Beware the Orange Bomb!

The day went with a bang - well, at least part of it did.  It was loud, unexpected and with terrifying consequences. I was on my way from Market Harborough to a small village in Shropshire where I was to lead the afternoon session in a kind of day conference for a Congregational church.  I was keen to get there as early as possible and get a "feel" of how the day was going, and so I set of around 8.30 this morning expecting to arrive by 10.30.

My route took onto the M6 within about 30 minutes.  It was a clear day with a motorway to match.  I guess I had been driving for about 45 minutes since leaving home and was close to Coventry when a really loud explosion sounded very close.  In the nanosecond that followed I guessed a tyre had burst.  But my mind changed a nanosecond later as the view out of the windscreen largely disappeared behind streams of sticky ooze, and orange juice dripped all over me from the roof of the car.  A bottle of natural orange juice that had been lying innocently on the passenger seat next to me had exploded.

The offending product had been purchased from a reputable company the previous week.  I had taken just one small drink and the bottle had been resealed and kept in a fridge.  Yes, the sell by date was 7th March and today was the 13th, but Doreen (my wife) thought it was a healthy drink and had been kept in the fridge and should be OK.  Obviously the brief time it had been opened was enough to start a fermentation process resulting in the explosion and my being soaked in the stuff and the front half of the car being liberally sprayed.  It's amazing just how far 500ml of orange juice will go.  It had soaked the steering wheel, my mobile phone, my sat nav, the gear stick and brake, the carpet, the roof the inside of the windows, the mirror and my glasses.

It was too big a disaster to sort out on the hard shoulder and I reasoned the most sensible thing was to make it to the Service Station which was only a couple of miles further on. Strangely the Service Station had the same retailer as the garage where I had purchased the exploding bottle.  The manager, a lovely young lady called Krystle, showed considerable sympathy and helped clean up the mess after taking photos.  I then had to head back down the Motorway to a branch of Tescos where I was able to purchase the much needed replacements for almost all the clothes I was wearing, which were well soaked, stained and smelly strongly of oranges.

Just as well I had started out early as I finally arrived just in time for the lunch break and 55 minutes before my session.  Happily the journey home later that day was uneventful.  The car is a mess inside still and will need total valeting.  It smells strongly of oranges.  I'm just grateful it wasn't worse.  I could have had a sticky end!