Why exactly three months flying by? Let me tell you. I am a criminal. I have broken the law and for two years I'll have a criminal record. I confess, I plead guilty as charged! If I break the law again I'll be in serious trouble! I might even end up in jail. So what did I do to become a criminal?? In Switzerland it's easy. You take your car, drive a provincial road, miss out on the sign indicating the maximum speed and drive a bit faster than the assumed maximum speed limit. That was not a good plan. I drove that particular provincial road, assumed the maximum speed was 100 km/h as it was two lanes in both directions and added "a safe over the limit number of km/h". Wrong! Absolutely wrong.
I got my picture taking with a bright red flash and knew I was too fast. At that time, I didn't know how much too fast. That is, until the official letter of the police was handed over by the receptionist at the office with the words: "I thought I'd give it to you personally." I took the letter out of the envelope and my heart skipped a few beats. The "alledgedly" 100 km/h provincial road was an 80 km/h road and the "safe over the limit number of km/h" was way out of range. Ooops!
Okay, the damage was done, so there was no other alternative than to wait for the call of the police with the kind invitation to the companie's Director to come by the police station to identify the driver. What the police didn't know at that time was the companies Director and the person to be identified were one and the same person. Namely ME!
I got the call, went to the police station for the identification of the driver (myself!), and every scenario I played in my head was scattered into small pieces once I got the photo in which I had to identify the driver. My God, the picture was so darn clear that I could have used it for my passport. Okay Mr. Policeman, guilty as charged. I had to answer a three page questionnaire to indicate income, fixed monthly cost and variable cost. The sum of all would be the basis for the calculation of the fine. Ouch!
The kind officer at the desk informed me that the punishment for the serious violation of traffic rules in this case would lead to a minimum of three months loss of my drivers license and an unknown fine. The fine would be calculated based on the monthly income. The only thing I thought at the moment of filling out the questionnaire was: " Is there anything else I can list as fixed cost to get my income down?" I couldn't think of anthing else anymore, signed the statement of "truth and honesty", and could only hope for the best.
A few months later,the court verdict came by registered mail. I took the verdict out (five pages, 5 darn pages) and started reading. What a relief!! No mention of losing my drivers license. "Just" a fine of the price of two suits, shirts and ties of my favorite brand and a probation of two years with the possibility of going to jail for at least five days, pay another amount of money at the price of four suits, shirts and ties of my favorite brand. I was relieved. Feeling like a winner, I called my boss with the "good" news.
The feeling didn't last long. Two days later, I received the letter from the police with measures taken to punish me a bit more for this traffic violation. I was summoned to send in my drivers license for a period of three whole months. OMG! Being without my license for three months could be a threat to the continuation of my job. Luckily, my boss took it quite well. We set up a three month schedule for customer visits, defined who in the company would drive me to visit customers, and how I would get to the office and back home every day. It all worked out well and let me tell you, I could used to being driven around all the time! Now I have one more week left. Beginning of May, I get my drivers license back,and yes, I'm starting to itch. It will be quite strange to get into the car on the drivers side again... So, I planned on having two days in the home office on the 4th and the 5th of May to make sure I don't miss the postman when my drivers license comes back via registered mail.
There has been a good side to the whole thing:
- I got to the office early every morning. Pick up at 07.15 hrs by Manuel (Thank you Manuel!)
- I got home around 17.30 hrs every day I worked from the office. Driver: again Manuel (once more many thanks Manuel!)
- As I got home early anyway,I walked (yes, I walked) to the small shopping center in our village to do the groceries. About one hour of "outdoor activity"
- I enjoyed this daily "break" before continuing my work from home
- I will continue working this way as it is very relaxing
- CS took over all the driving during weekends, our holidays in Austria and our last trip to Holland, which was quite relaxing for me!
One more week to go and I'll be fully independent again. Even though this kind of independance is relative and the three months passed by in a rush, I am looking forward to driving my new car myself again. Hey, I only had it for two months beforeI had to send in my license. Can you blame me?
19 comments:
holy crap CS!! remember good ol'Canada and its flat rate fines and no criminal record for speeding with demerits?? lol... that is HARSH!
Blimey! That was harsh punishment. Goodness me! Extreme. I'm glad you're out of it, although you did enjoy being pampered by Manuel. ;-)
Xmichra: we'll be visiting Canada again this summer. It will be fun meeting up with the family and friends again. However, there will be a lot of CRUISE CONTROL!
BTW, it was me, OX, losing the license. CS still has hers ;-)
Swenglish: it was harsh. I tell you. Paying the fine was like okay to me if I could have kept my license. And yes, my colleague Manuel has really been a loyal driver. We'll have a big BBQ at our place in July. It's also a way of thanking the people for taking good care of me in those three months.
OX - Did you have to list household income, or just your income? The reason I ask is because I'm wondering what would happen if I got caught speeding in a rental car. Since I don't have a job, I have no income. It hardly seems fair that Mrs. TBF's income would be used for the calculation since she wouldn't have been at fault. Plus, since we don't have a car, giving up my license wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Maybe they'd just throw me in jail.
BTW... I'm happy you'll have your license back in a few days.
TBF: I had to state the household income. It started out with my income and then the list of fixed monthly cost. At the end the officer asked for the income of my partner, CS. The court verdict however, was merely based on my income.
In your case they have nothing to take. They might just throw you in jail as the alternative to the monetary punishment is to sit it out by a 100 SFr. / day. Imagine, you break the law and you get free housing, food, sports. Mmmm, now that I think of it, it does have something attractive. BUt...how do I tell my boss? :-)
Man! I'd be royally p***ed off. Oh well. It happens to the best of us. So glad it wasn't anything worse!
TBF: I've been thinking about your comment, and I think: 1) Mrs. TBF would either have to pay, or 2) you'd have to pay your dues working for the city, f.e. cleaning streets, etc.
Ginnie: He was at the moment, but adapted quite well with being chauffeured around... Except for smetimes being a "back seat driver" ;)
Wow...that is harsh, they should implement those rules here in the US then we wouldn't have so many speeders....
It's amazing to think that they gauge your "fine" based on your income!
BTW, I'm SO HAPPY to have finally met you and CS and person after all this time. It was lovely to see your smiling faces and wrap my arms around you. Thank you so much for coming up to Amsterdam - it really made the trip all that more special!
Michael, I had to swallow a bit when I saw the court's verdict. But I couldn't change it anyway. So therefore I just paid the fine and decided to forget about it :-) It was GREAT meeting you. We hope you enjoyed your stay in Amsterdam and had a good flight back.
Oh yeah, there will be a next time!
I can't believe how harsh that is! You seem to be taking it well, though.
First, I must apologise for not keeping up with the news from Switzeyland (as my son used to call it).
Next.... naughty naughty! Speeding is a no-no, but I am surprised at the harsh penalty. When we were on holiday in France a couple of years ago, my 2 sons took the rental car and went to Switzeyland for the day.... and did some speeding.... good thing they didn't get caught, I might never have seen them again.
Are you and CS going to be anywhere near Toronto this summer????
Jay - it's not taking it well. It's resting in the situation. Can't change it anyway. The good thing about however, was CS got to drive. That means I could drink :-)
Ex-Shammi - It is a harsh punishment. But the good news: today I received a notice from the post office that I can come by on Saturday to pick up a registered letter. I checked the sender and know it's from the police. I'll have my license back on Saturday morning! And I promise, I'll be driving careful and decent :-)
Wow oh wow oh wow... Hey what's the new car by the way?? I really want to get a car soon.. But vacation took over...
Hi. Like the template you're using. Is it possible to dwonload from www. somewhere? thanks.
ET: It's an Audi A4, but he got the fine when he was still driving the Volvo
Dacendecy: Thanks for visiting :) The template as such, I did on blogger, but if you mean the picture on top, then that's one that I took. If that's what you want, I'm sure you should be able to do a right mouse click on the photo and save the pict.
thanx.. :) I mean the template. I actually went into the blogspot template HTML and played around with teh setting to get what I wanted. :) now to somehow introduce more multimedia into the site! :)
Paying the fine was like okay to me if I could have kept my license. And yes, my colleague Manuel has really been a loyal driver. We'll have a big BBQ at our place in July. It's also a way of thanking the people for taking good care of me in those three months. Work from home India
Its been 8 months since my husband returned back to me all thanks to Dr. OKO for his help. My husband left me for his boss at the office, she tricked him with what I don’t know that one day my husband came home to say he will be traveling for a seminal with his boss and that was the last day he came home. For one year I have been battling with my marriage, my husband don’t want to see me or our child non send money. Until I read about Dr. Oko’s great work online, so I contacted him for an advice and after my encounter with oko, behold my husband came home begging for forgiveness. I forgave him and we moved on but the most surprising thing was that my husband said his boss threatened to sack him if he stop seeing her but everything turn out to be promotion, just as Dr. OKO said it was going to be in the end. I came in here to share it just in case there’s anyone who is going through such or heartbreaks OKO will help you out. Contacts: okotemple@live.com (+2347084878384)
Hi viewers, I'm posting this Because i found lots of people having marriage problems which I also experienced. I recently found help from a man called Dr. Oselumen he did a great job that made my man fell back in love with me again after ten months of separation. I want you to know there are fake online spell Dr .s if someone out there needs help, can email this great spell caster, droselumen@gmail. com check or connect with him on WhatsApp +2348054265852. He will give you the best result.
CONTACT HIM FOR ANY KIND OF HELP,MONEY SPELL,LOTTERY SPELL,PREGNANCY SPELL,DIVORCE SPELL,SPELL TO STOP COURT CASE AND WIN ANY COURT PROBLEM,DEATH SPELL,BUSINESS SPELL,HEALING SPELL,SPELL TO REMOVE BLACK MAGIC OUT FROM YOUR LIFE,FAMILY AND MARRIAGE PROBLEM.
Post a Comment