Stuck In the Carpark!!!

Tuesday I went to one of the MANY malls (Great World City) here in Singapore to pick up my new glasses (Sarah Palin glasses....I might add!!!!) 95% of the parking here is underground in a "carpark" or what we call a parking garage because there is NO room on the island and every inch of space is precious. All of the carparks are very clean , well lit and not like the scary dark ones in the US. But of course it cost to park in the carparks, so every car is equipped with what they call an IU (don't know what it stands for...I'll have to find that out...asked a taxi man the other day and he didn't know). An IU is similar to our PikePass in Oklahoma except that it is a device you slide a money card in and out of...some carparks are automatic where the barrier arm lifts when the IU is read and others you have to insert the card into a slot and then the barrier arm lifts....so as we are leaving (thinking is not an automatic carpark) I put the card into the machine and expect the barrier arm to lift and we'll be on our way...but the dreaded message "ERROR" comes up, so I try putting the card in a different direction...nothing...put it back in the IU in the car to make sure it has money on it...it does...hmmm!!! By this time the cars behind me are about 6 to 10 deep...thankfully there was another exit lane beside me and the cars could pull over there and exit and only one person honked at me...no one offers to help...so I continue trying the card every which way I can think of in the machine...still nothing. Mind you, I've seen this happen to other people and always been sooo inconvenienced...but YIKES it's happening to me!! Finally I push the intercom button and ask the attendant for help...he says wait a minute and he'll send someone to help...well about that time I start to wonder if it really is automatic because it just doesn't make sense that I have money on the card and the arm is not lifting...so I put the card back in the IU in the car and sure enough the arm lifts!!!!!!!! Oh well....such as life!! Maybe next time I'll be more helpful if I see it happen to someone! My nerves were shot when we got home so I had a glass of Dr. Pepper to come them down!!!!