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Moving has never been fun. Moving out of Hong Kong was hectic. Moving into London has never been more exciting! Nor will I ever forget.

Thus began a fateful day in the city of London. Tuesday 22.03.05 - the day we had to move to our new flat.

08:20
Fiance and I rented a Ford Transit to move from Clerkenwell to Camden.

09:00
Ford Transit parked outside residential area parking space. Fiance left me to feed parking meter before heading off to a meeting.

09:05
Fed parking meter with £2 (parking time 09:02 - 10:02) , got ticket to display on Ford Transit's window. Happy with the ticket display, I set off into the flat to do some serious packing.

10:30
Got too absorbed in the packing, only realised that parking time was running out. Pulled on my jumper and headed out to feed the meter again. The moment I opened the building door to look out for the Ford Transit, I found myself speaking aloud "where did the van go?!!!". The Ford Transit had disappeared!!! It is a van. It was parked outside. It was locked.

10:35
Ran up and down the street where the Ford Transit was parked. Ran around the corner, along the adjoining street to double check that we didn't accidentally park along that street... but still couldn't find the van! My brain was running through all possibilities how a van could disappear just into thin air. "Was it Houdini? Or perhaps we didn't actually pick up the van? Someone stole the van?" All sorts of strange ideas went pass. My pulse was racing, panic rose up my stomach rushing through my brain as seconds ticked.

10:40
In panic, also the only good idea I could come up with, I picked up my HK mobile. Could not care that I was dialling on roaming rate, I called my fiance.

10:50
Fiance came running down the street, did the same checks and double checked in those spaces which I hadn't. "Maybe it's been towed away?" he said. "Who would do that?" I asked. "The Camden council" said he. "??? How can they do that?! Why would they do that? I thought they only clamp cars or give fines?" said I.

11:00
In a frantic state, we called the building management people to check if they knew anything about the van's disappearance. After the phonecall, we confirmed that it had been towed away. So who do we contact? They don't know, nor do they help on this matter.

11:05
Ran through Camden Council's website. Located the contact number for parking fines, clamps removal and towed vehicles. We then called the number and checked. Confirmed they had the Ford Transit. It had been towed to the Camden Vehicle Pound in Kentish Town. And the fine to pay to release the vehicle came up to a total of £200! £100 for the fine, and £100 to pay for the fees on the towing. Now were we consulted before the vehicle was towed to the pound? Bloody blood suckers!

I think up to that point, you would have a good idea how things turned out eventually. While on the move to retrieve the van from the vehicle pound, many angry thoughts boiled on both our minds. One which did not quite got off my mind was a remark by my fiance "in a dysfunctional city where you get the most appaling public services, filthy streets, tube strikes, rail strikes and all... suddenly you have a parking fine mechanism that works fantastically!" now that is food for thought.

Within the time and space of 2 hours and 40 minutes, from 09:00 when we parked the van to 12:40 when we finally drove the released Ford Transit out of the vehicle pound, there must have been tonnes of parking fine attendants, clamp attendants, tow attendants lurking around every other corner of every other street that has public parking.

From a mere £4 that we were supposed to pay for parking, we ended up paying £200 to the Camden council. All because the poor Ford Transit was parked within a resident's parking space. There wasn't a clear sign in front of the building that those parking spaces were strictly for residents only. We didn't have a resident's parking permit, we had a regular parking ticket, we paid the parking fee, yet we still got fined!