Secure Parking station.

New Years day. Denise and I had arranged to go to the movies and then lunch. We would meet at the cinema for 9:30 session of Mary Poppins (the best choice, and it is school holidays)!

I left in good time prepared to use the parking station as I probably needed a few hours and most street parking was for maximum 2hrs.

Aware that it was a public holiday I was pleased to see that the two entry lanes were open so proceeded to enter the car park. It seemed odd that the two exit lanes were closed off. Taking a ticket I drove up to the first level, noting that I was the only vehicle parked. Not too concerned as I thought the shops may be opening at 10:00. I left the car and went to the lift only to find it wasn’t working. Not a problem, I had time to go to the escalator entrance. It was situated on the next level up and on my way I noticed another car parked. When I reached the entry it was obvious that the door was locked and not a sole about. I explored a bit further and walked to a corridor that linked the carpark to the shops. It too was locked. Now I was getting concerned. On the way back a young asian woman came over, she was trying to access the shops without success. I rang the phone number on their signage only to be told to leave a message as that number was unattended. Not very helpful as I could see the possibility of nobody being there until tomorrow. I walked back to the carpark enterance which was now also closed, we were locked in!

Then we heard a door being opened and saw a security man doing his rounds. He didnt expect to see us and wanted to know how we got in. The carpark was closed because no shops were open except the supermarket on the other side and that carpark was open with free parking for the day.

He couldn’t let us out but rang someone else who would let us out when we needed to leave. I had let Denise know my plight and wanted to get to the cinema. We now had access to lifts within the shopping centre so we could access the next section where the supermarket is, but no, each approach to that section was fenced off and padlocked. What to do?

Then we both heard someone approaching, It was a female security officer. She was surprised to see us. We explained the situation to her and she rang another security officer who had keys for the carpark. We met him there. He couldn’t understand how the gates were open for us to get in. He wondered if the timer had activated automatically then closed.

We drove the cars to the exit which was now open, I was behind and could see that the boom gate wasn’t opening with the ticket. More delay while another staff member drove over to open the boom manually. He suggested going to the other carpark which I did.

I got to the cinema having missed all the adds and a little of the beginning of Mary Poppins which turned out to be very enjoyable. Not bad considering the experience I had just been through.

So much for 2019 beginnings.