You think YOU had a bad day?? Think again.

In a feeble attempt to give myself a cathartic experience through writing, I am going to retell the tale of "The Rat" in full detail. It may be traumatic to bring my mind back to these events, but for the purposes of entertainment for my readers...I will sacrifice my sanity to bring smiles and laughter to those I love.

Since I started working, I feel blessed that I am able to walk to work everyday. It's great exercise, fresh air, and it helps to reduce my carbon foot print...which to be honest, has been like a gargantuan troll stomping through the forest. It is a great part of my day. Usually.

Today, my experience of walking to work was tainted irrevocably. All of my pleasant strolls along the bank of the Thames are now stained with distasteful memories and painful reminders. I am changed after a simple walk to work, went horrifically wrong.

Nearing the end of my walk, getting close to the building my team is based in (Mulberry Place)there is a huge intersection in which roads, tunnels, and bridges all cross each other. There is a path for pedestrians that goes underneath this intersection and comes out at the foot of the Blackwall DLR train station.

There I was, ipod in my ears, jamming out to some Michael Jackson, unknowingly approaching the underpass that was about to change my life. As I rounded a slight corner and began walking under a foot path, suddenly, out of no where, something fell on my shoulder...slid off...and hit the ground with a thud. My brain, for some reason, immediately deduced that the most logical explanation was that a bird had flown into the side of the bridge and killed itself and then fell on me.

So I looked down with trepidation, expecting to see a mutilated bird, but instead I saw IT. The biggest RAT in the ENTIRE WORLD.

A RAT HAD JUST FALLEN FROM THE SKY ONTO MY SHOULDER. ONTO...MY...SHOULDER!!!! This Rat would hold the Guinness book of world records for the biggest rat of of all time. It was the size of a small dog... and bigger than most Chihuahuas. I don't know if you fully understand the gravity of the situation.

A MASSIVE RAT FELL ONTO MY SHOULDER!!! A RAT!!! A DISEASE INFESTED VERMIN!!

I hadn't realized that a woman had been walking towards me and was just a few feet in front of me, and had watched the horror unfold. We both had froze for a few seconds, letting our brains compute the fact that a ginormous RAT had just fallen from the bridge right above our heads. Once we realized what it was we both let out blood curdling screams and threw our backs against the wall as though this rat was surely about to bring us to our demise. The rat, terrified, or possibly amused if you ask me, began running around in circles at our feet, only prompting us to scream louder!

Finally, when it ran off, the woman and I just stood staring at each other, mouths agape and panting with relief. I'm sure she was quite relieved that the rat had fallen on me instead of her. How do you recover from something like that?? When your morning starts off with a Mutant RAT falling ONTO your shoulder, that's pretty much a wrap on the rest of your day. It's going to be really hard to have a happy day after something of that magnitude.

I am traumatized. I'm quite sure that I will need to seek professional help because of this incident. I am scarred. It is inevitable that I will have nightmares about the sky's opening up and raining rats down onto me.

I just wanted to share this, because if you were having a bad day... well...now you know it could have been worse.

A rat could have fallen on you.