Paradise Found

The office I work at has parking. That’s a good thing, as parking in “downtown” Hamilton is becoming increasingly difficult these days. There are more cars on the roads, and more of those cars seem to be SUVs which take up too much space, unlike my diminutive roller skate. So when I decide to bring the roller skate to work in place of my trusty Vespa, I have somewhere to stow it.

There are no allocated parking bays, so it is a question of first come, first served. You may not always get the same spot, and if you arrive late you may not get a spot at all. Very democratic. It’s a notion I like.

One of the things I like to do is park randomly in different parking bays on different days, even though the normal spot I might park in may be available. Why?

• Brain stimulation – it allows me to change my daily routine, which is always a good thing as it forces me to think harder. I often take different routes home for the same reason. And yes, my mind does need the kick-start sometimes
• Photographic opportunities – parking in different spots allows me to take a different look at my surroundings. If I have my camera to hand, I can try to take shots from a different perspective. OK, so taking photos of underground carparks may sound creepy, but sometimes you can get some reasonable shots. Yes, people stare at me when I take photos in strange places. Do I care? No …
• Because it annoys my co-parkers – even though no-one has their own parking bay, they seem to really get annoyed when you park in “their” spot. I have seen their expressions as I nip in in front of them – pure hatred. I am guessing that is because they park in the same place so they don’t have to remember where they put their cars at the end of the day. Or because they like to think they have a designated spot even though they don’t. Or because they don’t want to walk that extra 3 paces to the elevator.

So if you want to give your mind a jolt and alienate yourself from your co-workers in one easy step, steal their parking spots.