Had a nice lunch with Lesley today.  It was good to catch up with her, and to have a long, in-depth conversation about life and everything.

But I hadn’t worn my watch, and wasn’t really aware of the time, but thought I had plenty of time to do the fiddly little errands that I had to do.  I went to the post office, went into Hot Dollar to buy materials for Scripture and got stuck wandering around the (cheap!) junk labyrinth, went to Coles to pick up some groceries and back to the car.  Rats.  Overshot the free parking by about five minutes.

I’d spent all the cash I had on me at Coles, but I scraped together some coins from the deep recesses of the car and my bag, and went to pay for parking.  But I didn’t have enough.  Five dollars!  Arg.  That’s okay - the machine takes credit cards, not Amex or Diner’s, but I don’t have Amex or Diner’s so it should be okay.  But no, the temperamental machine wouldn’t take mine either, don’t know why.  Had to go out of the car park, find an ATM, withdraw $20, then find something very cheap I could buy to break the note (because of course the car park machine didn’t take $20 for payments under $10).  Bought chocolate.  Went down to the carpark, paid for parking, drove to the gate and -

The gate was broken, and the boom gate was propped up.  I could have just driven out without paying.

It’s those little things of the modern life that drive me to distraction.  They make me so frustrated I want to cry.  Even more frustrating is that I probably wouldn’t have driven to this shopping centre if I hadn’t at the last minute thought to get groceries (it’s only about a 10 minute walk from my house).  Partly I felt glad I’d done the right thing and dutifully paid for my parking.  Another part of me raged at the hassle it was to pay, and the needless expense of it (If only I’d walked!  If only I hadn’t gone into Hot Dollar!  If only...). 

But there is one upside: at least I have chocolate.