I've been parked in one place at the Paeroa RV Centre while unpacking and moving into my new home.
Decided another driving lesson was in order too.
Going into town, in this case Thames, 35km away,
would be good practice.
So I set off with a friend with several instructions about coping with gear changes, the indicator, using the gears to slow down at corners and intersections and the caution not to drive too fast...
Stay in control...
So off we went, merrily along the road...
Not too fast...
Not too slow...
A bit hard to tell really as I'm new to driving this vehicle, also I don't have an accurate speedo, it needs re-calibrating, so a bit of guess work is needed.
We were nearly to Thames when I heard a siren and pulled over
expecting an ambulance to pass me but no...
It stopped behind me and a traffic officer got out of a plain unmarked car.
I knew everything about the bus and my licence was in order so...
I came face to face with the first prejudice of the day.
I don't know what this young man expected or who he thought might be driving this lovely old Bedford but he certainly did not expect me...
White hair, mature, make-up, well groomed, gorgeous...
Need I say more?
Well he shuffled around and all he could come up with was I needed to pull over more often and let the traffic behind me past as other drivers get impatient and do silly things...
If I don't let them past.
I pointed out that the roads are narrow, there is seldom room on the side of the road for a bigger vehicle to pull over and also I am not responsible for other peoples, feelings, attitudes and behaviour.
Suitably rebuked with a warning he sloped away...
And on I went into Thames to a virtually empty car park well out of town where I practiced U turns and backing and parked out of the way, not bothering anybody...
And had lunch.
There I met my next prejudice - another traffic enforcement officer who stopped on the road beside me to tell me I was illegally parked in the way I was parked and the particular park I was in.
If I took note...
I was told...
Further along the car park were 4 parks allocated for self contained vehicles parking overnight and I should park nose to the kerb.
My friend who was with me, who has parked in this car park before in a similar size vehicle, pointed out that there are 2 allocated parks, we were in town to shop not park over night and that as I was 7.2 meters long and the allocated parks 4 meters long, I would protrude 3.2 meters over the end of the car park and over a fire hydrant,which it is illegal to do.
I also pointed out that the large breast screening vehicle was also parked parallel over several car parks...
Was that vehicle also illegally parked?
The dialogue got heated, as Number 15, her name when asked...
Was not going to discuss anything in any reasonable fashion...
The end result...
My friend was deemed rude so she would give me a parking ticket...
For inconsiderably parking...
Such was her anger, rudeness, aggression.
Well...
No such word so an invalid ticket.
So off we went to town and just happened to pass the office of the local newspaper...
A paper for the voice of the community, it said...
We had a story we thought...
The editor just happened to be another bus dweller and very empathetic...
My photo was taken, photos we had taken at the 'crime scene' were handed over and...
Yes...
Front page news in next weeks edition.
The heading:
Little old white haired lady takes on local bureaucrats!
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