Road Rage In The School Car Park

This morning the most bizarre thing happened to me.  Road rage - in the school car park!

Now I can (sort of) understand road rage on the highway, or in traffic when tempers are frayed - but in the school car park?  Honestly, I still can't quite believe it.  I'm still not really sure what happened.  Basically, as I rounded the corner from the lane into the car park, I could see that the car park boom gates were up, and the tail lights of a colleagues' car rounding the corner, meaning they had just gone through - but I don't know how long those gates stay up after a car has passed.  Lickety split, quick as a flash, I floored it to get through.  I mean, you don't want the booms coming down on you as you're passing through the gate now do you?

This then meant I had a bit of a speed up going on, as I rounded the first corner looking for a park.  And as usual, I was running late - which at my school means that the chances of you getting a park in the staff car park are quite slim, because there aren't enough spaces for all the cars.  So I guess I was a little pre-occupied with looking for an empty space.

Suddenly, I spied one - but the car that had gone through the boom gates in front of me got there first, and took it.  Except that clearly this woman doesn't know the size of her car, and she had selected, shall we say, one of the more narrow parks - and her vehicle was wide.  She misjudged the angle needed, thus resulting in the need for her to reverse to straighten up.  Except - she didn't check to see the coast was clear before whacking the car in reverse.  She was bearing straight down on me!

I had no other course of action but to floor it, narrowly squeezing past - and pulling into the next available space some several cars down from her.  I didn't think any more of it, I had my spot, and she hadn't backed into me, so I got out and started to get my stuff out of the car.

Next thing I know, this woman is practically in my face. "Didn't you see me reversing?  I nearly hit you!"  she squealed at me - in front of colleagues (one of whom had her daughter with her, who attends our school).  So she goes off into one, ranting and raving, a full, proper road rage carry on!  She wouldn't shut up about it.  So I calmly pointed out that she didn't check her mirrors before reversing.  "I didn't need to check my mirrors, I was in front!"  Yeah, right, honey.  You just keep telling yourself that!  What a nutter!

So I hotfooted it out of there, but as luck would have it, every time I turned around today, I saw that silly woman.  When I left my classroom, she was there.  When I went to the staffroom, she was there.  When I went to my office, she was in the corridor on the way.  Aaaaggghhhh!!

And I'll bet, she'll be the car in front of me again tomorrow as I pass through the boom gates... what's the chance eh?