where's my car!?

I was going to be late. There was no way I was going to make it to my class in Oxford by 9:30 when I had to drop Jay off at work in Reading at 9:00. I had already accepted that. As I approached the road up to the university, I had a choice to make. Do I gamble and go up the hill on the chance that the barriers will be open and I will get a parking space? Or just park at the bottom of the hill and walk up? Gamble! Barriers closed, back down the hill I go. I parked the car on a slightly inclined residential side street where I have parked a few times before, pulled up the handbrake and gathered my things for class. As I walked away from the car, I noticed Jay's external hard drive in plain sight in the back and tucked it away. I locked the car and got to class just after 10am. At 1pm I headed back down the hill to head home. Ummm..... where's my car? I parked it on this street right? There's no signs saying I can't park here.... this is the only side street I could've parked on, right? Am I losing my mind? It was right here!! Maybe someone moved it up the hill? down? Someone who lives on the street just pulled up, maybe he knows something. Nope, no one ever gets towed. Never heard of any theft in this area, haven't seen anything. Yikes.

I called the police, but couldn't remember the entire plate number. Called Jay six times as freezing cold rain started to fall, then wrote it down. The first thing he said was his new shoes were in the back. Didn't I just say that the CAR WAS GONE?! So I called the police back and found out they had recovered the car from the middle of the main road. The car had rolled down the hill and into the intersection, somehow missing cars and double decker buses. The police and the recovery guys were puzzled as to how it got there and who it belonged to. I guess I only put the parking break up one click instead of all the way AND left it in neutral. If you ever park on a hill, think about leaving it in gear!

The next step was to call the tow truck people to find out where they were keeping my car, get their fax info to Jay so he could write and sign a note saying I was allowed to take the car, catch a bus to a town I couldn't pronounce (£2.70), and then get picked up in that town by a rather large tow truck man and brought to the recovery yard. Graciously I accepted a hot cup of tea to warm me up from being soaked by the freezing rain, English hospitality at it's best. Can I have my car back now please? What? You want £150 ($242)?!?! Sweet. Sure. Take it. Take all of it. Just the day before I received notice that I was caught by camera in a bus lane and they wanted to charge me £30 for the privilege. Driving is expensive this week!! By the time I got home I was hungry and overwhelmed and could only manage to make cereal before cuddling up on the couch with the cat. Apparently it took the car over an hour to creep down the hill. Things could've been so much worse, I know, but I still felt a bit stupid for letting this happen. Luckily I'm watching some kids during half term next week and will be able to make that money back in a couple days. Life goes on!

Now where did I leave that bus pass?