The James Bond solution

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the danger of walking around a city where over 2 million people are mixed up with cars and motorbikes.

To complement this, on Sunday morning we had a real-life scaletrix experience as we journeyed to church. For those in the UK taxis are a pleasant luxury, a poor man´s chauffeur service. Here they're the cheap and risky option of being hurtled across town. Public transport works on the principle that roads are a race track to collect passengers, get rid of them and then get more. They offer an Alton Towers experience.

So our taxi speeded along a busy dual carriageway. Unfortunately, it aimed directly towards the back of a line of stopped vehicles, and at a speed that needed a James Bond solution. But thanks to your prayers: Olwen shrieked, the driver said "Oh", and milliseconds before impact we swerved into a lane of moving traffic without hitting anyone.

The driver blamed the policewoman who had stopped the cars to let people cross the road. Olwen congratulated the driver. And I realized my blood pressure tablets were ineffective for the James Bond solution.

Photo: Seen from earth and the heavens: taxis are yellow with registration numbers of the roof

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