Friday Night Drive Time

A bendy bus driving past a bus stop swung out slightly to avoid the double decker picking up passengers. The double decker chose that moment to leave the stop. Bendy bus embedded itself in the side of the double decker. Big traffic jam. Buses nose to tail up the entire length of Oxford Street from Oxford Circus to Selfridges. Drivers in the front of the queue have left their buses to go up and investigate/help out/rub their chins.

Eventually we get going again. Hit another traffic jam going towards Kings Cross. Woman dances in her seat - let me see everybody's hands in the air - woman duly obliges, simon says style. Man slightly ahead of her in the neighbouring lane in a 4-wheel drive, wearing a big curb-chain necklace cranes his neck to ogle her. She indicates to get into his lane and slides on past him before he really realises. And someone else follows her. Man slaps the steering wheel in irritation with both hands, and gesticulates his irateness with big gestures. Cement lorry squeezes between the bus and the concrete barricades on the Euston Road.

Inside the bus a floppy-haired blond boy reads his GSCE Music revision guide. The woman next to me falls alseep on my shoulder. The bus is hot.

Walking down St Peter's Street theres a piece of single track road with priority given to downwards traffic. 2 taxis are stopped a 3rd way into the street (their priority) nose to nose with a woman in a sporty silver number who evidently made it two-thirds of the way up before the taxis got there. "Look how far I reached", she's screeching over the windshield (top's down). The front taxi driver looks non-plussed, door hangs open, one leg out, ignoring her, the other one stands on the side of the road. The cars which were waiting patiently to one side behind her decide the best course of action is to drive up behind her. Impasse. As I round a bend some distance away, they are all still stuck there - 2 taxis going one way, 5 other vehicles going the other. Or rather nobody going anywhere. Hot weather - makes people angry.