A little yarn ....
My wife and myself planned a weekend away camping. The destination was the Great Ocean Road (for those not in Australia, it is one of, if not the best
ocean rd drives in the world - Google it and see for yourself)
My wifes sister arranged to house sit for us over the weekend, and as I was packing the car, the sister called at the last minute to say she couldn't
house sit.
Great! the whole weekend now ruined.
After a few minutes of ummming and arrrring we decided to go anywayz.
The drive there was awesome, as it always is on the Great Ocean Road. Got to our camping spot and began setting up camp. Low and behold in the BS of
the sister calling whilst I was packing, I went and forgot the tent
Great! now the weekend was well and truly stuffed.
We packed up our things into the car and I told my wife I planed to at least have some fun on the drive home, so she best close her eyes and take a
nap as I planned to drive my car hard.
I own a Nissan Skyline R32 GTR, if anyone knows their sports cars will know that the R32 GTR is one of, if not the best sports cars ever produced.
Twisty mountain roads are what that beast was made for, and I planned to make my drive home as enjoyable as possible.
So the stereo was turned up and AC/DC Highway to Hell was pumping through the sound system. Pure bliss, twisting and turning through the coastlines
mountainous trail.
Some time during the drive I happen to look in the rear view mirror - what do I see? 2 cops in their patrol car, lights flashing, siren blasting and
pointing at me to pull over.
Now I already knew I was a goner. I was speeding AND when safe, I was using both sides of the road on some corners that I could see ahead. But still a
no no and definitely a chargeable offense.
The cop gets out of his car and I could see he was PISSED OFF! Comes to my window and tells me to get out of the vehicle. takes me to the rear of the
car and says "do you know how fast you was traveling?" I aint gonna be a wanka and lie, so I bend the truth slightly and say "around 120kmh?" he
then asks me if I know what the speed limit is, I reply "sure, its 100kmh" he then says to me its 50kmh
I say "since when?" and he explains that during the Christmas season they change the speed from 100kmh to 50kmh due to the holidays and tourists.
Oh sh*t I am definitely 100% going to lose my license because going that much over the speed limit is an automatic disqualification.
Then he asks "do you have a valid reason for driving so fast?"
I stop for a moment and think of a cunning plan, definitely worth a shot as I am about to lose my license. So I say I do have a reason, though he
might not think of it as a good one. I ask him if I can open the boot of the car, he says ok and I open the boot. I say to him "you wil findl
everything for a weekend away in the boot except one thing" he uses his baton torch to poke around the boot and looks at me and says "did you forget
the tent?"
I pull my BEST sad and disappointed face I could muster, and then explain to the officer that if he had a wife like mine, and I explained she had this
weekend planned for months and I've gone and ruined it, that I will never hear the end of it and I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible so
I didn't have to listen to her bitch and moan ALL the way home, he looked at me with pity and said "you poor bugga" - "I'm married too"
Not only did he NOT cancel my license, he didn't even write me up a ticket AND he got a pen and pad out to draw me directions to the nearest town
where I could purchase a tent!
WHAT A TOP BLOKE!
The whole time I answer everything with Sir. I was polite, I treated him with respect and obeyed everything he asked me to do. No attitude, no
smartass remarks.
I was totally in the wrong, he could have thrown the book at me, but he was a decent person who understood my plight.
Even though, truth be known, my wife would NEVER nag and give me grief about forgetting the tent. I was speeding because I wanted to drive my car hard
on the best road in the world.
But a little bit of BS and ALOT of common courtesy goes a LONG way.
Be nice to the police, they are only doing their job.