Peas Summit

It is good to laugh out loud and the best situations are where something makes an impact completely out of the blue or out of context. This is usually where you are involved in a humdrum or monotonous activity, the main one in a modern lifestyle being stuck behind the steering wheel for hours. I have had a fit of laughing at the sight of company slogans on the backs or sides of lorries, articulated trucks and vans. The best two by far being a forklift company who regard themselves as the 'Best in the British Aisles" and of course Schindler Lifts, although the latter is very subtle and perhaps I am the only one to get a kick out of it. There can also be shop signs and names and the Quakers are always humourous and thought provoking with such slogans as "Jesus Saves, put him in your dream team". My current favourite is born out of obvious recklessness and dedication to the art being positioned in a very prominent but almost impossible place to get to, yet seen and enjoyed by what will be thousands and tens of thousands of motorists every day of every week. I came across it recently on returning from a trip to drop off my daughter at Heathrow Airport on the western outskirts of London. The transfer from the M1 motorway onto the M25 orbital road  travelling south towards the airport is fraught with tension and uncertainty, especially for us sensitive northern souls. As you enter the flow of traffic, or rather the fixed lanes of crawling traffic immediate thoughts include, is my car new enough to be amongst these people? Can they tell that I am from further north than Watford? Will they recognise my Hull City sticker in the back window and laugh at the futility of a small poor team? Do I look to them like I have a job, house and prospects? Assimilation is complete within a couple of miles as you come to realise that everyone on that merry-go-round that is the M25 is just trying to get on with their lives without necessarily having to look at or think about anyone else. The maze of the M4 and airport roadways is another cause of stress and anguish not helped by the race through the long dark tunnel under the runway before emerging faced with a quick choice of correct lane to get to Terminal 3 and the short stay multi storey car park. There is the inevitable relaxation when daughter is through the gate to the air side of the airport. A coffee and then back to the negotiation of bland motorways to get back home. Re-joining the M25 includes frequent sights and sounds of aircraft taking off and then just the distraction of passing road signs with the  names of affluent towns and villages familiar from the newspapers and TV programmes for highest average house prices, highest average earnings and highest rates of divorce and suicide. The combination of unfounded jealousies, recollections of Footballers Wives lifestyles and full page spreads of ridiculously lavish homes in Hello Magazine add to the haste to get back to real life, real people and just reality. Then, into view on a section of the M25 cut through a shallow hillside comes a very ugly cast concrete section bridge. Normally this monstrosity of modern construction would go unnoticed. The most remarkable thing is the rough scrawled graffitti which says "Give Peas a Chance". The artist must have had the dexterity of Spiderman just to get to the parapet. I am not sure what the bridge actually carries over the motorway, whether a railway line, minor rural road or as a crossing for cattle once free to roam in pre-M25 days. The passing up to and under the bridge at 70mph gives only a fleeting glimpse and impression of the artwork. Did the artist edge out along the ledge below the parapet?  Perhaps it was a case of draping him or herself over the wall and  working upside down. The sure sign of a three dimensional and creative mind.The wording is a bit wild and in a certain scrawl possibly consistent with two mates hanging on to your legs whilst trying to prevent the action of a pendulum or  a mention of a road blockage on national radio should the trackie bottoms work loose from the skinny limbs of a hard up student. If it is possible to get a closer look is the appeal for small green vegetables due to the vandalism of a more laudable concern to prevent war and conflict. There is some suggestion of the word "Peace" having been tampered with which lowers the impact of the whole thing. The effect is still however very funny and provides some welcome relief for that short remaining section of the M25 clockwise, before striking north up the M1 again. I just hope that the whole thing has not just been a publicity stunt by the Pea Marketing Board, if such an organisation exists, in order to resurrect the declining sales of the common version against the fancy and more sexy pulses and beans that have become established in our 21st Century larders and spice drawers.