Playing in the traffic


Penny’s been having an interesting day. I’ll let her explain-

Do you remember back in the old days when your much loved parents, exasperated by your wittering, constant questions and irritating behaviour, told you to “go play with the traffic”. Well I literally have been for the past 45 mins …. ok Tim’s not home yet so what else can I do. Here’s the full story.

Approx 2.30 this morning some darling tyke decided that they wanted a bonfire so went in search of something to burn and sure enough they happened upon a yard of tyres which seemed to catch fire nicely and then went a bit out of control leading to 80 firemen being assembled up the road from me. (Never let the phrase occur that I was kept up all night by the comings and goings of 80 firemen.)This morning my car nearly got a wash when the hose burst that is running along outside my house. The puncture was due to the traffic that insists on driving over it in a shortcut to any diversion that may have been set up (though I severely doubt that there are any official ones)

So living at a bottle neck where the traffic all converges I’ve spent 45 mins directing it (fulfilling one of my fantasies just didn’t have the uniform but happily sucking on strawberries instead) to keep it flowing along with some local kids and with quite a bit of thanks surprisingly.

What is more concerning though is the cost of this fire so far:

80 firemen who are expected to be on duty for 36 hours

At least 5 hose reals because cars keep bursting them.

The underneath suspension of quite a few cars going over the hoses.

Most at harm has been the environment with increased pollution output from all the vehicles trying to shorten their escape routes, the fumes from the tyres burning, Water lost through the leaks and use on the fire.

But maybe there is one thing that may increase the friendliness of the car tyre. Apparently aside from being used for fuel burning with air a Brit has come up with an alternative way of recycling them which I’m sure all the chemical engineers out there already know.

http://www.globaltechnoscan.com/1Aug-7Aug01/scrap_tyres.htm

Question is what can we do with the mountain of fridges?

She may be cute but she certainly ain’t tame!