Oh goody -- Back among the idiots

I should have known this wouldn't take long. Second morning back on the Gold Coast:

This morning I was happily riding to work -- as usual, when I came to the roundabout at the Upton Street/Ashmore Road intersection. Now the laws about giving way at multi-lane roundabouts in traffic situations are very clear in Australia -- but evidently not clear enough for some nutter behind me who started going ballistic with a combination of expletives and threats of violence. I can only assume from his inability to use words longer than four letters that he wasn't very bright, which may explain why he apparently didn't understand the law.

As it happened, I got a break in the traffic and proceeded through the intersection, followed by the idiot who charged through at some ridiculous speed and passed a lot more closely than he needed to. Ordinarily I wouldn't have reacted to this, but perhaps I was just feeling a little mischievous after five weeks in another country with a much lower moron quotient -- I decided to blow him a kiss.

Well, our friend who had been in such a hurry a few seconds ago now had time to get out of his car and try to pick a fight (on reflection, perhaps a fight had been all he was looking for to begin with). I've been around long enough not to respond to trolls that are so obvious -- and consequently just pedalled off into the distance. Some time later the idiot came back and swerved at me (what took him so long to catch up?) -- a move I've seen too many times to be fooled by it now. I evaded it effortlessly. I actually caught him at the next intersection and had the chance to scratch his car with my house keys, but decided against it on the grounds that I really couldn't be bothered.

Here's what I can't understand. For some reason I seem to have been a little unsettled by this incident. There is no rational reason for that to be the case. Incidents of this nature are not unheard of (or even uncommon) here -- as long term readers of this blog will be aware. I've dealt with far worse than this in the past, and will probably do so again before I'm much older. I do feel as though I let myself down a little by reacting in the first place, but mostly I think it has to do with spending five weeks interacting with (for the most part) nice people. I really had a good time in New Zealand, and I guess coming home is taking more adjustment than I thought.

I hadn't intended for my first post on my return to be so negative -- but that's just the way it happened. Perhaps a glow worm ride tonight might cheer me up a little.