The events which follow occurred last week. Technically it wasn't part of patience week, or even part of 1C13, but I have been thinking about it a bit today so I thought I'd share it.
On Friday nights I drive from where I live near Cambridge to Birmingham to spend the weekends with friends old and new. The journey takes a little over an hour and essentially involves driving on two major roads: the A14 and M6. They are busy commuter routes as well as being used to transport goods from the port of Felixstowe to other parts of the country.
I digress.
Those of you who are not from the UK may not have heard that we have had some snow here. It really wasn't as bad as everyone made out but just as it does every time the weather turns 'extreme' the country grinds to a halt. At times like these I'm a little more aware of other drivers stopped at the side of the road, I often stop to offer people lifts if they are walking somewhere (which I never do in the summer), and if someone pulls over I always assume they have broken down.
So I am driving back to Birmingham and I get to the point where the A14 finishes and all the traffic merges onto the M6. When you get to the point where you switch from one to the other you have to get in the right hand lane to go south or the left hand lane to go north, traffic is high so people get pretty annoyed if you don't get in the correct lane and keep it all running smoothly. So I round the corner in the lane to head north and suddenly the lorry (truck to you American folk) in front of me slows down to a halt.
We English people like to keep ourselves to ourselves and usually if you pulled over at the side of the road no-one would stop to help you out. That's what recovery vehicles are for right? But today, since it was icey and cold and breakdowns are common I decided to stop to see if I could help him. Besides, he was creating pandemonium, as all the traffic behind us tried to squeeze into one lane, and I thought that maybe I could help remedy the problem.
So 10 seconds later the driver jumps out of his cab and walk to my open window. Then he asks me in a thick accent 'Can you show me way to lon-don?'. I was, firstly, shocked and appalled that he thought that it would be OK to stop here and ask for directions. From the number plat on his car I deduce that he is Italian, unfortunately the only Italian I know is 'Help! Fire!' and I figured that this wasn't the time. I start to try to explain the way to get to London but he didn't look impressed, he's not really following and I'm not that convincing - I'm usually a 'follow the GPS' kinda guy.
Cars behind are getting very impatient with us by this point, often sounding their horns at us as they pass our motionless, obstructive vehicles. "iPhone!" I thought! I grabbed it, pulled up google maps and pointed to where he could see the route to London (exactly as I had explained it). I tried to talk him through it but he still didnt get it. He was getting annoyed and frustrated and kept saying "no, no, go to lon-don". Then suddenly he threw his hands in the air, turned his back to me and headed toward the oncoming traffic, stopping another lorry driver to ask his thoughts on the route to lon-don. With both lanes now blocked I decided that now was the time to make an exit and I headed off.
I laughed to myself in disbelief. This stranger, who I didn't know but was trying to help out of a fix, was annoyed with me. He was impatient because I couldn't deliver the information fast enough, or well enough for him. He got annoyed with me! How rude of him. I couldn't believe it, I just kept wondering what was going on in his head and obviously I was thinking about the upcoming Patience Week and how I thought he wouldn't be very good at it.
However, I have been thinking about it and it turns out that myself and the Italian Stallion (no not Rocky Balboa) have more in common than I thought. He's not the only one who get's impatient with people who are just trying to help. The more I think about it the more I think that actually I do it all the time! I ask people to help me, but I expect their help to be to my standards, in my time frame. I'm starting to think that maybe I should not have judged my frustrated equal so quickly.
So during patience week that is something I am working on - remembering the fact that a favour is a favour and that the person doing it is giving their own time for me, for no reward. I should give them as long as they want.
Happy driving :)
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