Man in the Stupid Hat

Monday morning, I noticed that the motorway sign somewhere between the Altrincham turn-off and the M6 on the westbound M56 had the message “Don’t hog the middle lane”. On the way home, I found the sign on the opposite side of the road at the same point echoed this message. I wish, oh I wish, that people would take notice of this. I certainly noticed one car, upon nearing this sign, shift from the middle to the inside.

Unrelated to middle land madness, I had a great experience of over-competitiveness this morning from a driver with a stupid hat in a silver Fiat something-or-other. On the road from Runcorn Bridge to Speke, the speed limit goes from 50 to 70. The Fiat overtook a car in front of me after passing the national speed limit sign and I promptly had to slow down, as I was already pushing past 60 and he overtook still doing around 50. After a moments hesitation, he pulled in and I went past him. Or tried. Quite suddenly, he decided he was going to do 70 after all. I decided not to push the matter and matched speeds… but he lost out on the chicken run as something lay in the lane ahead of him and he didn’t really have an option but to slow down a bit.

Of course, he couldn’t leave it at that. After I overtook a dozen cars ahead and then finally pulled in, he zipped by once more… almost like claiming the last words in a heated argument. I’m sure it must be some primal instinct stored somewhere in the DNA of all human beings – male and female alike – the drive to get the upper hand if you’re on the wrong side of a bad mood. Judging by the frown on this guy’s face, he definitely qualified as being in a bad mood.

Maybe he was fed up with people pointing out how stupid his hat looked?

Relevant reading:

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