number-plate-man retired

Finally, my scooter is fixed, yeah! I don't have to wear my number plate on the back anymore.

Ok, I have to start at the beginning. In the night 15th/16th July some wankers tried to steal my scooter. They dragged it about hundred meters away and tried to open the lock and the steering lock with a huge iron bar. Although they didn't manage to break the lock, they caused a lot of damage to the scooter like twisting the handle bar, breaking the seat lock and the most annoying part: they ripped off the number plate including the attachment for it.

I called the police and they recorded the attempted theft. The next day I called the insurance to report the incident and they sent me the claim form and asked me to do an estimate at a garage.
The garage faxed the estimate and I sent back the claim form on the 21th. First class to speed up the process!

So far so good. Took several phone calls the week after until they finally processed the form and the cost estimate from the garage. Another week later they asked me to bring the scooter to the garage again so that an engineer can have a look at it. This was the 1st of August when I remember it correctly and another 5 quid for me taking the tube to uni and back...

The most annoying part was to get the insurance to fax the repair authorisation to the garage. In the week starting from the 7th I called the insurance several times a day, everytime talking to someone else and telling him all the details. The music in the waiting loop is really crap. And then you have dialogues like:

me: "I brought the scooter to the garage last week and your engineer had a look at it."
she: "Alright, give me a sec."
5 min later...
she:"Was it an attempted theft or was the bike actually stolen?"
me: "-_-"

And all the time I was driving around with my number plate sticked to my back. People sometimes started conversation at a traffic light like:
"Dude, you have a number plate on your back!"
"Really? I didn't know. Thanks!"

Finally, the insurance faxed the authorisation and the garage could order the bits and pieces. The appointment was scheduled for today.

Of course the police stopped me yesterday (!!), even using the siren. They asked me why I was wearing the number plate on my back and checked my driving license, road tax and insurance. Clearly, they hadn't seen someone like me before. One of them made a call starting: "I have a stupid question, I have someone with a number plate on his back here...". Apparently it was kind of alright, since it was clearly visible. However, they didnt fine me and just asked me to get it fixed asap. I told them that I ll bring it to the gargae tomorrow anyway. Don't think they believed me ;-)

Anyway, after a lot of weird looks, random conversation at traffic lights, one guy taking a picture of me and be stopped by the police, number-plate-man officially retired :-)