2. on the job

Well, by the time my daughter had finished last night I'd lost my impetus (the wine helped a bit too) so never finished the initial post - not that it really matters.



I'm 'cruising' this week - all areas are covered so I flit about in my motor going to all those spots not covered by the poor buggers walking around. The day starts off with the Aztec - a device used to download data from the ticket machines in the car parks. This is, as far as I'm concerned, a lovely way to start the day - the whole process takes about 90 minutes so by the time its finished and the machine has been returned to its cradle in the office a couple of hours have passed and only 6 remain. For reasons I cannot fathom, nearly everyone else hates doing this job as you don't get much of a chance to issue any PCN's - I can normally squeeze a couple in as Joe Public (JP) still assumes we like our lay ins and don't start till 10ish so often risk not getting a ticket while they pop into the local cafe or whatever. Especially true on Saturdays when they've had a few too many the night before so just leave the cars and taxi home leaving an easy score to start the day (fees operate from 06:00 till 19:00). As soon as the Aztec is done, it's coffee time down the local cafe and and opportunity to plan the day and catch up on gossip.



Despite having a presence in all areas today, we are short staffed atm (only 4) so I planned to help out in each area, mainly covering the car parks, leaving the street (much more interesting and better chance of issuing) to the 'regular'. Car park revenue is down recently and mgmt are puzzled as to why, so a call was put out to count the number of vehicles sporting Disabled Badges (often called BB's - blue badges) as they do not have to pay in all the car parks. This took up a fair bit of my time, but as I was covering the CP's anyway it didn't really matter. Once the request was completed, I only had another 30 mins or so left of my shift so was well happy - I only just managed to squeeze a coffee in before heading back and downloading the mighty 3 PCN's I managed to issue today - an abysmal score by my standards.

Tomorrow is a short day for me as I have some flexi saved up, so its start at 8 and home by 1:30 - a great start to a long weekend. Southend Air Show is planned for Monday but the weather isnt looking too promising atm.


Joke(?) of the day - What do you call a Traffic Warden o the beat - anything you like as he's not allowed to respond.