‘Thanks mate! If you just roll forward, I think I can get it.’ ‘Backwards or forwards?’ I asked him, rolling down the window. The poor bloke didn’t know what to do, and everyone in-line was watching. The lights changed and it was my turn to go. It bounced gloriously – three times, like an escaped kangaroo – then disappeared under my car. I sat drumming my fingers on the wheel, waiting for the lights at the top of St Clement’s Road, and trying to distract myself by thinking about Nigella Lawson, when the guy crossing the street in front of me accidentally dropped an EarPod. The other day, I was cringing my way through traffic, when a stranger took the emotional spotlight off me with his own embarrassing moment. It can’t be stopped by fastening the seatbelt, but at least it can be heard by everyone for miles around, because, well, there’s no back windscreen. The bong sound is just as loud as the flapping.

The vehicle now believes my imaginary passenger hasn’t buckled up, and shouts at us about it. It’s like driving around in a gigantic flopping fish.Īlso, the garage mucked up the electronics. It’s loud, it’s obvious, and it gets angrier the faster you accelerate. I could live with that, except for two things: some of the clingwrap has begun whipping about in the wind. Sourcing a replacement turns out to be harder than finding bits for a NASA shuttle and, by now, I suspect our insurer has simply lost interest in the problem. The garage assured us that this was perfectly normal, disavowed responsibility, then covered the gaping hole with strips of plastic, before returning the car: “Here you go!” While it was in for a service, our rear window, apparently, exploded. I’m considering a little monastery time myself right now…įor the past while, I’ve been driving around St Helier with clingwrap on the back of the car. But no-one is immune to these moments striking in the first place.

Others must flee, retire to a monastery, then live out their days cringing in quiet mortification. Some of us can experience an embarrassing moment in public, shrug, and laugh it off.

Embarrassing moments