The ego has landed

It promises to be another beautiful day. The first glimpses of blue are starting to show through the shredded cloud cover. The city's buzzing outside already, it never sleeps.

Last night was a really entertaining stand off between a cyclist and a mini. The mini was going down the wrong way on the one way street that runs outside my house. The cyclist was insisting that the mini back up - they weren't too far from the 'no entry' sign. Since the mini didn't want to back off, there was a short stalemate during which the mini driver killed the engine and the lights, and the cyclist took out a paper. Then a cab came along, and the passenger got out to try and mediate the situation - it never looked explosive, just a perfect balance of stubborness. I couldn't figure out whether the cab guy was a friend of the mini guy or just someone who got sucked into the mess because the cab couldn't go any further.

Eventually the mini driver backed up enough to let the cab through, almost reversing into another parked car on the corner of the (still) one way street. The mini obviously wasn't going to turn around or back out of this one way street and go round the right way, so although the cyclist could've left at any time during this whole exchange, he followed the mini as it backed up and parked his bike in front of the little car as before, and proceeded to read the paper again. This time, the mini driver got out of the car and lent against the bonnet, looking at the cyclist. Shortly, (I don't know where he disappeared too) the cab guy came back to the little confrontation.

Both were dead set against giving any kind of quarter to the other, and we actually didn't see how the whole thing ended because it was just taking way too long. Talk about making a stand though. We were half expecting a patrol car to roll along or a parking warden (they're all over this place during the day) to come and resolve the situation and let the poor cyclist go on his way, then again, when are they ever there when you really need them? And who says people never take the time out in this city to stand for what they really believe in?