It never rains but .........

....... it pours!!!

What an horrendous day ....

1) Mum's operation was cancelled at 11.00am this morning - more on her journal.

2) On the way home from the hospital a lorry came too fast round a corner towards me, some roadstone came flying off the back of his load (rocks the size of tennis balls/baseballs) and hit my car smashing the windscreen and badly damaging the front bumper (fender) and wings.

3) When I got home there was a message from my credit card company to say that one of my cards had been compromised and over £150 ($225) had been spent on an online gambling site.

Happenings and conclusions ......

1) Mum is very philosophical about the op being cancelled - seems there were emergencies that took priority - hopefully Tuesday will be the day or it may be Wednesday.

2) The lorry did not stop and I gave chase - caught up with him after about 8 miles, called the police (car phone) - followed him for another 20 miles giving a running commentary as to where we were - but no police assistance, attempted to stop him by flagging him down (got a rude gesture in response) and finally, after 38 miles, he drove into a deserted building site and stopped, got out marched toward my car wanting to know what was going on.

I was talking to the police control at the time and was advised to lock my doors and only speak to him through a part open window, leaving the police on the line - he denied it was his load that had caused the damage but I stuck to my guns and he agreed to give me his details .... at last, THREE police cars turned up.

The upshot is he was not overloaded and the police are refusing to do anything about it saying it's an insurance issue ..... I pointed out that, at times, he was driving at over 55mph (his vehicle is restricted by law to 40mph on those roads) and maybe they should check his tachograph - apparently they cannot do this unless he has committed an offence seen by them - not sure that is true but there is nothing I can do about it. My word against his it seems.

3) As I got back into my car for the long drive home (complete with smashed windscreen) - of course, following the lorry took me in completely the opposite direction (it would, wouldn't it!!) - I saw a text message had come in, while I was talking to the police, asking me to ring my credit card company. I did this when I got home to find that my AmEx card has been suspended for suspected fraudulent use this afternoon - but they will send me a new one out within 7 days! They were very efficient and I am very impressed with their service.

This photo was taken from the spot where I was hit by the rocks - on my way home I went back to take photos of the location and any debris (and to pick up some of the rocks and a decent sized piece of my car that had fallen off!!) as potential evidence. (All those years working in the Magistrates' Court paying off!!!)

Called in at the local Police Station to make a statement as I had been instructed to do - only to be met by some officious female "person" who asked me why I was there and then told me, in no uncertain terms, that I was basically wasting their time as the police had "attended the incident at the time" and there was nothing further they were going to do as it was "minor"!! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr


Am not going to tell Mum about it as, being the lovely person that she is, she will feel she is to blame - I know full well she will say "if you hadn't been to see me it wouldn't have happened" ..... I will tell her at some later date after all the hospital stuff is finished. She's not reading my journal right now so I feel pretty safe!!!!

So there you have it all - my long and rubbish day!!! Sorry to inflict it all on you (for those that have managed to read to the end) ...... but thanks for "listening"!

The camera settings were all wrong but the photo turned out okay with just a sharpen!



NIKON D5200 : f/4.5 : 1/200" 38mm : ISO 125