9. Miss popular (with the public)

It's been an odd week, very warm, far too humid, bits of rain and hardly any grief at all. The 'on street' situation East has been relatively quiet - a very good turnround on the 60 or so free 1 hr bays, in fact I only issued 6 PCN's for overstaying all week (normally do more than that in a day), however, quiet a dramatic increase in "beyond the bay markings" and Disabled Bay offenders. The 24 contravention (beyond the bay markings) is so contentious as being parked slap in the middle of 2 bays is never the drivers fault - it is always the fault of the inconsiderate git that forced them to park that way in the first place. For that reason I try and get the ticket on and away from the scene as fast as I can as any rows are normally quite intense - this isn't always easy though as one parked across bays generates more as most drivers just cannot be bothered to ensure they park correctly and just 'go with the flow'. For that reason I was stuck in one 80 yd stretch for nearly 20 minutes issuing PCNS on 8 cars all in a line - one of my worst nightmares but as luck woul have it I managed to escape to the car park without incident.



Patrolling the car park, I was checking the machines as usual and, when retrieving my token from one I pulled out the token plus just over £1 in small change (a small perk if you will). As I was walking away from the machine an Asian lady approached me waving a £10 note and asking for change.

"I'm sorry madam but we do not carry change for the machines as we would then not have time to check all the vehicles"

"This is stupid - I've come miles just to get here and do not have any change as I did not know how much the parking would cost"

I don't know about you, but if I go anywhere I always ensure I have some change for just such an event!

"Thats OK madam - just go and get some change - I won't ticket you as long as you don't take more than 10 minutes - there is a shop at the car park entrance that is used to get change for the car park"

"But I have 2 small children in the car and it takes so long to get them out and into the pushchair" - but she would have to do that anyway ???

"Just how long were you intending to stay here then?"

"I don't know - it's my first time so I've come for a look around" - about 5 minutes should do that :)

"I'll tell you what - take this 50p and have a couple of hours on me (or whoever forgot to get their change out of the machine)" - The look of amazement on her face amused me greatly

"But I couldn't do that"

"Why not - I'd rather you put a ticket in your car than me put one on it" - and with that I put the 50p into the machine and handed her the ticket



As I was leaving the car park I nearly bumped into a young bloke with his very young daughter standing outside of the public toilets - the Gents closed due to vandalism. I could see by the way she was standing just how desperate his daugher was so I offered to take her into the ladies and get him out of his predicament (too young to go on her own) - offer greatly accepted.



I was patrolling with my colleague Barney - a very amiable, sociable chap but a real stickler when it comes to work - everything is black or white - no excuses. As the beat area is relatively small we tend to cross paths about every 20 mins or so and he was on lates so not due till 10:30. There is a guy who has a market stall selling fruit and veg and always leaves his big green van parked next to his stall on the DYL - a no no but as the road is a dead end and gets hardly any traffic down it I'm quite happy to overlook the infringement and, probably because of that, get on well with the stallholder. I was chatting with him when he asked who I was working with today.

"Your mate Hitler"

"Oh bugger - I've got to move the van then" - loads of run ins and tickets from Barney

"Fraid so"

"Damn - thanks for the warning anyway"

And with that he grabbed a huge Fuji apple and tossed it to me - which of course I couldn't accept but as it was pointed out that it was shop soiled (where???) and I just love Fuji's I decided to bend the rules just this once anyway. Barney was amazed that I'd moved the green van on - "I thought you turned a blind eye to him" - which is what I really like about Barney - he does things his way and would never dream of 'ratting' on anyone who didn't do everything 'by the book'. It is amusing when we go for a coffee in a cafe overlooking a DYL '02' area, as he squirms everytime a car pauses outside as he just wants to get out there and move them on or stick a ticket on - I think it's the sadist in me that always makes him go there for coffee. Oddly, the only time our coffee break has been interupted by a quick issue was by me when I just had to slap one on a white van man that was just taking the mickey too much and thought he could get away with it. Barney would never do that as it goes against the black or white rules - you can't issue when on a break - but he can't just turn it off and ignore what goes on outside the window.