The carpark man

It was going to be a simple trip into town, drop some things off, buy some toothpaste and a couple of other things, then back home. Drove into town, parked in the carpark of where I needed to be and zipped into the office with the things to be delivered.  Except there was a bit of a muddle – no doubt my fault, but I was left feeling somewhat foolish, and as I drove away I wondered if I’ll ever not get into a muddle about things. Probably not.

Parked in town, bought some toothpaste and some shampoo and a couple of other things I realised I needed, and then thought I would go into Smiths for a wander round. In case you don’t know the shops: “Welcome to W.H.Smith. Here you can find stationery, books, toys and games and many more products.” There  were a few books I looked at, but put off actually getting them as I’ve been a little extravagant recently. I left the shop and the security  alarm whistled as I passed it, but I guessed it was the lady next to me, and I wandered off. Someone was shouting after me – the security guard! He poked through my bag, but of course all that was there was my toothpaste and other items from the chemist’s shop!

Back to the carpark, and blow me, my wretched parking ticket wouldn’t go in the machine! The lady in front had problems too, so I went to try another machine. It still didn’t work, so I decided to press the intercom to speak to the carpark men. I was about to press when I realised I would have to give my registration. Now I can remember the car reg of our family car when I was a child but can I remember our present car’s number? No. Too many L’s and D’s, and then for some reason I reverse the number, or think I have.  After a few moments of silly panic, when I considered ringing home, I realised the reg number was on the ticket.

I rang the carpark man and he said was it today’s ticket… Well, you can guess the rest… It was from last week… I had lost today’s. He very kindly told me to drive to the barriers and speak to him again and he would let me through. I went back to the car. What an absolute idiot. I got in the car.

The ticket I needed was on the passenger seat, just waiting for me. Hmmmm!!!