Parking Tickets, The Book of a Thousand Days, and Amy's 4-on-4 Tournament

A collection of thoughts today for my lovely readers (if that is anyone...) First on my list:

1) Parking tickets. A few weeks ago, I went to a volleyball game in Dundee (a nearby city). We parked in a Lidl parking lot (it is a cheap German grocery store.) Anyway, the game was supposed to last an hour, and the store lot said that the parking limit was 1.5 hours. We figured that we would be ok, and there wasn't any other place to park (we didn't know the area very well), so we left our cars. The game was late, and we ended up being there for 2 hours + we went into the store for 20 - 30 minutes. Everything seemed to be ok.

A few days later, there was a parking ticket that showed up in my mail. It was for 45 pounds (that's $90 for those in the US!) if paid by April 1st, and the rate went up increasingly after that (first to 70 pounds and then more!) It was from a private company. I guess they CCTV (video tape) your EVERY move. I felt fairly violated by the prospect... I ended up paying the ticket. I figured it would be better just to clear my name. I do have 1.5 more years here. I don't want to get on the bad side of the law, well, not yet anyway!

2) The Book of a Thousand Days - Emily said that she liked it, but wouldn't read it again. I liked it. I think that it was an easy read, and I read the second half in one day (well, one night... I stayed up until 3:30 AM). I guess every little girl wants to be a princess and when you work hard your whole life, you hope good things happen to you. Honestly, the book made me cry, maybe because it was late at night, maybe because I was really tired from so much basketball, but maybe because I want a fairy tale ending. :)

3) Amy's 4-on-4 basketball tournament - I know, it sounds a little vain, but I am actually very excited about it. I am organizing this basketball tournament for the women in Scotland. I have been emailing and advertising like crazy. I have a website I created and everything. http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~wbbclub/tournament.html. Please keep your fingers crossed that it is successful and that all goes well!