Upon leaving work yesterday, I ventured out to my autovehicular conveyance. As I was marginally earlier than usual with my leaving of the workplace, I was looking forward to a slightly smoother ride home. This meant that I would hopefully miss all chance of the level crossing descending on my way through.

So there I was, walking to my car. I doffed my fresh jacket and plonked it on the back seats, as per. Then I sat down behind the wheel in order to navigate the vehicle. It was at this point that I removed my security pass. As I flicked the gearbox into "Reverse" mode, I looked in the rear view mirror to see if my path was clear. My path was not clear.

Behind my car stood three individuals, all conversing. They did not notice my reversing lights flash on, and went about their business as if nothing had even happened. I slowly began to reverse, hoping that they would register the movement in their peripheral vision. Alas, they still did not clock on to the fact that I was trying to get out of the parking space. Again, I edged backward. As I was approaching their vicinity, one of the gentlemen figured out what was going on, so he motioned to his contemporaries that they should move along, so as to avoid being reversed over. If there's anything more indignant than getting run over at a slow speed, it has to be getting reversed over at an even slower speed.

So these fellows began to shift, which made me happy for 3.7 seconds, until I realised that their chosen trajectory was in line with my path of righteousness. They walked in the direction that I was set to travel, but without moving any farther backward. They were effectively following my line of sight, preventing me from reversing at the speed which I am accustomed to. This proved to be rather frustrating, and I vocalised my anger at these chaps.

All in all, it must have taken me upwards of 30 seconds to reverse out of my car parking space. I know this because I started playing some music as I flexed the gears over to the "Reverse" flavour. By the time I had finally set off on my way, I glanced at the stereo and saw that some 32 seconds had elapsed. This act, in and of itself, would usually take me less than 7 seconds. I really wish that I had knocked down one or more of these car obfuscators. They're real swines.