No word on my parking fine yet

Two weeks ago I received a parking fine in Chester. I tried to buy a ticket at the time but the machine didn’t work, so couldn’t, then when I returned to the car I found I’d been fined £50 for the privilege. I’ve yet to receive any reply to my appeal, even though payment was due by now.

I do hope I’m not going to get a further fine, or perhaps a court summons, for this obvious trap which as I explained last time caught out a few people.

I’ll keep everyone posted on the saga.

My CAT scan is booked for next Friday

As I mentioned last week, I need a CAT scan on my spine for potential surgery to remove the steel rod I have in my back that is supposed to keep my spine straight(er). That scan has been booked (rather quickly) for next Friday, 23rd. This is all becoming quite real now as once I’ve had the scan and spoken to the surgeon (not sure if that will be on the same day) they say it will be within 18 weeks to have the surgery (if of course it’s deemed necessary, which the surgeon said it most probably would be).

This means I could be going in to have my spine operated on within 20 weeks… not something I’m feeling too chuffed about, and not the way I wanted to spend the year.

I now need a CAT scan for my Scoliosis

Yesterday I went to see a spinal surgeon at Salford Royal about my back. The operation I had on my spine in 1990 went well at the time, but recently my left leg has been suffering from severe pains when I walk more than a few hundred yards, or even stand up for more than a few minutes.

Anyhow, when I arrived I was told I needed more x-rays because the surgeon wanted a better view than the x-rays I had in September provided. Once I’d had these done (and is there anything more degrading that wearing a gown with work shoes?) I saw the surgeon, who explained that the surgery I had in 1990 was phased out just a few years later. Because of my Scoliosis (a deformity of the spine) I had a steel rod known as a Harrington Rod inserted into my back and attached to my spine. The rod works in straightening out the spine, but it makes the spine flat so that it can’t bend. This means that my nerves are being squashed, causing me to lose circulation in my leg.

Gutted.

He advised that I have a CAT scan in a few weeks so that he can see the lower part of my spine more clearly and see whether the rod has fused with it OK, which he believes it hasn’t. If this is the case (as is probable) the best course of action will most likely be for me to undergo surgery again to have the steel rod in my spine removed and the new technique (which I haven’t researched at all yet) implemented.

I’m not looking forward to this, but as the surgeon rightly stated – if I don’t have it done my leg and back is only likely to get worse. It’s a case of have it done now or risk the act of walking becoming increasingly more difficult.

So it looks like spinal surgery again for me, 18 years after I last had it done! Whoopie!

I’m seeing a spinal surgeon today

This evening I have an appointment to see a spinal surgeon at Salford Royal, an appointment I’ve been waiting for since August after having my x-rays done. I don’t talk about this much, but I’ve got double Scoliosis of the spine, which is a curvature of the spine. My spine forms a letter ‘S’ shape and was operated on back in 1990 (during the World Cup, I came out of hospital on the day Germany beat England in the semi-final).

I’ve been OK for many years, but recently my back has grown worse and my left leg goes dead and doubles up with cramp when I walk for more than a few minutes. I just checked my blog for past mentions of Scoliosis, and found this post in November 07, where I mentioned how I couldn’t walk for more than a few miles. It’s much worse than that now, which isn’t a good sign. It’s been bad since the summer and yesterday when I was shoe shopping in Chester I struggled to walk from one shop to the next without needing to sit down.

Anyhow, I’m seeing a spinal surgeon later today to see if anything can be done about it, as only being able to walk for a few minutes at the age of 32 is pretty shite.

I’ll be sure to let everyone know how I get on, and maybe get some images of my x-ray, which I have seen since and the rod in my back has slipped quite considerably.

Where can I buy sized 12 shoes?

Like most guys I’m not particularly keen on shopping. I’d much rather do it from the comfort of my home via the Internet rather than traipse round town centres and shopping centres. However there are some things you can’t really buy online and shoes are one of them, at least if you want them to fit properly.

When I go shoe shopping though I get very frustrated. Not because I don’t like trying shoes on, because I can’t find anything in my size. I’m only a size 12, which isn’t particularly big. I’m only 6’2”, which while tall isn’t exactly freakishly tall. There are many people taller than me in most rooms or shops, yet it seems that most shoe shops only carry a limited stock of size 12 shoes. Plus, the shoes they do have in a 12 are never the ones I want.

Why do shoe shops only cater for short, stunted guys? When I have to pick up a shoe I want and ask the poor girl at the till if she has it in a size 12 I feel slightly embarrassed. Why should I feel ashamed to have such gargantuan feet? I’m large; I can’t be the only one? There must be other guys out there who require size 12 shoes, yet the best designs are made just for midgets and inadequate guys who wear size 8.

As a nation we’re getting taller year on year, but no one seems to be adapting to that when it comes to making shoes. I don’t want to feel like a freak for asking for a 12 in a shoe shop, yet because I’m bigger than most men it seems to happen that way.

Anyway, I did manage to buy two pairs of sized 12 shoes in Chester yesterday. One was in Jones’ the Bootmakers and one was in Debenhams. They were OK, the pair of Kickers from Debenhams were quite good, but I saw better shoes elsewhere that only come in midget sizes. Next had a cool pair that seemed to only go up to an 8, and they couldn’t even order a 12 because they don’t carry them. There was a great pair of Adidas in another shop that seemed to peak at a 10.

Life is tough when you’re not a stunted midget.

Chester City Council try to sting me on parking fine

Is my car cursed or what? The car that was stolen, crashed into and the subject of my ex-wife’s insurance fraud has now been hit with a £50 parking fine by Chester City Council, even though I couldn’t actually pay!

I went to Chester today to shop for shoes, and being a sized 12 it was very difficult (but I’ll rant about that another time). I entered the car park and parked at the bottom, next to the Pay Station. When I put a £2 coin in the machine, it came back out – together with another 2 £1 coins. I was £2 up already, result!

However I didn’t have a ticket, so I tried the £2 coin again. It came back out. Then I tried a £1 coin, and it came back out. I then made my way up to the other Pay Station in the car park (and by this time it was starting to snow heavily) where I tried both the £2 and £1 coins again. Same result; they came back out.

I went back to the first Pay Station, where my car was parked, to find a woman having the same problem. I told her that neither machine was working, and she couldn’t get a ticket either. I saw that some cars had tickets, but others didn’t. Assuming the machines were now full, I went into town to shop.

When I returned around 3 hours later I found I had been given a £50 fine for not displaying a ticket.

Obviously I’m not paying it. I tried to pay the £4.90 for 4 hours, but neither machine would take my money. No way am I paying a fine when the fault lies with the Pay Stations that didn’t work.

I’ll appeal this and let everyone know what happens. If I have to go to court I will. If they get away with this they have carte blanch to charge everyone £50 for parking there.

No doubt quite a few cars received fines today, which must strike them as unusual.

HDNL blog and forum

While checking my website stats today I noticed that I’d received a few visits from a forum which sounds interesting. The forum is for HDNL drivers (Home Delivery Network) and they’ve clearly been talking about MrDaz.com and the posts about their company, such as this post where over 100 people have commented on Home Delivery Network’s shoddy service and their inability to deliver parcels.

Hopefully if more HDNL staff, drivers and managers alike, see this site and read the feedback from their customers then they might do something about improving their service, instead of posting comments on this site slagging off their customers and being racist.

I haven’t read what was said on the forum because you have to be registered, but there is also a blog on the site so you can read about the latest news from HDNL.

Fascinating.