The C Word

I know, it’s disgusting.



I don’t know a soul who likes the word.



Clamper.

I met a right effer yesterday.

He clamped my car because he claimed he couldn’t see the valid parking ticket he had watched my other half pay for and put on the dash board of our car.

The sneaky little so and so waited until we had left the car park and then clamped us.

I would like to point out for the sake of clarity that we did not break the law.  We weren’t parked in a disabled space, or blocking an entrance or anything and it wasn’t the police or a traffic warden that clamped us.  It was a private company who own the private car park that we had parked in and paid for.

So anyway, 90 euro later and quite a bit of verbal abuse from both the git who took the clamp off the car and the other git who shouted at me down the phone, we now have to appeal at our own cost.

It’s so unfair that a scam like that has been made legal.

The strange thing was, it led me to a Holly Hunter in Broadcast News moment.  If you haven’t seen the movie, Holly Hunter plays a highly strung character who every so often sits down and has a good cry.  I’m not talking a bit of a sniffle, I mean a good from the pit of your stomach, runny nose, mascara destroying, frighten other people with your ugly face, proper cry.

I couldn’t figure it out at first but then I guess I had to face up to the fact that we’ve had a pretty stressful few months in our family.  Things are all working out for the best now, so nothing to complain about, but isn’t it funny how the stress and strain you feel doesn’t go away just because the cause of the stress does.  I suppose the clamp was the straw that broke this camel's back.  You have to let it out somehow.

So that’s what I did.  I calmly checked everyone was ok, drove home, walked upstairs, locked myself in the bathroom and balled my head off for about a minute and a half.

It felt good and I highly recommend it.

One tip though, make sure there’s enough loo roll to blow your nose in.

On the Brightside, I have heard a great story about a guardian angel in the town where I got clamped.  Apparently someone is going around these private car parks with a bolt cutter removing clamps from people’s cars.  I do hope it’s true. Hee hee!