I Don't Care How Many Parking Spaces They Have...

I made the mistake of going to Carrefour last night. As I approached the only main entrance to the City Mall complex, I found myself in a long line of cars, which I assumed were also heading to Carrefour. After sitting in the line of cars for about a minute, I decided that this might not be such a good idea, but just as I was preparing to swing out into traffic, I discovered that I was blocked in on both sides by impatient, terrible drivers who don't know how to queue and are oblivious to the laws of the road. (Laws of the road, who am I kidding?)

Ten minutes later, I finally entered shoved my way onto the ramp that leads down to the parking garage. Due to the heavy amount of traffic, the garage security guards were ignoring the traditional "trunk check" and were waving cars along.

Another five minutes and I had descended to the bottom of the ramp and was about to enter the garage. All I could see in front of me was a line of cars, each one pausing as it entered into the garage. I couldn't determine what the hold up was, or why each car was being forced to stop.

Two minutes later, I rounded the garage door only to be stopped short by a parking attendant. I rolled down my window to receive this very important piece of information: "Park in Area 2."

What the heck? A huge traffic jam simply because the Carrefour parking attendants think that we're too stupid to find a parking space? Talk about insulting our sensibilities! And on top of that, the parking level was practically empty. Why do they care where I park? If I want to park half a kilometer away and walk, that's my business. Why not allow people to enter in a timely manner and find their own parking spot?

I finally parked my truck and entered through the lower entrance. Security was lax, as they were funneling people through the metal detector like cattle through a chute. People weren't being stopped and checked, even when the metal detector would screech in protest. They did, however, require me to remove my mobile phone before entering the detector. I feel safer knowing that all of the people in Carrefour aren't wielding explosive phones.

Half and hour into my venture, I was finally making my way up the escalators to the ground floor. I just wish that people would learn that the escalator isn't an attraction at an amusement park, and that you're supposed to exit the escalator in a timely manner since the oncoming traffic can't stop. You should have seen the pileup at the top of the escalator simply because some idiots just stood there looking around, deciding what to do. I'll tell you what to do: start walking!

I write all this to remind myself that next time I want to visit Carrefour in the evening — especially on a Thursday or Friday evening — I should just go soak my head in the toilet. It would probably be much more fun.