We're taking a bit of a breather while the world rearranges its underpants. Meanwhile, the other blog is here.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Gelid

Frog gave me a lift back to the library after a meeting over at Umpty. As we got in the car we noticed the temperature gauge:
26F Risk of ice

Given the very heavy snow we had to smile. Little did we realise that it was a prophesy...

The multi-story car park in wonderful downtown Helminthdale is an unlovely object: a rotting concrete skeleton of a thing that would be condemned if the Borough Engineer's Department wasn't under express orders by the owners (the council) not to even look at it. To make it easier not to look at it, all the staff in that department have been made redundant and invited to apply for half the number of jobs they started with.

Driving up the steep slope to the entrance it became very apparent that the council's depending on the traffic to do the gritting for them. Even worse, there was a queue, stretching the length of the ramp. The reason?

"Ticket machine's not working. You'll have to walk over here so that I can have a look at your ticket and let you in."

4 comments:

The Topiary Cow said...

Just the thought of being on an icy ramp on a slope is enough to set Topiary stomach clenching.

Then, excuse me, you're supposed to walk someplace with the ticket?

Too bad about the folks being laid off and having to reapply for half the number of jobs. The rich keep getting richer and everybody else...doesn't.

Gadjo Dilo said...

It's the "26F" that got me. Do people still use Fahrenheit back in UK land, or do you perhaps drive a Wolseley Hornet??

Macy said...

Helminthdale council is missing a trick here - car park needs to be turned into nursery ski slops asap!

Kevin Musgrove said...

Ms Cow: this is, sadly, extremely true.

Gadjo: Frog's wife made the mistake of finding out that you can have either C or F settings in their Citroen. Guess which of them reads the manuals.

Macy: that's the main shopping drag.