You’re in a Jam. Say Cheese

Its midday. I’ve been up for 3 hours, very tired following a wedding the previous day (not mine), and heading back home 300 miles away. Its hot, I’m sweating alcohol, my head is spinning, and keeping my breakfast in its rightful place is proving harder than it should.

Then we hit traffic. The first jam was inevitable. We hit it in the other direction on the way to the wedding, so common sense dictates we’d see the arse end of it again.

We get through that one. Then we stop.

And stay stopped.

People start to turn off their engines (good to see – the environment and all), then I notice that there is no oncoming traffic on the opposite side of the crash barrier. That’s not a good sign.

People started getting out of their cars, and walking up the carriageway (as people seem to do in this situation – like finding the cause of the hold up is likely to get you moving faster!?!). A couple of young blonde-haired surfer dudes skateboard down the empty carriageway and some other guys started hoofing a ball about.

But then came the piece-de-la-resistance of traffic jam behaviour, that I have never ever seen before.

People actually started taking photos of themselves, of their families, their cars, other cars, and pretty much anything that was in their line of sight.

My question is simple. In god’s name, WHY????

What can there possibly be about sitting in a traffic jam that would ever possess anyone, however unconventional, to regard it as a memory worth savouring?

Bad enough to have to look at other people’s holiday snaps normally. But imagine if they start showing you the pic’s of: ‘this is me in the traffic jam’, ‘this is the dog in the car in the traffic jam’, ‘this is ……’.

NOOOOOOOO! It’s not right! Get Rid!