Someone was smiling on me ....

Being far from home gallivanting around the world sounds very glamorous ... and is certainly fun and games for a while .... but sometimes things happen to put it all into perspective .....

I was in a car accident today ... a rather scary one at that .... and i'm still thanking any and every lucky star in the universe that I'm not another one of Africa's horrible RTA statistics (second only to HIV as a killer of young adults) ...

There was I happily cruising down the 3 lane highway that hugs the mountainside driving into town (yes - cape town is that gorgeous with big mountain plopped in the middle of a city surrounded by sea ... the view from my back garden!) .... when some guy ran out from the bushes on the mountain straight into my lane .... now i've been in SA long enough to be stupidly reactive (read paranoid) to potential car jacking situations ... so i swerved madly to my left (ie away from his trajectory) to avoid him .... whereupon he turned and ran towards my swerve (!!) .... now convinced he was trying to get my car (which is truly such a ghetto-mobile that my response should have been to stop and hand him the keys ... ) .... but i swerved away again to my right .... and then spun out of control across the motorway in the middle of rush hour ... in a city where drivers are not noted for driving slowly or soberly (weekend drinking here starts at breakfast on Friday .....) or for being forgiving of obstacles in their way ..... and given the driver's side was on the side of the oncoming traffic - the obstacle was pretty much me ....

What they tell you about your life flashing in front of you or having the presence of mind to pray or anything is all bollocks .... i just knew when i finally came to a stop that i was done for and that that seemed to be rather a pity .... when Thud ... amazingly most of the oncoming traffic managed to miss me personally .... the nearest car hit my bonnet .... the woman behind slammed into him .... and all of a sudden everyone was hooting as our mini-pile up was stopping them get to the pub after work ...

Its amazing what having been a junior doctor (however many long years ago it was) does for your calmness in a crisis .... I leapt out of my car (too much Hollywood i think where cars always explode on impact ... does that really happen ever?) .... and checked the suicidal running man was ok (he was - he'd sped across the entire highway apparently undamaged and cars on the other side reported he'd scampered off into the bushes) .... checked that everyone else was alive .... checked that i was fully intact .... and then breathed a huge sigh of relief ....

Amazingly a traffic cop was only 2 cars behind (in SA - the normal police don't bother themselves with any offenses on the road - so you can speed merrily past them but need to slow in front of the metro traffic cops) ...... as was the tow company that my car rental firm uses ... so everything was done and dusted very quickly .... and far from being blamed - the traffic cop praised my andretti-esque skills (!) ....

But its just starting to hit me now .... i thank every guardian angel possible that i wasn't talking on my phone or speeding at the time .... that i somehow managed to avoid hitting the crazy man ... and that everyone in the collision cars were unscathed .... i'm not sure how i could live with myself if (even if it wasn't my fault) i had killed or hurt someone ....

The policeman called me this evening to tell me how many people have died at that very spot ... and how very lucky i was to escape without a scratch .... i guess somehow it wasn't my time ..... and yes i admit - i am a little tempted just to gush a bit and tell everyone how much i love them and ooze about how wonderful and precious life is despite any recent minor ups-and-downs ..... but in the end i feel someone must have been smiling on me today ... and i'm just determined to get out there and not stop smiling either .....