Bad timing and the importance of missing the spot

What should have been a nice little break away in the picturesque county of Essex suddenly became a lesson in the subject of timing!

And before you ask, yes I DO mean picturesue Essex - parts of it are really lovely, green, pleasant, verdant and buccolic!

I only went for four days. Its not a lot to ask. A short relaxing break.
Or so I thought.................

The peace and quiet came to a shuddering halt right in the middle of lunchtime. Just after I'd paid the bill after enjoying a delicious lunch in an old country pub and was looking forward to spending the rest of the afternoon exploring more of the pretty surrounding area.

I had been alerted a few minutes beforehand that all was not right in the car park. And sure enough, on my arrival there it was to find a small group of people standing looking at two cars embedded in each other.

And one of them was mine.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Fucccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!)

It turned out that an old man had reversed out of his car park space right into another car at SUCH a force that it knocked the first large saloon into mine SIDEWAYS on. Leaving the two embedded in each other. And then he had driven off.

Great!

So that meant the police had to be called (although they wouldn't attend the incident because no one was hurt). And that in turn meant that I had to go and find a police station, in an area I didn't know. And that took all afternoon. So I didn't see anything of the fields and pretty villages.

And the next day was spent on the phone. Talking to insurance companies, car hire companies, the woman who owned the other car, the car repair company and all the other people who needed to be informed of the incident.

But it was afterwards, when all had quietened down. That I realised............that had I gone out from the table a little quicker, just a few minutes, then I might have been between the two cars when he bashed into the first one, that in turn was knocked at such a force into mine, that the metal of each car was caved in and badly crumpled. So, its annoying that my week has been put about with sorting out the problem of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I'm just thankful I wasn't anywhere near it at the time. And neither was anyone else.