A weird little incident yesterday with what I can only call a troll - not in the mythical creature sort of way but a real-life face-to-face bloke attempting to wind me up in the manner of an internet troll. It was odd.
I was riding along the canal towpath when I stopped to take some pictures of a duck and her 10 or so ducklings (awww, so cute!). I was just about to get back on my bike when a passing boater accused me of littering - I was near a large pile of fly-tipped rubbish. Yep, I always carry tons of rubbish in my cycling backpack! I am absolutely fanatical about not littering, pick other people's litter up, tell litterers off (and once had death threats when I threw some litter back into the car from which it came - he was not amused but couldn't bear to leave his car to kill me!!!).
But the more this conversation went on, the more it became clear it was just to wind me up. Odd. It continued an hour later when I was cycling back. I denied littering, he said he couldn't hear me over the sound of his engine, except when I called him a 'worthless waste of humanity', he told me to f*** off and offered to settle it with a fight. I rode off, but it was an unsettling experience. But I think - I hope - I left him more wound up than me. He was the one reduced to swearing and threats of violence.
There was no danger to me. His boat was about five yards from me when the conversation ended and I was always able to ride off.
Some strange folk out there.