How I nearly got killed during the Olympics

Crossing the road, of course.

I was using all of my usual caution, but......

I was crossing Jiugulou Dajie, near my apartment. There are two lanes northbound and only one southbound on this street (part of a cunning traffic-flow plan to try to empty out the city centre??). As often happens, the southbound lane was backed up all the way from the bottom of the street, three-quarters of a mile distant.

So, I crossed. The southbound lane wasn't moving. The northbound lanes weren't very busy. It shouldn't have been a very difficult or risky undertaking.... but I was using a pedestrian crosswalk, to try to be extra safe (Hah! Like anyone in Beijing pays any attention to crosswalks!).

Of course, when I reached the northbound lanes, I was looking out for traffic from the right. I hadn't anticipated that some cunt in a black Audi - one of those "I'm an important cadre, I can do whatever the fuck I like" types - would be driving south down the northbound lane. Quite fast. And without paying any attention to the possibility of pedestrians attempting to use crosswalks.

It was a very close shave.