12. Catchup

I've been so busy at home that I havn't had much time to look after the blog - apologies all round. While things at home have been hectic, not much has been happening on the streets at all. I was having a spirited argument with my good mate Shane as to whether or not he could issue on a German BB - I maintained that he couldn't as there is a reciprical agreement with all other countries who use the international disabled sign on their badges, while he said that the 'bloody Germans shouldn't be here anyway and that we ought to ticket their cars to stop them trying to invade us". I had tears pouring from my eyes with laughter but it must have looked like a right old barney from outside as this elderly gentleman came over to see if I was alright and not being 'set upon' by Shane - which only made me laugh even more as I tried to explain what was going on. People were now stopping in the street to see what all the fuss was about - it must have been a rare sight to see two 'bastard traffic wardens' doubled up on the floor with laughter.



Ther is a large Turkish population Eastside, with a lot of shops and cafes and I get on well with most of the traders. I spotted a silver Merc parked on some DYL with no sign of the driver so slapped a PCN on before the rain really started, then moved into shelter to write my notes up. Some minutes later the manager of a Chippie in Central came up and we started chatting.

"I hope you havn't ticketed my car" says he, pointing to the bumper of the Merc just visible past the end of the shop"

"Oops" says I, "is that yours then?"

"Yes"

"Bugger"

"???"

"Sorry, If I'd have known it was your car ........"

"Oh well, no problem, I suppose I shouldn't have parked there but I was delivering some fish to the chipshop here"

"AHA, right, I didn't see you loading which was why I put the ticket on, however, now that I have obviously seen you carrying that large box back to the car, you can appeal it and I will write in my notes that you were actually loading and that should be that then" - It's no skin of my nose and I can bend the rules a little - I think its called discretion.

At this point one of the serving girls from the chippie came over and started having a right pop at me for putting tickets on people parking on the 02 section when they were 'just getting some chips", so I personally was screwing up their profits as people were going elsewhere rather than risking getting a ticket. I wasn't about to take any of this from her so I pointed out the free parking behind the Turkish superstore, the P&D car park and asked her what the hell she expected me to do - not issue on her customers but issue on everyone elses. She then started to get really mouthy so I cut her short straight away and told her that she could shut up and sod off back to her shop and retain the status quo of me being aware of what was going on and acting accordingly, or I could just turn into a complete bitch and start ticketing her car and all the other staffs motors which I and most other PA's are happy to 'advise' before we start issuing. What a stupit tart.



Oddly, Shane and the 'Super' were involved in a right fracas at the same spot the other day over a car parked in exactly the same place - this involved the driver, 30 or 40 spectators, 3 or 4 police and a badly directed can of pepper spray - the driver ducked and the poor copper holding him got it full in the face.



Both Shane and myself are fed up at the moment - we are real mates and love working together but the Super has arranged it (on purpose I'm sure) that we don't work together if at all possible. Everyone is supposed to work with everyone else to build a good team but we have only worked together twice in the past 7 weeks and are not scheduled to work together at all for the next 6. In fact we are so P'd off that Shane has applied for a PCSO job and I have applied for a job as a PA with another council and are hoping to be able to leave roughly the same time so we can "stick it" to the hopeless shower that run Parking - 2 PA's going at the same time would really screw things up.