Last night I managed to get to tick another of the things off my "Things to do before you Die" list. So now - like doing a salsa class and having to dance with a bad* German transsexual that was at least 6"6' - I have also had the pleasure of being in the Blackwall Tunnel when a car/truck turns into a fireball and had to walk/jog through the tunnel from one side to the other leaving my car behind.
Annoyingly, in the process, some of the more panicked people manage to knock me over and I've totally buggered my left ankle up. After mooching around in the rain for half an hour we were finally told we could return to our cars and then had to wait for all the cars behind us to reverse back out. By the time they got to me they opened the front and let me drive out of the nearest exit.
It was a little like a disaster movie when you're in your car stationary thinking "hmm somethings not right" then you see smoke and people running towards you screaming "fire". I'll give the Police their due, they did get it sorted, but there were zero PA system announcements in the tunnel telling us what was going on, and when we were finally let back in it was drivers only.
This wasn't a problem for me because I was on my own, but a woman two cars back from me had taken her kids out with her, one with no shoes on, and then was told she had to leave them with a complete stranger and return to her car. She refused to go out of the North side and went back to the South side and picked them up, hopefully she got home alright.
So I've now added walking through the Blackwall Tunnel to walking through the Jubilee Line underground tunnel to my list. I entered the tunnel at approximately 5:10 and exited the other side at about 8:05. Go me!
* When I say "bad" what I mean is that you wouldn't ever be fooled in a 'There's Something About Miriam' or Caroline Cossey type way.
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