Swans and bagels on the motorway

I don’t think I was cut out to be a photo journalist. Whenever I witness something completely out of the ordinary, I forget to take a photograph. Some 6 months ago we were on a coach to London from Southampton. We were speeding along the M25 (for those not familiar, it is a 188 km circular motorway around London) when all of a sudden, the traffic slowed down to walking pace. In the slow lane was a full grown swan, waddling along as if it owned the road! We stared at the elegant bird, open-mouthed. None of us clicked a picture.

Recently, on our way from Istanbul airport to our accommodation, a similar thing happened. The traffic was crawling along due to an incident on the motorway. Taking advantage of the slow pace was a man with a little cart selling bagels! That too in the fast lane. An extraordinary sight for us. I didn’t have the presence of mind to take a few pictures. Instead, I said something like, ‘Look look’ to my wife. The cab driver, thinking I wanted a bagel, pulled up close to the cart! I had a hard time communicating with him that my mouth was open in astonishment and not in hunger.

So, I’m afraid I had to bore you with a thousand words instead of a couple of photographs of the scene.