Yesterday I headed into the city to hang out with other bloggy types at an event run by Pro Blogger. While there, I learnt how to get my camera off Auto (something my non-mathematical brain struggles with because, well, ISO’s and f-Stops kind of confuse the hell out of me!)
hung out with my blogging mates
and came home all pumped about blogging in general!
If only getting into the city was as easy and stress free as the actual Pro Blogger event was. Parking in the city on a week day is crazy expensive (we’re talking up to 30 bucks an hour!) so I pre-booked myself a car park using an app the night before. That little move saved me well over $50, but holy crap, if I’d known what a mission it would be to actually find the carpark I might not have bothered!
You see I’d booked myself a spot at 10 Eagle Street. I knew where it was, which may or may not be due to the many Saturday nights spent standing in the cab rank in front of that car park in my 20’s while possibly inhaling a kebab and attempting to stand up right after downing one two many Fire Engines, so I knew it would bring back fond memories exactly where to go.
After battling peak hour traffic for over an hour, I pulled into the carpark, whipped out my pre-paid ticket and presented it to the man standing at the gate. He took one look at it and says, “I know you’ve booked spot for 10 Eagle Street and this is 10 Eagle Street, but what they don’t tell you on the website is that the carpark you need to go to is directly across the road.”
“Um ok. So how exactly do I get over there?”
“Just turn around, meet me at the boom gates and I’ll show you.”
So I did just that and the very nice man showed me the best way to zip across 4 lanes of heavy traffic in order to get to the carpark that’s having a bit of an identity crisis.
I managed to get to the correct carpark without anyone honking their horn at me (always a bonus) and go through the same routine of showing my pre-paid ticket to the bloke at the gate. He tells me which level to go to and I ask, “Is there anything I need to do when I leave?”
He tells me I just need to punch my pin number back into some box somewhere and I tell him I don’t have a pin number. He grabs my ticket, looks at it, rolls his eyes and tells me I’m in the wrong carpark.
I tell him that old mate across the road told me 10 Eagle Street is in fact on Charlotte Street and he tells me, “No love, 10 Eagle Street is actually on Market Street.” FFS. Are you feeling my pain yet?
At this point I really want to sigh loudly and throw in an eye roll chaser, because ONLY THIS SORT OF SHIT COULD HAPPEN TO ME, but instead I ask the bloke how I get to Market Street. He tells me it’s across the road, before finishing with “You need to hurry up and get out of here. You’re in the wrong bloody car park.” So that was a nice way to end things.
I somehow managed to find my way to Market Street, went through the whole ticket showing thing with the bird at the gate, made my way down to level 3, parked the car and tried to find the lift. No joy there and I couldn’t find the stairs either, so the only option left was to walk up 3 levels of car park ramps. And people think this blogging thing is a glamourous game!
I then realise that thanks to number 10 Eagle Street actually being located on Market Street, I’m now faced with a lengthy walk to the training rooms on Adelaide Street. So by the time I actually got to the Pro Blogger event, my hair was a hot mess, my makeup was sliding of my face and I was seriously wondering if 9am was too early for a vodka!
Have you tried parking your car on the cheap? Was it as difficult for you as it was for me?!
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