today sucked. a bit.

wanted to start with an expletive.
but.... ungh! i won't.
i had to pay a massive $275 to get my car un-impounded.
to add salt to the very raw wound (i had to walk 30mins to the pound! in the blistering cold!), the fine was very smugly collected by the attendant.

i'd driven to the city, for some reason, today. i seldom drive there, as parking is a bitch. in melbs, one does not simply place parking coupons and assume that one can park the vehicle for as long as one desires. there are 5min, 1/4hr, 1hr and 2hr limits on 90% of the public parking lots in metropolitan melbourne. failure to move your car before the time limit is reached could result in a $50 fine. no eyelids batted. and my my, they are vigilant over here. yes, in a way, it makes me miss the parking pontianaks of singapore's URA/LTA/HDB system.

got my car towed away today because i had not seen the tiny clearway-after-4pm sign way, waaaaaayyy above my head. it is bad to be vertically challenged. i'd gone to school to meet my supervisor at exactly 4pm, and emerged 3hrs later to find that my car had *vanished*. now, i have always had premonitions about parking tickets/fines, but only once did i remotely have a wave of fear over a towed-away car. and that hit me about 2 weeks ago. i promptly disregarded it when i saw my car sitting right where i left it. i swear, these premonitions are baaad stuff.

it was very fortunate indeed that i had not decided to go for dinner before collecting the car, as the pound closed at 8pm. and i wasn't about to blow $15 on cab fare for a 7min ride. not with the impending bombshell of the fine. it was just as well that it was a cold, drizzly night. i was fuming as i speed-walked to the other end of the city grid. if i'd gone for dinner, i would have to endure 2 40-minute train rides, 2 30-minute bus rides and 1 entire night+morning before i could see my beloved car again! yes, public transport in melbs is a pain in the ass too. almost everyone is very car-reliant.

on hindsight, as my lovely housemate has succinctly put it, it could have been worse.

nobody was hurt. we weren't involved in an accident. the fine was something i could afford (the sweet girl paid for dinner later... awww...). and as long as it could be settled with money, it is not all that bad. she said something in cantonese that meant something to the effect of you are paying in monetary terms to avoid a worser fate. my dialect is not all that powerful. an even though it was a costly lesson, i'd learnt. more power to me. just less money.

c'est la vie. it goes on.

and we managed to find a nice little chinese restaurant at box hill. with friendly wait-staff. and lovely taiwanese food. aah.

not so bad after all.