Dunched

Last week I got stuck in traffic on my way to work so got there too late to get parked in my usual little car park on campus. The only option was the large, council run car park near by (which costs twice as much per hour and where the ticket machines always reject at least half the coins I try to feed it). It being the first time I'd parked my new, bigger car in a proper car park I walked around it ensuring that I was within the white lines and checked the time on the ticket before heading into work. On getting back to the car later that day I spotted one of these:

Along side this was a scrap of paper onto which someone had scribbled the words "you were dunched by a Picasso" followed by a registration number. Slowly, it dawned on me that something had happened to my shiny new car and on walking round to the passenger side discovered exactly what. The door and front wing are no longer quite so shiny and are slightly bent and twisted. Since some kind person (I'm guessing not the driver involved) left the reg number I contacted the local police. One week later I'm still waiting to hear if they contacted the other driver and what he (I'm assuming it's a he, it makes me feel better) had to say and if he/his insurance company will pay for the repairs. Now I know it's not a serious incident, but it should be easy to sort - they have to speak to just one person and by doing so could save me a few hundred quid in repair bills.

As for the £30 parking fine, I've appealed (assuming that the jolt of the collision caused the ticket to slide down the dash and out of view) and all I have to do now is send them the ticket to prove that there were 20 mins between the penalty notice being issued and the ticket expiring. Oh and I've also lost the cost of the theatre ticket for the show I missed while I was waiting for the police. Did I mention that one week on I (and my insurance company) am still waiting to hear back from the police.

One week after getting the car, this has, quite literally, taken the shine off it.