A visit to the Hyatt Hotel in Birmingham was called for to photograph the engagement party of Laura and Lee recently.
Although the actual job went well, the start of the evening was a nightmare simply getting into Birmingham city centre. Seven o'clock on a Saturday evening is apparently not a good time to be in any form of motorised transport and actually expect it to move. What made things worse was that, having finally arrived at the car park next to the Hippodrome, it seemed that everyone else driving that night had also decided to use this car park to abandon their vehicle in.
I'm not sure who was playing at Symphony Hall that night, or what theatrical extravaganza was being performed at the Hippodrome, suffice to say that the average age of the audience attempting to park their collective vehicles was about 103 - together with the sort of driving skills that are commensurate with drivers of that age.
Not only that, but the car park was a Mickey-Mouse Pay-and-Display affair rather than the, now rather more common, Pay-on-Exit type. All very well except I had no change and only a £20 note in my wallet. I will therefore be eternally grateful to the gentlemen who kindly donated my £2.50 parking charge (for which at the time I was willing to part with the £20 I had) and would accept nothing in return except a promise that I would offer a similar act of generosity in the future, should it be required. 'Pay it forward' I believe it's called.
Thus I arrived at the venue slightly past my appointed time and was amazed to walk into a virtually empty room. Thankfully, everyone else was running late too so it appeared that I'd been patiently waiting around for some time. Of course I didn't mention that I'd literally just walked in...
Recent Comments