Alleluia!!

When I was living in Central London 15 years ago I had a friend who used to swear by her wind up parking angel to help her to find convenient parking spaces. When you wound the angel up, her wings would flap and by the time she stopped flapping a space would miraculously appear. I witnessed it on several occasions and although we always got a space, I would never be so daft as to think this plastic bit of tat was responsible.  

I'm aware that some people put a lot of faith in angels (not made of silver plastic) and i say each to his own, whatever rocks your boat. 

A couple of weeks ago after an initial viewing at the auction I frequent occasionally, I stopped in a nearby town to run into a few charity shops. This area is quite difficult to find handy legitimate parking spaces and they do need to be legitimate as this place is also crawling with traffic wardens.

Anyway, without the help of any angels whatsoever I found a spot and put 30 minutes money in the metre.

There are three charity shops in the same stretch and I duly browsed each one. I made a few purchases and simply lost track of time. I went running back to the car, relieved to see no sign of a clamp or warden. As I drove off I notice the 'documents enclosed' plastic pocket tucked under the windscreen wiper.

Feck!! Feckity!! Feck!!!(or something similar) Parking tickets/fines are not very thrifty. When I go to ridiculous lengths to  save every penny and get the best deals, then having to fork out on a parking ticket is going to be extremely painful.

I was furious.....I stopped the car and retrieved the damned thing.....opened it........and this is what I found.

Well knock me down with a feather (white feather?) What a wonderful feeling this was. 

I went from fury to euphoria in seconds. Yipppeeee! How fantastic.

Seems that local businesses are at loggerheads with the traffic wardens. Their prolific ticket issuing is potentially damaging to business in the town.  Volunteer Parking angels are feeding lapsed metres to ensure customers are not put off  shopping the high street. Having googled for a parking angel image, I discovered that in Devon/Exeter way the same scheme is happening.  Anything like this happening in your area?

The best thing about this is it gives me the license to spend a guilt free €20 in the area and €20 donation to the angels.

Alleluia!!