Last weekend I had an appointment to have my eyes tested at Specsavers. Getting there did not particularly concern me as I’d been there before when I was fixed up with my hearing aids. As always I allowed myself plenty of time to drive and to park the car.
I was pleasantly surprised to find plenty of spaces in the car park but apprehensive when I saw a brand new pay point. I’d taken the precaution of bringing some loose change with me and I also had my credit card but my heart sank when I read that payment was only possible through something called RingGo.
Apparently I needed to load an App onto my phone,
This caused me some concern but I thought I could manage as my granddaughter had once explained about Apps and had showed me how to load them onto my phone. Indeed I often used an App to get the weather forecast before embarking on my daily stroll.
Without difficulty, I found ‘settings’ on my phone and located the App store. Pleased that I was making progress, I typed in RingGo and wonder of wonders I found a tab which read ‘Load RingGo’. Now genuinely pleased with myself I started to load the App but suddenly hit a brick wall. I needed to insert my Apple ID and I hadn’t a clue what that was. I tried a couple of the passwords that I use but to no avail. I was stuck – my car was parked, I knew that the number plate would have been recorded and I knew there would be a hefty fine if I didn’t pay. But worse I wouldn’t be able to raise the barrier to get out. What was I going to do?
Unsurprisingly there was no car park attendant to ask for help but a smartly dressed young lady was passing who had a kindly expression on her face so plucking up courage I explained my predicament and asked her if she was able to help.
She smiled and said ‘Today is Sunday. Look – the top of the sign reads ‘Payment required Monday to Saturday. Sunday free’.
She was too polite to add – ‘You silly old duffer’ but that is what I knew I was.’
