Categories: uncategorized
Date: 28 April 2006 12:14:52
We have a car, just the one. We don't drive to work, either of us, partly for practical reasons and partly for green reasons. The car needed an MOT and the garage will pick it up and return it, but clearly they need the keys so they had to pick it up from my work. So far so good - since I didn't know when they'd bring it back, and it's very hard to find parking at my work, I told them to leave the car at my house.
The MOT computers were broken on Wednesday, so they couldn't do it till Thursday. Now, they obviously didn't believe me when I said I would manage to get home without the car (how do they think I got home on Wednesday?), and instead of leaving it at our house, they left it at work. In a pay-and-display space. Without a pay-and-display ticket. Oh, they said, we didn't think it mattered, because there wasn't a ticket on when we picked it up. Well, they must be blind, because there was, and it was STILL THERE when they brought the car back.
Now, I may be over-reacting, (what, you think? - Ed.), but this whole episode reminds me of the attitude of many "committed drivers" I have met. People who regard it as essential to have a car for every single journey, and to have the car as close as possible to oneself at all times. People who regard notices about parking as mere suggestions, not relevant to themselves. I originally thought they were just not listening when told to take the car to our house, not my work, when they brought it back. But apparently they thought they were being helpful, as they could not believe I could get home any other way. Of course, I slept in the office on Wednesday...