![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Jul. 2nd, 2007 07:10 pmPoor old John has a slipped disc. The doctor is getting him physiotherapy asap. She said she would have liked to get him there today, but that's simply not possible, since she didn't see him till 4.00 pm. I hope they let us know soon, as I can see that I shall have to juggle all my appointments, because he can't drive himself. It takes him about five minutes just to get into the car. The doctor only gave him paracetamol. I hope they'll be strong enough.
I'm very cross with myself. I drove John to the surgery and then, while I was hootering about parking out of the sun (Yes folks! Sun!) I reversed into someone else's Ford Fiesta. I heard a small impact and immediately stopped. I was reversing extremely slowly anyway. Some crazed practice employee, sitting outside on a bench having a fag thought I was trying to drive away and phoned the owner inside the building, even though I told the silly mare that I was parking.
I was confronted by a stroppy and irate blonde Scotswoman. I admitted my fault and she then examined her car and said that two places about eight inches apart, where the paint had disappeared right down to the metal and then rusted were not there this morning.. I pointed out that I would have been unable to get my car into the gap between her car and its neighbour. She then said that it looked as though the bumper had moved. I couldn't see it myself having compared it with the other side. She found a minute patch of white paint where the light fixture met the red paintwork. I pointed out that to have inflicted all these areas of damage, I would have had to hit the car much harder and the whole corner of her bumper would have been crushed. There was absolutely no damage to my car. She said her fag-smoking colleague had said it was a loud bang. John, sitting in the passenger seat with the window open didn't hear it. I thought it was a very small impact myself, but then I would wouldn't I? I pointed out that her colleague had not seen what happened, because she'd been sitting on a bench about 20 feet away, with two other cars between the Scots woman's car and her seat.
I gave her my card and asked her to let me know how much it was going to cost, and then I phoned Charles and asked him to bring along my digital camera.
When he arrived, I took some photographs and got back into the car. After a few minutes she came out and asked me quite aggressively what my problem was. I said very reasonably and calmly that I had merely been photoing the damage. I pointed out that I hadn't denied that the accident was my fault, that I had given her my card and wasn't trying to get away with anything. I did point out that there was no trace of red paint on my vehicle. She then said that I should have given her my insurance details. I said that in my experience insurance companies are not prepared to cover slight accidents in car parks and that I would almost certainly have to pay for the damage myself, since I have an excess on my policy., She said that she had a friend who had made a claim under such circumstances.
In the end she agreed that it was reasonable for me to take photographs, although there wasn't anything she could do about it, anyway, and said that she was going to take the car back to the very expensive car dealers who recently sold it to her and get their advice and that she would let me know in a few days time what they had said. At this point I told her again that there was no red paint on my car, which she thought was very strange. She refused an invitation to inspect the back of my car because she was the only secretary on duty and she had to get back to her work.
This all very embarrassing and annoying because I'm a regular at the practice and I love my doctor, so I don't want to start any ill feeling between me and the practice, but on the other hand I don't think I can pay for all the damage she alleges I did, because I know that it would have been impossible.
Why oh why did John say, only this morning, that problems always come in threes and we'd only had two?
I'm very cross with myself. I drove John to the surgery and then, while I was hootering about parking out of the sun (Yes folks! Sun!) I reversed into someone else's Ford Fiesta. I heard a small impact and immediately stopped. I was reversing extremely slowly anyway. Some crazed practice employee, sitting outside on a bench having a fag thought I was trying to drive away and phoned the owner inside the building, even though I told the silly mare that I was parking.
I was confronted by a stroppy and irate blonde Scotswoman. I admitted my fault and she then examined her car and said that two places about eight inches apart, where the paint had disappeared right down to the metal and then rusted were not there this morning.. I pointed out that I would have been unable to get my car into the gap between her car and its neighbour. She then said that it looked as though the bumper had moved. I couldn't see it myself having compared it with the other side. She found a minute patch of white paint where the light fixture met the red paintwork. I pointed out that to have inflicted all these areas of damage, I would have had to hit the car much harder and the whole corner of her bumper would have been crushed. There was absolutely no damage to my car. She said her fag-smoking colleague had said it was a loud bang. John, sitting in the passenger seat with the window open didn't hear it. I thought it was a very small impact myself, but then I would wouldn't I? I pointed out that her colleague had not seen what happened, because she'd been sitting on a bench about 20 feet away, with two other cars between the Scots woman's car and her seat.
I gave her my card and asked her to let me know how much it was going to cost, and then I phoned Charles and asked him to bring along my digital camera.
When he arrived, I took some photographs and got back into the car. After a few minutes she came out and asked me quite aggressively what my problem was. I said very reasonably and calmly that I had merely been photoing the damage. I pointed out that I hadn't denied that the accident was my fault, that I had given her my card and wasn't trying to get away with anything. I did point out that there was no trace of red paint on my vehicle. She then said that I should have given her my insurance details. I said that in my experience insurance companies are not prepared to cover slight accidents in car parks and that I would almost certainly have to pay for the damage myself, since I have an excess on my policy., She said that she had a friend who had made a claim under such circumstances.
In the end she agreed that it was reasonable for me to take photographs, although there wasn't anything she could do about it, anyway, and said that she was going to take the car back to the very expensive car dealers who recently sold it to her and get their advice and that she would let me know in a few days time what they had said. At this point I told her again that there was no red paint on my car, which she thought was very strange. She refused an invitation to inspect the back of my car because she was the only secretary on duty and she had to get back to her work.
This all very embarrassing and annoying because I'm a regular at the practice and I love my doctor, so I don't want to start any ill feeling between me and the practice, but on the other hand I don't think I can pay for all the damage she alleges I did, because I know that it would have been impossible.
Why oh why did John say, only this morning, that problems always come in threes and we'd only had two?
