We had a guest from the Nile Palace visit us this evening. That wasn't bad news, in fact it was good news! She is enjoying her holiday, and loves the Nile Palace. We met her there earlier on this evening, and had our usual tea and Nescafe in the bar while we chatted. At length, we decided to introduce her to Mr Osman's falafel!
Being the cheapskates that we certainly are, we took her on the Arabiya.
This is where the bad news occurred. We hadn't got as far as the St Joseph, when the traffic stopped and we could see policemen all over the place and quite a crowd gathering just past the junction. There was a police mini-bus standing in the outside lane, and the traffic was being diverted across the junction and onto the the other carriageway. "Must be an accident." I thought.
Obviously, the vehicles were moving very slowly as they edged into the oncoming traffic, and as we passed the police mini-bus; I noticed that the screen was broken, directly in front of the driver. Then I noticed that the front panel, below the starburst pattern on the screen, was also badly dented in. It was then that I looked forward of where the mini-bus was standing and saw a man's body lying on the tarmac with a small river of blood flowing away from him across the road!
It looked as if the man had just stepped off the kerb and directly into the path of the mini-bus. I imagine that the driver didn't have a chance to stop, and that he was now in a state of severe shock. I don't believe that the pedestrian was still alive when we saw him, and by now, I expect he is in the ground.
It's always so sad to see this sort of accident, as it could have been so easily avoided, but now the man's family will see him no more, and the poor police driver might well be traumatised for life.
But for us bystanders and rubberneckers, life has to go on, so we carried on till the railway crossing, where Linda and I got off to go and see Mr Osman. Freda stayed on the 'bus to make her way home and up the dark stairs to put on the lights for us getting back. We had a lovely evening, even though the imagining of the grief of the poor man's family has now returned.
We have another convert to Osman's falafel though! We talked and talked, (interspersed by the odd cuppa, of course) until we realised it was twenty minutes after midnight! I escorted Linda down to the Emilio, where we found her a taxi and said "Goodnight".
And now, it's goodnight from me!
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