Last October, I was looking through a local cycling page for local people and became aware of a guy who lives near me and seemed to be having a run of bad luck. He was stony broke but had just got a new job and needed to commute at night with no lights – insane!
I know what it’s like to be so skint that you can’t even afford a Halfords light set, so I offered to lend him my brand new Solar Storm and a rear light on the proviso that I got it back before Christmas. Next thing we heard, he’d been knocked off his bike and was going to get the bus every day instead.
So I asked him if I could have my lights back, he said yes, come and pick them up from my work. So I drove over (not too far) and waited. No show. He’d forgotten apparently. The next time, he’d left the battery at home. The next time…. etc, etc ad-nauseum. There followed about another eight attempts from me, asking politely for my light before I just wrote it off.
But I was a bit peeved – sure it’s only a £16 light but the ungrateful sod never once offered to come and drop it off – it was always, “Meet me here / there / wherever and I’ll give you it back”. And always at ridiculous times or places.
Fast forward and he gets in touch with me to tell me the light wasn’t working and he was coming over to give me it back. Told him to stuff it and if he wanted to he could buy me a new one. He won’t.
He’s still sponging stuff off other people in the group which frankly pisses me off – should I mention it casually on the FB group or just have a cup of tea?