Before joining mumsnet I wouldn't have dreamt of parking in a P&C space. I didn't think it was allowed. I used to get frustrated when taking my mum shopping as the P&C spaces are right next to the door at her local Tesco whereas the disabled bays (I have a blue badge) are literally half a carpark away, further than many of the regular spaces. Now I know better and can park accordingly. So thank you very much. My dad says thank you too.
When I was over recently we decided to take my dad out to Morrisons for his lunch. This was a massive deal for him. He is so elderly and frail that he hasn't been out for over 2 years. He can't get into my sister's regular type car as it's too low and he can't get into my brother's people carrier type car as it's too high. My goldilocks car is in the middle and just right. So with 3 helpers, a wheelchair, a zimmer frame, a drag blanket, a swivel pad, 2 skateboards, a pile of bricks, 45 minutes and a mountain of aspie ingenuity and pigheadedness we got him the car.
When we got there, there was only one disabled parking space available. But it was quite narrow and I knew there was not enough space to get him out. I drove around looking for somewhere suitable. I found a P&C space which had double the get out space as it was on the end of the row. 35 minutes later and he was out and scoffing everything in sight in the restaurant. Mother said he ate more in that one meal than they can normally cajole him into eating in a week. He was very, very happy.
So thank you mumsnet for giving me the knowledge to make this happen.
On the downside, after spending a mere 20 minutes getting him back in (we now knew how to do it), I was standing by the open driver's door when I heard a lot of shouting. I ignored it. Shouting continued. I looked over and saw a bloke in a car shouting very aggressively at someone. So being the chicken that I am I kept my head down.
He drove off and parked further up the P&C block, got out, and started shouting again. I could hear clearer now, he was shouting about not parking there if you didn't have a bloody baby in the car. I looked around to see who he was shouting out and realised that everyone else was looking at me. Holy crap, he was shouting at me. I jumped in my car and started to do up the window as he came over still shouting. My heart was racing, I was very frightened.
Then he stopped turned around and went off to the shop with his missus and baby. I'm not sure what stopped him. Did he see the blue badge in the window? Did he notice that I wasn't a lone female who he could easily intimidate, but had 3 other adults in the car? Did he notice the bloody big dog in the back with his head stuck out of the window and hear the other 2 barking like mad too? Or did he spot my foreign number plate and put my ignoring him down to the fact that I was a foreigner who couldn't speak English and realise that any attempts at communication were pointless? :o