Free Friday

The German word for Friday is Freitag, but as frei means 'free' and tag means 'day' it can be seen that Friday could mean free day. Oddly enough, that is exactly what last Friday proved to be for me, a free day.

About noon on that fateful day, I arrived in the city, drove around the block a couple of times until I found a vacant parking spot in Bathurst Street. Then I discovered I had no coins. What to do? Was there any time left on the meter? I pressed the button. "Expired!" But on the meter screen was something more. There was a hand-written note attached. "Meter out of order. Parking limit one hour." Amazing! What luck. I was due to meet my niece within a couple of minutes, so this was perfect.

I met her in the Mall and proposed treating her to lunch at a neat little Chinese cafe I had found. She enjoyed the meal, so much so, that she insisted that she pay the bill.

We left there with the intention of having a coffee elsewhere but first I thought it best to check my car as quite a bit more than an hour had elapsed. As we turned the corner I had to step to one side to avoid the parking attendant who had just come from the direction of my car. "Uh oh," I said, "I've probably got a ticket." But no, no ticket.

What was there, however, was a technician working on the faulty parking meter. It was all in bits so I asked him, "Will we have time to go for a coffee before you get it working again?" "No problem," he replied, "I'll be about another 15 minutes but I will click an hour on the clock before I go."

We went back around the corner to a coffee shop. Now, at last, I was sure I would be able to pay for something. But what did I find? On the door of the restaurant was a sign that read "Come in for a free cup of coffee." We placed our orders for the coffee and while waiting, noticed that on the counter was a plate piled high with chunks of delicious iced chocolate cake. "Please help yourself to our complimentary cake," invited the waiter.

The coffee, the cake and the conversation were all delightful and the minutes flew by unnoticed but, eventually, I drifted back to the car. I imagined that there would still be about twenty minutes on the meter, giving me time to nip across the road and browse the shelves of Book City, but when I hit the button it showed "Expired." Quickly, I looked to the car windscreen, expecting to find a parking ticket, but lo and behold, nothing! As I drove home, I reflected on the last few hours. Despite being prepared to spend money at every stage, fate had declared that this Friday was Freeday.

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