Another fine mess

Last Sunday we went to do some shopping on Victoria street in Richmond to get ingredients for our dinner party on Monday.  Victoria street itself was jam-packed with no where to park, so we went up a side street and seeing the green P sign allowing 2 hour parking Monday to Saturday 8am-5pm, parked thinking as we were out of the restricted times we could stay there as long as we liked.  We had some nice noodles in a Vietnamese restaurant and then went and did our shopping.   When we got back to the car however we discovered a parking ticket stuck to the window.  We had seen the green parking sign but had failed to notice the red writing above stating it was permit parking all other times!  So although not helped by the unnecessarily over-complecated parking signage, we were in the wrong and so we paid the fine.  The parking ticket I am more annoyed about was the one issued today.  Having the day off work Barnadi wanted to take a drive so we went down to Brighton beach and parked in a car park along the sea front.  It was not a cheap car park either, $4 per hour, but we paid for an hour, stuck the ticket in the back window and went for a walk along the beach towards the pier.  On the way we had some fish and chips and then headed back to the car park only to discover another parking ticket stuck to our windscreen.  Needless to say I have appealed this one, and have no intention of paying it when I know for a fact we were parked legally with a valid ticket.

As if two parking tickets in one week wasn't bad enough we are also being fined from the UK.  On our last trip back to the UK for Gemma and Dan's wedding, Barnadi closed his bank account with Natwest seeing no further need for it.  It seems that when he closed the account on the Monday recent transaction from the previous Saturday hadn't cleared and so instead closing the account making life simpler we have now been issued with a bank statement showing a considerable overdraft.  As the overdraft was not prearranged we are also due a charge for that too.  The only money we have left in the UK now is tied up in a term deposit, so it is going to be a real struggle to find a way to pay back the overdraft quickly so as to avoid any further interest charges.  We tried phoning Natwest but after being pushed around from one department to another and then left on hold with no progress we gave up on that, as it was proving to be a waste of time and even more money with the overseas phone call charges!