Taxis

Yesterday I went up to London and, with a friend, went to a bar in Chelsea. It's quite a bar, bit exclusive but rather nice.

We took a taxi there.

On the way, a man ran across the road in front of the taxi. He almost got away with it but didn't. The taxi clipped him and he fell over.

The taxi driver pulled over about 30 meters away from the incident. People were looking at the man who was standing.

After a while we got out of the taxi and went over to him. Just to make sure.

He was covered in blood. Not only was his nose cut but he also had a nosebleed. There was an awful lot of blood on the ground.

The man was coherent and seemed stable. But he was surprised when I said his nose would need stitching. No medical training needed for that one, it was obvious.

Anyway, I eventually realised that no-one had called an ambulance.

I couldn't see why not. He'd been hit by a taxi (London taxis are very big, solid things), his nose was cut and he was drenched in blood. Amongst other things there was a risk of hypothermia due to his clothes being so wet (and it being a cold night). Plus shock, plus any other internal injuries he may have suffered but not noticed due to alcohol and a general shocked state.

So, I called the emergency services. They disputed with me that I was in Chelsea. The cheek. But I was standing next to a street sign, and was wearing a Barbour jacket, so I eventually convinced them.

A few minutes later the ambulance came along and I went on to the bar.

No further incidents to report (oh except I met a rather nice girl in the bar, exchanged numbers but was too, er, tired today to arrange a meet-up before going back down south).