Phurrball
22nd July 2005, 17:45
I had a good experience with the Police today.
I thought I'd share it, as it's easy to only focus on what we don't like about the Police on the roads, and forget the day-to-day help that they do render to ordinary people in strife.
Long story short - my daily commuter is an elderly, decrepit 23 year old Ford Laser (Bike sized engine in a rustyish cage anyone?)
The cage is jealous that my partner and I are getting ourselves a bike [hopefully this weekend...at last].
First the cage demanded a new starter, so the $ I had set aside to tune the ailing beast were consumed by that.
More recently, it has been warning me that it is unhappy with the neglect I have shown it; so it decided to have a tanty and stop on the Northwestern motorway - fortunately in the left lane.
Sudden stoppage, probably ignition system methinks [difficult to check without a helper]. A saintly member of the public pulls over and helps me out. Check for spark, no spark. Off with the dizzy cap...oh that would be why...
Points well past use by date, with deposit fit to call a small continent on one side of points well and truly negating any possibility of operation.
Saintly gentleman (may he have much good karma) sadly does not have tools with him today, and I can't find piece of emery paper I know is in car somewhere.
At this point a HP car pulls over. The officer asks what the problem is, and I explain and ask if he has any emery paper or a points file. He does not, and disappears to his car...
…only to return with a nail file. [Not sure if these are Police issue, anyone care to inform me? What is their usual use on the job? :msn-wink:]
A spot of filing, and the beast fires up. All parties heartily thanked.
The officer followed me to the next exit, and then departed.
Morals of story:
1)DO NOT neglect an elderly Kettering ignition system, especially when you actually know better [SHAME!]: This leads immutably to greater embarrassment than merely being seen in such a feeble cage, which alone is bad enough; being seen next to said cage, post breakdown, by 1000's of Aucklanders is, however, far worse :o
2)Basic human kindness to strangers still exists; we shouldn't be too cynical about our fellow humans. There are more ‘good’ people than ‘bad’ people out there. Some days it pays to be reminded of this. I hope I can give something back to someone in need of help one day...
3) Thank f**k for Police nail files!!! :rofl:
As a post script, the officer was eagle-eyed enough to notice my 'unusual' WOF sticker [not hole-punched when issued for some unknown reason] No problems there though...apparently while odd, this is OK.
I thought I'd share it, as it's easy to only focus on what we don't like about the Police on the roads, and forget the day-to-day help that they do render to ordinary people in strife.
Long story short - my daily commuter is an elderly, decrepit 23 year old Ford Laser (Bike sized engine in a rustyish cage anyone?)
The cage is jealous that my partner and I are getting ourselves a bike [hopefully this weekend...at last].
First the cage demanded a new starter, so the $ I had set aside to tune the ailing beast were consumed by that.
More recently, it has been warning me that it is unhappy with the neglect I have shown it; so it decided to have a tanty and stop on the Northwestern motorway - fortunately in the left lane.
Sudden stoppage, probably ignition system methinks [difficult to check without a helper]. A saintly member of the public pulls over and helps me out. Check for spark, no spark. Off with the dizzy cap...oh that would be why...
Points well past use by date, with deposit fit to call a small continent on one side of points well and truly negating any possibility of operation.
Saintly gentleman (may he have much good karma) sadly does not have tools with him today, and I can't find piece of emery paper I know is in car somewhere.
At this point a HP car pulls over. The officer asks what the problem is, and I explain and ask if he has any emery paper or a points file. He does not, and disappears to his car...
…only to return with a nail file. [Not sure if these are Police issue, anyone care to inform me? What is their usual use on the job? :msn-wink:]
A spot of filing, and the beast fires up. All parties heartily thanked.
The officer followed me to the next exit, and then departed.
Morals of story:
1)DO NOT neglect an elderly Kettering ignition system, especially when you actually know better [SHAME!]: This leads immutably to greater embarrassment than merely being seen in such a feeble cage, which alone is bad enough; being seen next to said cage, post breakdown, by 1000's of Aucklanders is, however, far worse :o
2)Basic human kindness to strangers still exists; we shouldn't be too cynical about our fellow humans. There are more ‘good’ people than ‘bad’ people out there. Some days it pays to be reminded of this. I hope I can give something back to someone in need of help one day...
3) Thank f**k for Police nail files!!! :rofl:
As a post script, the officer was eagle-eyed enough to notice my 'unusual' WOF sticker [not hole-punched when issued for some unknown reason] No problems there though...apparently while odd, this is OK.