ROAD RAGE

This ain't exactly about peace. It ain't about no boat drinks either.

*****

When the Suzuki Wagon R Solio tried to slide into the parking place I was about to enter, I was only slightly annoyed. After all these things happen all the time and every day. Being a stubborn SOB, I didn't intend to let him get away with it either. There was a little baby in the backseat and the driver looked like a normal harried family father on some errand or other.

He didn't wanna give up either, so things started to get a bit more heated, but when he started shouting abuse, I simply rolled up the windows and ignored him. The ridiculous part was that now none of us could enter the parking space. By now I was more than a bit annoyed, as it is VERY expensive to get caught standing next to a red line as I was doing. He, of course, was standing double-parked and blocked one lane of the heavy traffic.

When Liping came back, I pointed the @#%$ out to her and said joker suddenly went ballistic. He jumped out of his car, his face contorted with rage, at which point I locked my car. He kicked it. I drove away, but didn't get far as a red traffic light blocked my progress.

He jumped back into his car, followed, overtook me with screeching tires and tried to block my way. I drove around him and heard a thud. I decided to get out of there, stepped on the gas and turned right. Unfortunately the road was full of cars, too. He came after me again, overtook, and this time slid to a stop sideways so that he now blocked two lanes of traffic right in front of me.

He also jumped out of the car again, but this time the maniac had a baseball bat which he was swinging like a demented gorilla. By now I was getting worried and while I managed to swerve around him, I asked Liping to call the cops. Which is what she did. The fuckers were totally useless. Told us to phone a different department. Gangster-guy was by now behind us and throwing rocks at our car. More thuds, some of them rather frightening. The lunatic was completely out of control and trying to ram our car.

Phoned the police once more and those goons asked us to stop our car and wait for them. Also, we were supposed to take notes. Right! Guy coming at me trying to bash my brains in and I am gonna wait patiently for him to do his bit.

In a bit of rather rude driving I cut in front of a taxi which had the effect that his rocks now had to fly across that car -- and taxi drivers in Taiwan don't take kindly to that kind of attention. Still Mr. Solio didn't want to give up. I only saw one chance and that was to take yet another turn and then drive on the wrong side of the road as that road was just as full of cars as the other two. That finally did it and the police rapidly lost interest.

Now I've got a damaged car and when I went to the garage they told me that it is pretty much unfixable. Not worth fixing, they mean. And I don't even know whether the @#%$ got done by the taxi-driver or not.

Very annoying that.

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