Carol was determined to get out of the house. I couldn't blame her, as she hasn't been out for quite some time, except to go for hospital appointments, such as to the Oncology Suite and doctor's visits. We had to go somewhere which wouldn't compromise Carol's health as she can't get infected because of being on chemotherapy, so it wasn't a good idea to go somewhere which would mean she was likely to catch something nasty from someone or other. We headed off down the A5 and could have gone to Dobbie's at Bletchley, but when we got to the roundabout we decided to go the opposite way and headed for Woburn Sands and either Frost's or Wyevale garden centres. Carol has been looking for a diary so she can keep a track of her appointments, one with a page for each day. I had been into the city centre this morning and didn't find a decent diary for her in any of the shops but got a calendar in The Works. Generally a good place to browse in for not just books but also calendars and a wide range of odds and ends. We went into Wyevale first and had a good browse amongst the different stores within the garden centre and went into The Works (for me, again, although a different branch to this morning) and we found the ideal diary for Carol. She then had a desire to have cake (as you do) so we had a look round but found nothing, not so much as a crumb, unfortunately. So we left and went to Frost's only a few hundred yards back towards the centre of Woburn Sands. Not much room to park the car, but we did manage to eventually find a place and then went into the food hall. We wanted custard, and we found some in the food-hall, but we then discovered that it cost over £3. I hadn't noticed, but Carol pointed the cost out to me before we got to the till. I decided to put it back on the shelf. We could easily find ready-made or at least custard powder and make our own if we visited another shop. We couldn't find cake of any description, going into the restaurant in the main building of the garden centre. At more than £3 slice, we decided it was somewhat over-priced. Probably very nice, but you could find a whole Victoria sponge for less than that elsewhere. At which point we decided to leave.
We got back to the car, got in and I began to reverse out. A difficult enough manoeuvre at the best of times. You have to be sharp as there are always people walking past as well as other cars reversing and turning. I moved extremely slowly and, unfortunately, seemed to hit the car behind. The driver shouted that I'd hit his car. He wasn't going to let me go without making a scene. I got out of the car and spoke to him. I apologised and he asked me if I wanted to pay 'in cash' or claim 'on your insurance.' No possibility that he'd made an error with his driving? He had his iPhone out and was taking pictures with it of the damage to the rear of his car. Hardly a scratch. Also, taking shots of the rear of our car. Thinking about it now, I think he may just have been taking photos of the registration number. Only a slight scratch, if even that. I gave him my phone number and my name. There was something a bit odd about all this. How come he had his mobile out so quickly and taking shots only mere seconds after the 'crash'? You could hardly call it that. I was moving extremely slowly. I didn't hear any sound when the car ran into the other car. Neither did Carol. The other thing was, his wife was quickly on the scene with a note pad and pencil, taking down my name and phone number. Handy if she had a notebook and pencil so readily to hand. I would contact our insurance company, Swinton, and they would deal with the claim, if indeed there was a claim. The other man said that he'd ring round to get a quote to have his car repaired. It was hardly worth bothering, to be honest. If I had been driving at speed, it would have made a far bigger dent in his car. What I saw on his car was hardly a dent, more like a tiny scratch, if that. Why couldn't he just accept that it was a minor accident and drive away without making any fuss? I reckon he'll get a quote and then hike up the amount and pocket the difference. There are people 'out there' who are quite determined to make money out of insurance claims, even staging car accidents deliberately just so they can claim on either their insurance or the other driver's. I reckon that driver could easily 'ring round' for a quote and then hike it and get me to 'pay in cash,' regardless of the actual quote he would be given. All these things adding up to be rather suspicious. It makes me wonder how many innocent drivers he's tried this sort of scam on.
On the way home we stopped at the Co-op in Broughton. This is a newly-opened estate which is growing fast. It's really incredible how much Milton Keynes has grown in the little over ten years that I've lived here. Out at Crownhill, where we lived when we were first married in 2007, the open fields going out along Watling Street towards Stony Stratford are now developed into more housing estates. The road into Milton Keynes from Junction 13 of the M1 has been extensively developed as a duel carriage way and a whole expanse of warehouses has grown up, mostly belonging to Waitrose and John Lewis. Anyway, we managed to find some suitable cake in the Co-op for Carol and also, when we got to the till to pay, the young man operating the checkout was a former pupil of Carol's which was nice for her. She was pleased to see him settled into a job and making a life for himself.
We'd been home a couple of hours when the telephone rang and the driver of the car spoke to me, asking for my insurance policy number. Well, I wasn't likely to have it immediately to hand, now was I? I hadn't bothered to look for it and had really no intention of doing so. I gave him my full name and told him that Swinton would deal with the matter. It was then that Carol was a bit suspicious. Was this man trying to make a claim which was really not much of a claim? It was odd that he had his mobile out so quickly and was taking photos of the 'damage', if you could call it that, to his precious car. I began to wonder if he wasn't trying to make a false claim on my insurance. Carol said to ring Swinton on Monday morning and tell them that this so-called claim seemed a bit suspicious, particularly as the damage, if you could even call it that, was so minimal, not even that, barely a scratch. We'll have to see what they had to say and let them decide. I have driven for very nearly 50 years and in all that time I think I've only had to claim on my insurance no more than half-a-dozen times. We watch daytime television programmes about such things as false insurance claims, or at least, some which are very suspicious. I have an idea that this person makes a habit of such things and would do anything to get money out of a car driver, when the damage is so minimal it can hardly be described as such. No more than what you'd expect if you were to brush against a branch of a tree or bush when you parked or if a cat or dog scratched it with it's paw. I imagine that the insurance company would send someone out to have a look the damage for themselves before they payed out to have the car repaired. We'll have to see what happens.
We got back to the car, got in and I began to reverse out. A difficult enough manoeuvre at the best of times. You have to be sharp as there are always people walking past as well as other cars reversing and turning. I moved extremely slowly and, unfortunately, seemed to hit the car behind. The driver shouted that I'd hit his car. He wasn't going to let me go without making a scene. I got out of the car and spoke to him. I apologised and he asked me if I wanted to pay 'in cash' or claim 'on your insurance.' No possibility that he'd made an error with his driving? He had his iPhone out and was taking pictures with it of the damage to the rear of his car. Hardly a scratch. Also, taking shots of the rear of our car. Thinking about it now, I think he may just have been taking photos of the registration number. Only a slight scratch, if even that. I gave him my phone number and my name. There was something a bit odd about all this. How come he had his mobile out so quickly and taking shots only mere seconds after the 'crash'? You could hardly call it that. I was moving extremely slowly. I didn't hear any sound when the car ran into the other car. Neither did Carol. The other thing was, his wife was quickly on the scene with a note pad and pencil, taking down my name and phone number. Handy if she had a notebook and pencil so readily to hand. I would contact our insurance company, Swinton, and they would deal with the claim, if indeed there was a claim. The other man said that he'd ring round to get a quote to have his car repaired. It was hardly worth bothering, to be honest. If I had been driving at speed, it would have made a far bigger dent in his car. What I saw on his car was hardly a dent, more like a tiny scratch, if that. Why couldn't he just accept that it was a minor accident and drive away without making any fuss? I reckon he'll get a quote and then hike up the amount and pocket the difference. There are people 'out there' who are quite determined to make money out of insurance claims, even staging car accidents deliberately just so they can claim on either their insurance or the other driver's. I reckon that driver could easily 'ring round' for a quote and then hike it and get me to 'pay in cash,' regardless of the actual quote he would be given. All these things adding up to be rather suspicious. It makes me wonder how many innocent drivers he's tried this sort of scam on.
On the way home we stopped at the Co-op in Broughton. This is a newly-opened estate which is growing fast. It's really incredible how much Milton Keynes has grown in the little over ten years that I've lived here. Out at Crownhill, where we lived when we were first married in 2007, the open fields going out along Watling Street towards Stony Stratford are now developed into more housing estates. The road into Milton Keynes from Junction 13 of the M1 has been extensively developed as a duel carriage way and a whole expanse of warehouses has grown up, mostly belonging to Waitrose and John Lewis. Anyway, we managed to find some suitable cake in the Co-op for Carol and also, when we got to the till to pay, the young man operating the checkout was a former pupil of Carol's which was nice for her. She was pleased to see him settled into a job and making a life for himself.
We'd been home a couple of hours when the telephone rang and the driver of the car spoke to me, asking for my insurance policy number. Well, I wasn't likely to have it immediately to hand, now was I? I hadn't bothered to look for it and had really no intention of doing so. I gave him my full name and told him that Swinton would deal with the matter. It was then that Carol was a bit suspicious. Was this man trying to make a claim which was really not much of a claim? It was odd that he had his mobile out so quickly and was taking photos of the 'damage', if you could call it that, to his precious car. I began to wonder if he wasn't trying to make a false claim on my insurance. Carol said to ring Swinton on Monday morning and tell them that this so-called claim seemed a bit suspicious, particularly as the damage, if you could even call it that, was so minimal, not even that, barely a scratch. We'll have to see what they had to say and let them decide. I have driven for very nearly 50 years and in all that time I think I've only had to claim on my insurance no more than half-a-dozen times. We watch daytime television programmes about such things as false insurance claims, or at least, some which are very suspicious. I have an idea that this person makes a habit of such things and would do anything to get money out of a car driver, when the damage is so minimal it can hardly be described as such. No more than what you'd expect if you were to brush against a branch of a tree or bush when you parked or if a cat or dog scratched it with it's paw. I imagine that the insurance company would send someone out to have a look the damage for themselves before they payed out to have the car repaired. We'll have to see what happens.
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