The Straw That Broke The Camels Back

Oh dear, that didn't go well. I'm talking about yesterdays trip to the cinema to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The film itself wasn't bad - although possibly a little long in my opinion - but my 'customer experience' was poor and for the sake of a couple of extra pounds I'll be going elsewhere from now on.

Let me explain - living where I do I don't really have a 'local' cinema: it's a 35 minute drive to the nearest multi-screen. When I go to the cinema my preference is to reserve a specific seat in advance so as to be sure I'm comfortable with my view.

Realistically I have a choice of 2 cinemas within a shortish drive: cinema Y or cinema T ('names have been changed to protect the innocent') and, with money tight, I've been going to cinema Y recently because they are between £1 and £2 per ticket cheaper although 1) they don't allow me to book a specific seat and 2) they charge for parking (although you can reclaim up to £1.80 of the parking fee). Are you still with me? Good.

So, we got to the cinema about 20 minutes before the publicised screening time, parked, collected our film tickets and got a decent seat in the cinema. 'So far so good' I'm thinking. Twenty minutes - and some awful trailers - later the film started. Two hours and twenty minutes later, and with another Autobot v Decepticon fight underway, I realised that my 3 hour car-parking time had expired.

I've no idea what happened in the rest of the film as my mind was elsewhere - should I take a chance on a £65 overdue parking fine and enjoy the rest of the film or should I return to the car, renew my parking fee and come back to the film?

In the end I did neither - I sat there and willed the film to finish and then rushed back to the car to find, of course, that I hadn't been penalised.

Cinema T it is for me from now on.

As I said previously, I find blogging therapeutic, I'm feeling calmer now.