I'd been carefully down-climbing all the problems I did at the bouldering centre. Most people don't bother, but I've been quite diligent about it for a while now, and I'm starting to become fairly proficient.  

So it seemed oddly karmic (or something), when I manoeuvred higher so I could lean down and support the woman as she clambered inelegantly out of the top of the car, and was then faced with one final down-climb of the day...without hesitation, I simply picked her up and easily descended the couple of steps down to the floor, where I gently put her down.

It was immensely satisfying to discover that my recent efforts to get into shape through (and for) climbing hasn't been in vain, as it was remarkably easy to help these two unfortunate, silly, uncoordinated - and by no means small - people out of the mess they'd gotten themselves into.  

I felt completely strong and controlled (and thus, confident), and I'd like to think this helped make the situation less traumatic for those directly involved. 

Yay climbing and the functional strength it brings!

Also, here's another large pheasant, this time strutting his stuff confidently through our garden, and again much less skittish than usual. 

What is going on with these birds?!

cocky cock pheasant