Walking home in the rain the other night with my brolly (umbrella) up i noticed, not for the first time, that people react well with multiple umbrellas coming towards them, myself included.
If you’re on the left side of the footpath (USA ppl call it the sidewalk) then people move their umbrellas to the left to avoid collisions. And if you’re on the right side, same.
But, now we have txt’ers with umbrellas.
Txt’ers are dangerous anyway in that they just walk straight ahead, not necessarily in a straight line and expect everyone to avoid them. Not looking at anyone or anything .Mostly women. But not always.
Give the txt’ers an umbrella and it’s eye-poking frenetism and almost like watching athletes (ie the general public) perform circus-like feats of umbrella avoidance techniques. An umbrella in the eye is a possibility when confronting walking txt’ers.
And then of course you have the VERY TALL PERSON walking towards you and so what to do? You try and lift your umbrella so as not to poke out their eyes a la the female txt’er. Usually it works. So that’s ok.
And then. The ultimate nemesis.
The guy with the golf umbrella.
That huge umbrella.
Shielding homeless people from the wind and rain while they stand at that pedestrian crossing.
Shielding everyone from the wind and rain actually. But then you cross….with your “normal” umbrella…and they are coming towards you!
What do you do?
Well they usually raise their umbrella higher than yours, as is the etiquette.
But somethimes they dont, so yours will hit theirs and you just sneer.
That’s it!
cheers
peter