Carparking

I'm just enjoying the first real spat of late spring weather and funny enough, I'm thinking about shopping!  This time garden furniture, with a new Homebase store in Bodmin, and neighbors to think about its probably time I got some fencing and do the whole thing properly.  This interestingly enough brings me onto car parks.  If I go to homebase, I can park for free, if I go to Asda, not only can I park for free, but they send a little bus around to pick me up and take me home, for free.  If I go to Trago Mills in a pure moment of insanity, then it also costs me nothing to park, although all these places might well cost me something in terms of my stress levels when they are busy.  So its interesting to note that all these large stores provide free parking, while if I want to visit my small independent shops, it costs me £4.00 for over two hours in Truro, and in most other places several pounds for the day, even Daymar Bay costs me £3 to visit the beach - but then we aren't a nation that expect something for nothing - are we? So imagine my surprise last week when I visited Liskeard, to discover that if I park for one hour, it costs me £0.10 pence, yes thats right TEN PENCE!!!! and even better, if I live locally I can get a card, and it costs me £0.05 pence, FIVE PENCE, for one hour!!  As I wondered into the town, feeling exceptionally smug, and considerably richer than I would have been other wise, I found myself being pleasantly surprised, and not because several lads were taking it upon them selves to tell everyone in ear shot, how awful Liskeard was, but because the provision of offers was fantastic.  I found the little coffee shop where I had a meeting delightful, even though, I had to walk back up the road to the cash point because they didn't take cards, - where incidental my intake of cash was more than enough to pay for lunch, and buy me some fresh scollop's from the local fish shop.  Some pickled eggs, Cornish chocolate, a fair trade local shopping bag, and some Cornish goats cheese, receiving all purchases with a smile - and to top it all off, two tigers feet!  My all time favorite pastries, normally as far as I was aware only available from a tiny bakery in Lostwithiel, where they are always sold out - they really are that good, so I hope you can keep a secret otherwise my chances for purchases will be further reduced!  As I walked back to the car, I realised that instead of putting £4 into the council's pot, I had actually put my four pounds and some extra back into the towns local economy.  For every £10 that is spent locally, its worth £24 to the local economy.  That means that I was worth at least £48.00 to the local economy, on that day, and all because I only paid ten pence for the car park.  Makes you think, doesn't it!