Breaking the ice...

Ok so…..

This is my first ever blog post. There are lots of things I plan to talk about on here that interest me, I love, I hate, annoy me, inspire me and that I’m passionate about. Those things will become apparent in the subsequent postings.

For the mean time though I thought it would be mildly amusing (that’s what I’m going for at least) to tell you about a run in I had with the law. Now I am a law abiding citizen of this country so this was a first for me and I surprised myself with how I handled it.

So to paint the picture that is this story. I was driving home from one side of the town I live in to the other. It was a dark cold winter’s night (an owl hooted somewhere as I passed a small wooded area, ha). So cold my rear window had fogged up and the visibility wasn’t great. Being late I decided the roads were clear and for me to push my luck and break the speed limit wouldn’t hurt.

Let me just say by break the speed limit, I don’t mean I was doing 100 in a 30mph zone, more like 50 in a 40.

Suddenly behind me sirens ring out and blue lights begin flashing. My initial reaction is they must want me to get out of their way. Oh no I was being pulled over. Panic sets in.

I pull over and don’t know what to do. Do I get out do I stay in the car? The officer approaches my window which I roll down and asks me to step out of my vehicle. I move to the path where he asks me if I had consumed alcohol that evening and whether I was aware of the speed I was going. I had a bottle of beer with my dinner I explained. The office then asked me to do a breathalyzer test. The level was predictably low. As I mentioned I had had one and when driving limit myself to one only and never exceed the drink drive limit.

At this point his female co-worker stepped out of the car to question me further whilst he checked the details I had given. Insurance, was it my vehicle, did I have any previous convictions.

All that I could think was I’m stuffed here. This is three points how silly am I !

Then out of nowhere I decided told the female officer that I knew I was speeding as I had just had an argument with my girlfriend (I was single) and was in a rush to get home. I knew I shouldn’t have been driving in that manor but the circumstances where exceptional and I promise I will never speed again. By some miracle, perhaps I looked upset, I likely looked tired; the female officer took pity on me and my fabricated story. She let me off with a warning as I hadn’t “lied” and she believed it was a one off and I was sorry for it. I could not believe my luck.

I drove away slowly after getting back in my 1.1litre saxo (young man’s cheap runaround) and after a mile or so the police pulled off. I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face for the remainder of the evening. Bear in mind in every situation, if I do something wrong, it always backfires on me. If I lie about anything, break one rule or other, I get found out. I’m a terrible liar and couldn’t act whilst at school. This for me was a victory. I have never tried to get away with it the same way since as I haven’t been pulled over. I also don’t recommend you try it. The fact is I got away with the situation perhaps because I had no previous convictions, perhaps because the officer had had an argument with her partner or perhaps because it was late and they didn’t want to deal with the paperwork. Whatever the reason, I escaped the points and a fine and played the lottery the next day. I didn’t win of course or learn anything from it. I try to be a responsible driver all of the time and try to tell this story to people. Not to inspire them to flaunt the laws of the road, not to brag about my apparent temporal gift of the gab, but to break the ice, this, is hopefully what I have done.

Ps I hear if you are caught in the same situation claiming you have the runs and are desperate for the loo works, or apparently it did for Sir Alex Ferguson once, so the pub gossip goes.