Finally, I too get to moan about the cost of parking in Barnet!

I don't drive, but my significant other does. This week we have a young visitor and we wanted to take her to rhyme time at the community centre in West Hendon.

Blogger Miss Fezance (oh, you didn't know about her?) has compiled a valuable chart comparing the prices for parking in various places in High Barnet. It would be great to have these for all parts of the borough (no, I'm not volunteering).

At West Hendon we parked in the council's Perryfield Way pay-and-display car park because we were worried about being late. £3 for 90 minutes, £4 for up to three hours! Anyway, we could have saved our money because there were loads of free parking spaces around the West Hendon estate, with restrictions between 10-11am only. (Is it a Controlled Parking Zone? I have looked on the Barnet council website but can't find a list.)

And, then, would you credit it, after we had raced to the community centre, we found it padlocked up. Some nice guys from Barnet Homes came over and told us that the woman who had been due to come and do the rhyme times (two sessions on Tuesday) had phoned up to say she wasn't doing it today, but tomorrow.

We drove (naturally) instead to Brent Cross shopping centre, parked for free... and forked out a small fortune to stumble about in one of the soft-play areas at Topsy Turvy World. I feel like a true Barnetonian now! And I have an inkling of what it would like to be blessed by parenthood.