Jesus Saves Scooters

Well, I've definitely got the local support technician job at 'County. All I have to do now is sort out my notice, which is a little complicated, and that's that.

However, something happened this evening that almost made my head explode. I was walking home from a friend's house when I saw that about a mile or so of the seafront had been closed off by the police and fire departments. That area of the seafront is home to the underground carpark where I stow my Versys away for the night.

As I got closer, I saw that the underground carpark had been cordoned off. I spoke to a police officer who informed me that there had been a fire in the carpark. After speaking to several members of the emergency services, I gleaned that the fire had started somewhere near the middle (my bike is almost in the centre of the carpark) and that the fire had effected several cars and motorcycles.

Considering that my new job will require me to provide my own transport to get around the 'County to the sites I'll be supporting, this struck me as a potentially severe problem for me.

I waited around to get some more specifics. I was joined by a fellow resident who parks her scooter in the same shared bay as I do.

It turns out that she "had a feeling" she should park her scooter on the street rather than in the carpark that evening, and her bike escaped the flames entirely. She attributed this divination to Jesus, saying that she had probably heard him trying to help her.

It seems so easy to credit things like that to benevolent entities that one wants to believe in. I didn't argue against what she said, but eventually she asked if I was a believer. I said I wasn't, which probably only strengthened her idea of a scooter-saving messiah providing her with some sort of premonition that spared her ride from an underground inferno.

My bike, as it turns out, was untouched by the flames. I was very relieved to hear that, as you can probably imagine. Apparently it is covered in soot, and will need some kind of specialist cleaning, but I'm not sure what my next course of action is from here. The carpark will be closed for another twenty-four hours to cool down, and then at least some of the cars down there will be towed out so that repairs can be carried out on the concrete down there.

Never a dull moment, it seems.