Sunday, April 06, 2008

Ruby In Prison

Friday was the last day of the school term before 2 weeks of Spring break, so we decided to go into town to see a musical.  The problem with going into town after a day at school is, what to do with Ruby?  I could drive her into town, pay the exorbitant £8 "congestion charge" and then spend a small fortune paying for parking, I could leave her at school and have a horrible walk back from the tube late in the night in one of the dodgiest areas of the city (lots of shootings around here) as I go to collect my car, or I can drive her as close as I can to the tube and try to find somewhere free to park.
This is no small feat, there really are only 2 streets you can park in that do not have paid parking, and it's very rare actually to get a park there.  Next to one of the streets is a largish 'business' park - but there are signs up everywhere about not parking there or you'll get a fine.  I've parked there before and unfortunately scored a £60 parking ticket.  The other problem with that place is that there are 3 entrances to the car park, and they close off 2 of them at 6pm, locking the gates.  But there is always one gate that's open - because the National Theatre use a building in that business park for their costumes, and they're always coming and going at strange times of the day or night.
We were running out of time so in the end, having exhausted all options, I had no choice but to risk it and park in the Business Park.  Locking up the car, we headed off for the tube and went in to Leceister Square, to the half price ticket booths.
The cheapest deal we could get was Avenue Q, and although I've seen it before, it now has a new cast, so I didn't mind seeing it again.  We had a spot of dinner and then went to the show.
It was about 10.45pm that I arrived back at the car park ready to pick Ruby up.  Big problem.  They've now put in an electronic entry system complete with fob, and just as I arrived the gates were closing.  I didn't know whether to quickly run in between the closing gates or not - because what if I got in but then couldn't get out without a fob?  And if I didn't run in now, I'd have to press the buzzer and talk to the security guard, who would want to know which company I worked for, and why I didn't have a fob - and I didn't know the names of any of the companies there - so it would be painfully obvious I shouldn't have parked there and should get a ticket.... What to do, what to do?
So I phoned Jean, poor thing, who didn't know what to suggest really.  I could just go home on the tube and bus and then come back the next day, hope I got in before any parking attendants, and pick Ruby up.  But at that time of night the tube is really minging, and also the bus journey from the tube is really unpleasant - and the whole thing would take me an hour and a half...
So I stood outside the gate, debating with myself whether to press the call button - when suddenly a car came out.  I watched the car but I couldn't see where the sensor might be to open the gate as the car approached, so I wasn't sure if the driver was opening the gate himself.  I let the gates close.  Then, another car came up, and this time, I decided to just go for it.  So I sneak in.
As I'm walking down to my car, suddenly the security guard starts yelling out at me - "Stop, stop!"  Oh crap, I've been caught on CCTV!  "Excuse me," he calls, "but the car park is closed!  You have to leave!".  "But my car is just parked down there, I need to get it out" I called back.  "Do you work here?" he asked, and I evaded the question, answering with, "My car is just around the back!".  "Do you work here?"  he insisted. "My car is just round the back, I need to get it!"  "The park is closed, do you work here?" He called out again.  "Yeah look, my car is round the back!"  "Oh ok, if you work here, that's ok" was the response!  Phew! Lucky the guy didn't really speak very good English!  So I raced off, heart pounding, got Ruby and prayed like the blazes that the gate would open automatically as I approached - because how was I going to explain it to the security bloke otherwise?
Fortunately it did, and I put pedal to the metal and burned out of there!  Hopefully my licence plate hasn't been recorded somewhere, to be checked against some database or something... hopefully in a few days I won't get some sort of ticket in the post...
Suffice to say, I learned my lesson, I won't be parking there again!

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