The last time the issue came up, my dad rated Percy Shaw as one of the 20th century’s most under-appreciated inventors, on the grounds that his cat’s eye road studs have saved more lives on British roads than any other single measure.

Ojos de gato or tachas reflectantes are not (widely) used on Spanish highways, and so it was that I was almost run over in a snowstorm on Montseny on Tuesday by a Senegalese cyclist who, to avoid accidents, was navigating quite rapidly along the side of the road.

He didn’t see me because his head was bowed to avoid ingesting snow, but anyway it is apparently a well known fact in Senegal that white people are invisible in snowstorms. So the imperialist was to blame.

We shared a couple of bananas because I was just about to eat one anyway and because he still had about ten miles to go. He thought snow was a far better invention than cat’s eyes, and seemed to be enjoying himself immensely.

Tags: African, cycling, jokes, snow, walking
Categories: Les bourgeois, Splog

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