By Gavin Jones
One Monday morning recently, my wife had gone to the hairdresser’s and parked the car in front of the shop. As this area is a municipal car park, there’s a ticket machine nearby and being a law-abiding soul, she tried to purchase a ticket. However, the machine was out of order, so she left the car where it was parked and went into the hairdresser’s. Two hours later she exited, only to find that the machine had been fixed and that she’d been issued with a ticket with a fine of eight euros. She phoned me and I listened to a motley collection of expletives. Yours truly said ‘no worries’ and that I’d deal with it on Friday.
Friday duly arrived and after dropping her off at her place of work, I proceeded to the finance department of the Paphos municipality which is located in a side street going down the hill from the main police station towards Kato Paphos. I was told that I could only pay the eight euro fine there, but for disputes, I had to go to another office a few hundred yards away from the town hall. So off I went.
Despite being verbally given the location, I was unable to find it. I ventured into a nearby law office and someone duly came out and directed me to it. Yet again, it was down another side street with an insignificant sign over the door. It was locked. As luck would have it, a man on a scooter stopped and asked if he could help. He recognised me as he was the husband of the local vet in our village so I told him my predicament. He directed me to the back of the town hall about 300 hundred yards away as apparently the office had now moved there.
Off I trotted and in reception met a helpful young man called Savvas. I told him my sorry tale and after a couple of phone calls, someone else appeared with a form which he helped me to fill in, setting out the circumstances of my wife’s parking fine ‘experience’. He then took a copy of the parking ticket, keeping the original, and handed me the copy. I was so impressed with Savvas’ helpfulness that I requested from him a piece of paper and an envelope because as both my wife and I happen to know the mayor, I wrote a glowing testimonial for Savvas in appreciation. Credit where it’s due.
I then returned to my car, only to find a parking ticket for eight euros slapped on it. I’d failed to notice that street parking in the locality was subject to purchasing a ticket. Laughed? I almost died.
My endeavours to get justice on a point of principle had cost me not only eight euros but I’d also pumped burnt fuel into the atmosphere by racing from one office to another and induced high levels of stress and frustration in a humid Paphian July. With thoughts of always looking on the bright side of life as demonstrated in the film, ‘The Life of Brian’, I wanted to share this double whammy with Savvas so I returned to the town hall and with a smile on my face, waved my new parking ticket at him, not so much in anger but more as a trophy!
I then returned to the car and proceeded to the finance department, presenting the ticket to the same bemused clerk I’d met an hour and a half previously who tap, tap, tapped my details into his computer, took my eight euros and gave me a receipt.
You may be interested to know that yet again I risked another fine by not buying a ticket as the car park opposite the finance department building belongs to the municipality with its attendant ticket machine. Someone was smiling down at me on this occasion.
After my morning’s ‘work’ as described above, I then went to my usual pet food store, only to find that the brand that our kitties like was no longer available; I then visited the electricity office and had to wait for what seemed eternity in a queue to pay the bill as there was only one person at the till (yes, I know I should get a standing order set up but haven’t got round to it yet); next it was off to the supermarket for some pizzas and other items. Finally, I had the car’s air-conditioning topped up. After dashing home, I gave the kitties their evening feed and just about had enough time to collect my wife from work.
The moral of the story is this. When confronted with a wretched eight euro parking fine, pay and have done with it. Principles get you nowhere.
As for my wife being let off her fine, that’s in the lap of the gods.
