Melissa Kite Melissa Kite

Real Life | 24 October 2009

You couldn’t make it up

issue 24 October 2009

You couldn’t make it up

If I’m ever stuck for a plot for a dark and twisted dystopian sci-fi novel I must remember to open my front door and start a conversation with a traffic warden. You are always guaranteed a richly surreal and deeply macabre experience when you engage with the bizarre regime of local authorities which charge people to park outside their own homes.

The other day I went out to remonstrate with a warden over a fine that had been issued to my father for parking slightly to the left of the correct bay for visitors. He’d only been there a few minutes, and as the visitor bay was empty it was obviously an honest mistake. But of course we know that is not how it works. A little moped appeared from nowhere, a man in black descended and a yellow envelope was placed on the windscreen.

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