Good Day Bad Day (NB This is not steve lamacq related!)

Today I experienced both the good and the truly awful in society.

First the bad, which is the way I would choose the running order to be - the night is darkest before the dawn and all that.

 When I was leaving the pool after managing my first swim this week a man saw me get into my car, which was parked in a disabled bay, and marched with a sense of Daily Mail reader right and wrong towards me. He saw a young person getting into a car, not in a wheelchair, not immediately visibly infirm (my stick was already in the car) and assumed I couldn't be disabled. Assumed that, because all young people are 'disrespectful' and in the wrong that I must be following suit and abusing the disabled parking bays. He unleashed a verbal wrath upon me which, even though I put him firmly in his place, distressed and upset me. I felt judged and utterly misunderstood. this was inverted prejudice and I reacted in an utterly irrational way. I felt assaulted. I felt this man represented every battle I had been up against during my illness. His bloated, grimacing form seemed to deny me my pain and my suffering. In short, it felt shit.

To my surprise, I recovered reasonably quickly after a quick self-indulgent cry only to face the daily struggle to find a disabled parking bay outside my flat. This is an issue I have written to the council about, talked to the police, written to my MP... I've tried everything but nothing has helped the fact that in a bay for 14 cars, on any given day or night, 10/14 cars park there without a disabled badge. I therefore wasn't surprised when I got home to find no spaces free, but all my alternative parking options were also full because it is a Bank Holiday weekend (or as my mother calls them, wank solidly's). There were 2 policemen nearby, however, and when I explained the situation to them they literally couldn't do enough to help me. Despite Friday nights in Cardiff being world-famous (Wall street journal anyone?) for binge-drinking related incidents, they sprung into action, ticketing all the illegally parked cars and in turn allowing me to park incredibly illegally and making sure I wouldn't received a ticket for doing so. Bloody Brilliant! :-D