Car-Park Etiquette

01 January 2013 – So here it is, 2013. How we’ve waited for you with eager anticipation and hope. Hope that you’ll bring better weather than your predecessor, maybe a fiscal miracle to bring an end to the recession and hopefully a dignified retreat from the public eye by Robbie Williams.

As my blog is all about my life and the music that shuffles on my iPod as I go about my days, it’s only fair to let you know what the first tune of 2013 is, as it shuffles randomly to the fore. I’m Still Waiting by the fabulous, if short lived, River City People.

I’m Still Waiting. River City People

Sadly I have to say my first blog of the year is an opinion piece, a letting off of steam some may say. A rant. It concerns the use of car-parks, which tends to be one of the everyday situations that will be guaranteed to tip me over the edge.

We are all sensible enough to know that it’s wrong to park in a bay reserved for disabled drivers if we are not entitled to do so. But, I have to admit to having a problem with mother and child spaces. I understand that people with children need ample room to accommodate the buggy and other child related detritus, but why do these spaces have to situated in premium areas of the car-park? You’ve only bred not lost a limb. Another bone of contention regarding these spaces is the amount of people who think because they have a wide expanse of tarmac either side of their vehicle they are justified in leaving the shopping trolley there and driving off. Don’t get me started on people who are too lazy to return their trolley to its bay.

Another activity that gets my blood boiling is impatient drivers. Yesterday I was ready to reverse out of my parking space when I noticed the man in his car to my left also begin to reverse out of his. I waited for him to leave, checked no one was behind me and began to reverse. Suddenly out of no where came a woman in a car causing me to brake as she’d decided not to wait for me to leave, and skidded around me into the recently vacated space to my left. Imagine my surprise when she got out of her car and just shrugged, as if to say “oh well, no harm done.” Had I not been in a better mood I’d have been tempted to give her a few choice words.

As I exited the car-park, which has two lanes; one for people turning right and another for people turning left, I was sat in the right hand lane. I am about to reach the junction when the car to my left suddenly without warning decided to change lanes. I beeped my horn, only to have the woman in front: the woman who didn’t have the dexterous ability to use an indicator, lift her hand up and give me the middle finger salute.

Whilst I’m on about car-parking, I have to admit to hating those people who cannot park in the centre of two lines, those that either straddle the line, or park so close to it that when you arrive back at your car, the only way to get back inside is via the sun-roof or to tunnel in from below.

Finally, you know my feelings about mother and baby spaces, but I believe there’s a section of the car-park that needs to be set aside for the LGBT community, let’s call it ‘gay bay’. It doesn’t have to be pink or rainbow coloured, just a privileged spot for the people who are free from the expense of bringing up children, paying school fees and pre-school childcare. As it must make sense to allocate specialised parking to the portion of the shopping community with the largest proportion of disposable income. Tongue firmly in cheek.

Rant over – just in time as Antony and the Johnsons start to play Everglade.