Dangerously vibrant mad old woman

always_tyred

Well, this morning I was threatened with being shot at.

Mad old woman stopped to feed her horses on a stretch of national cycle route leading to a pedestrian only level crossing. Essentially a bike route, pedestrian route and a driveway leading to a field.

She had parked on a blind bend just past an arch under the railway and was standing in ther road abusing cyclists (most of whom are university lecturers and researchers at that time in the morning) as they passed.

When she shouted at me, I said "pardon?" and she had a go for the speed I was "whizzing" at (indeed - I may have been whizzing at 15mph at the time, before I applied the brakes to go around a blind bend that is.... ) so I pointed out that she was standing in the part of the road that she wasn't parked in and was blocking a national cycle route, which was why she was encountering so many cyclists and why they were coming so close to her.

She went on to exclaim, "There's another one!" and to pronounce her pleasure that cyclists had previously been injured on this corner and that she would get a gun and shoot at them from now on. She had a friend with her, who was looking uncomfortable by this point.

I suggested that she really might be loosing her sense of judgement due to age. She proudly exclaimed, "I've had a brain operation!"

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This is somewhat amusing, but if she's batty enough to put herself at risk standing on a blind bend in order to maximise her perceived justification at hurling abuse at cyclists, I'm only about 95% sure that she will not actually get an air rifle. Furthermore, I'm not anywhere near that sure that she won't start taking the "law" into her own hands in some other perfectly justified way.

I bet she reads the Times.

cee

Think of the Children!

always_tyred

You aren't proposing that she should be put down are you?

Besides, her children would be about 60.

cjw

Always Tyred wrote:

She proudly exclaimed, "I've had a brain operation!"

Do you think this mght be a slight clue, maybe

always_tyred

Its a little concerning that she was (a) still driving (b) still allowed to vote.

She claimed to own all of the land. Mmmm. Apart from the land owned by Railtrack that she was standing on, obviously. One wonders, given her dislike of cyclists, why she permits them to ride right through her land.

saveswalking

Would it be worth informing the police ?

sw

always_tyred

For her own safety, I wonder if a visit from the local constab might be helpful, yes.

cee

and maybe some kind of psych assessment if you ask me! I was thinking of all the children, as suggested to me by the daily mail!

chuckcork

Irony is that if you threatened her back, that would be an offence, but merely saying she would shoot a passing cyclist would be in the Matthew Parris category of saying something but not actually meaning to follow it up, a kind of friendly joke.

I'd call the police and say that a deranged woman has been making threats of violence, maybe they could arrange for her to be sectioned under the Mental Health statutes?

Parkey

Always Tyred wrote:

...Apart from the land owned by Railtrack that she was standing on, obviously...

It's not Railtrack these days, it's Nyetwork rail.

always_tyred

Notyetfinishedwork Rail, yes.

Meaning, I think, that the bridge in question has not been visited since this change in name. Its not like its made of crumbling Victorian bricks showing signs of being undermined due to poor drainage that has already washed the tarmac away, or anything like that.

All of which reminds me that I think I have met said inasne outpatient further up the road, next to a ped/bike level crossing. We may hope that she has a grudge against trains also.

passout

Be sure to let us know if she does shoot you.

PS The Times isn't that bad. Now the Express and especially the Daily Mail, they really are reactionary.

karl j

Always Tyred wrote:

... She proudly exclaimed, "I've had a brain operation!"

Thats interesting. After having a brain op myself last July my driving license was revoked for 2 years.

always_tyred

It may have been some time ago.

It was quite funny that, in response to my suggestion that she was demented and had lost sight of what comprised reasonable behaviour (pretty much verbatum - I'm quite proud!) she would choose to boast that she'd had brain surgery.

We may only wonder at the main thrust of this argument. Did she mean to suggest that a brain operation provided positive proof that she could not, in fact, be demented? Or was this intended to indicate that she was, indeed, demented and was not responsible for the extent of any further acts towards cyclists and thus a considerate warning?

nwallace

It's entirley possible to stand on the public road and claim everyone is crossing your land and be correct. The public road only goes as far as the base layer of the surfacing. Take away it's status as a public road and it belongs to the land owner not the public.

Is the NCN Public Road. No.
Is a footpath Public Road. No.

However both are likely to be public rights of way, which it is illegal to block.

always_tyred

Interesting.

But I doubt that she owned the land. She was driving a 6 year old Pug 206 hatchback. Didn't fit with owning great tracks of land.

Being monstorously batty does, however, fit with claiming to own most of Scotland.

karl j

there's certainly something not right there.

She threatened to shoot you, and she admitted she *may not be* fit enough to drive.

mrchrispy

tell the police....you never know, they might send round a couple of cycle plod to have a word with her. that would be funny

msw

Always Tyred wrote:

She was driving a 6 year old Pug 206 hatchback. Didn't fit with owning great tracks of land.

A knackered old car TOTALLY fits with possession of massive acreage. The canonical one is of course a beaten-up Volvo estate with a dog cage in the back but a 206 could have easily been bought as "the wife's runabout", no?

passout

I suspect that she is merely a peasant with delusions of grandeaur because the landowning gentry don't need brain operations to be demented, they've got in-breeding for that!

the_hundredth_idiot

Agree with msw.

A smart new Mercedes, Audi and (especially) BMW says nouveau riche desperately trying to announce to the world that they are "considerably richer than yeow".

A shagged out old Volvo or Subaru estate that is covered in dog hair and smells of horses - now we're talking proper money. Taking into account the old bird's sanity rating (Peugeot!! 206!! Before you know it, she'll be turning up the bass and putting purple LEDs underneath), there's a fair chance she's minted.

Mind you, also think passout has a good point!

passout

I can see what you all say about Mercs, BMWs, Volvos and especially Subaru estates..... but a Peugot 206, come on! Where would you put the labradors and game bags? One possiblity is that the Peugot belonged to her servant (maybe nurse) who was with her.

nwallace

msw wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

She was driving a 6 year old Pug 206 hatchback. Didn't fit with owning great tracks of land.

A knackered old car TOTALLY fits with possession of massive acreage. The canonical one is of course a beaten-up Volvo estate with a dog cage in the back but a 206 could have easily been bought as "the wife's runabout", no?

Totally agree, in fact if you hadn't raised it I was going to.

A proper landowner does not poses a Range Rover, they poses a Land Rover Defender 90 (inch wheelbase). If they live in a hilly area then it may be an 80, probably a mark 1 or 2.

A proper land owner does not have a monoblock drive way, if their government grant has come through it will be tarred so the lorries can get in. If the grant has not come through it will be a quagmire.

A proper land owner may also refer to themselves as a farmer to play down their position, (the actual farmer may refer to himself as the farmer when caught off guard and forgets to claim they are the landowner, which is true is a good guess, the farmer may only have a lease hold or he may own the land as well)

If a proper land owner is out in a Ferrari he may hide it behind the burger van before purchasing lunch, (similar for pub) a non-proper land owner will park out side the pub all his mates go to and order a half pint of orange having placed the keys carefully on the bar to say "Yes I own a Ferrari".

My limited experience of rich people who either inherited it or made it through hard work tend to be down to earth but their kids can be stuck up pricks until they have it worked out of them.

I've seen a few people referred to as being in the "Dundee Mafia" (finger in every pie "businessmen") all of whom are fairly rich driving about it seriously battered middle aged cars.

You don't stay rich by spending it all on niceties