One-way ticket…

Well, it certainly would be a one-way ticket to the blues should you happen to get one…especially when you are not in the wrong.

Yes, we do pay parking fees here in Sibu – 42 sen for 30 minutes/half an hour. They were saying that it is more expensive than in the other towns in the state…but I don’t really know. It does not matter that much to me either as I do not always go out.

We use the scratch system here, so you will have to buy those coupon booklets and keep in your car and everytime you park your vehicle some place, you can just scratch a coupon or more and display on your dashboard. I have no complaint about that – very convenient and you do not need to worry about soggy coupons soaked in the rain, running around trying to hunt a parking attendant down to pay and all those inconveniences.

But the other day, I got a ticket for overparking…

I parked my car in the vicinity of the Dewan Suarah here in Sibu at around 3.50 p.m. and I displayed a 30-minute coupon. I made sure that I scratched the time very clearly on the coupon…

Add 30 minutes to that and it would mean that I could leave my car there until 4.20 p.m. However, when I got back to the car, I found this…

The ticket stated that I was overparked up to 4.04 p.m. What the heck! There would be another 16 minutes before the time expired.

Ah well! Never mind! I guess those attendants are not very highly paid and their job isn’t all that easy – walking around especially on hot days. After all, the compound fine is only RM1.00…but I do hope that it doesn’t happen all the time! I’d better keep the coupon and ticket just in case they may, for some reason or other, decide to make a habit of this and if that happens, Mr. Hu, you will most certainly find me knocking on your door…

Hey! Wait a minute! Good golly Miss Molly!!! I had scratched the wrong date on the coupon! *slaps head!…Silly ol’ me!!! The 22nd was Tuesday – a public holiday and there is no necessity to pay parking fees on public holidays! I should have scratched the 23rd instead!!! Phew! That parking attendant was observant enough to notice that but she was obviously too kind to slam a compound fine on me. Thank God for small mercies! That would have been RM20.00 instead of RM1.00 for not putting a valid parking coupon…and it was a good thing too that I didn’t go to the booth and kick up a fuss over the ticket… That would be so embarrassing, wouldn’t it? LOL!!!