Getting up to mischief…

I’ve had a busy week because I’ve accidentally been campaigning over the road access while the sluice gates down by the Harbour are being replaced. The loose laid scaffolding boards on a metal framework that made an already narrow tunnel even narrower after they’d increased the number of pedestrians, wheelchair users and cyclists that were going through it have now been removed. I was a bit worried about those because they were bouncing up and down and separating whenever groups of cyclists rode through at speed, and while ignoring the signage that told them to dismount. They were also separating, and I didn’t want anyone to be hit by a flying cyclist, and I don’t think it’d do them much good either.

I have added to my wisdom by answering the question of what will happen when the tunnel floods, as it does after heavy rain, by suggesting that they could clear the drains that are so silted up that plants are growing out of them. Actually, I’m not sure that calling them drains isn’t a breach of the Trade Description Act. My local councillor thinks this is a good idea, so I’m now lobbying for them to clear all the drains in the park so the dips that are inevitable in reclaimed land don’t end up flooding the road and pavement too.

So that’s me as an accidental heroine, just like so many of my characters. Call me ‘Clipboard Woman’ because I’m good at admin and letter writing. It’s not glamorous, but someone has to do the unglamorous bits, and it struck me that it might as well be someone who’d been sworn at and called an interfering Karen. And no, I couldn’t just let them have priority while the sluice works were on, because doing that is saying that a group of rude recreational cyclists are more important than I am. No one is more important than I am. No one is less important, either, yet we become so if we go around being ‘nice’ and ‘kind’ and constantly not so much giving way as having it taken away from us before they come back for more.

What triggered me was that I’d watched a group of six and seven-year-olds doing cycling proficiency just before the arrogant adults came through. They were advised by their tutor to dismount, which they did, and then they followed their tutor’s lead by each saying ‘thank you for letting us come through.’ They then remounted and followed the diversion, and I was happy to let them all through because they struck me as being the future. I don’t care if I’m slushy. It’s my job, after all, but the so-called adults were such a contrast that I thought, right, it’s time to do something.

I’m still sniggering, though, because their leader accused me of going around putting up illegal signs because I hate cyclists. I didn’t and haven’t, but think of the fun you could have if you did do it, and did you know that vinyl cutters are surprisingly cheap?

So have a good weekend (and Bank Holiday if you’re in the UK), and I promise I’m not arranging diversions, but one of my characters may well do in future!

And here, to finish, is a picture of the beautiful place that I currently reach by going through the tunnels, complete with the equipment they’re using to repair the sluice, which is delighting a steady stream of small boys of all ages, as well as me! I wish you could see all the swallows swooping and diving to catch the insects that are being disturbed by the heavy machinery while they replace the sluice gates. It seems to be the swallow equivalent of an all you can eat buffet and beats an air show or falconry display any day.