When a photo is not so welcome...!

OK you guessed it - last month Manchester police wrote to tell me that they'd kindly taken a photo of me in my car; they even sent me a link to the photo on the web. How nice! Except that I wasn't so pleased about this myself, as they'd captured me in the act of doing 60 mph in a 50 limit.

This brought me out in a rash of shame, having had an unblemished driving licence for 45 years including nearly 35 years as a member of the Institute of Advanced Motorists (double shame). My wife and I both remember me suddenly saying (whilst overtaking on a dual carriageway), "Oh gosh, I hadn't realised there was a 50 limit here, I'd better slow down". Clearly I didn't do so in time!

In this situation the police give you 2 choices - a £100 fine and 3 points on your licence, or attend a Speed Awareness Course (for £85 and no points on the licence). A no-brainer really! So today I attended the course (taking this photo of a 50 limit sign for today's blip on the way!).

I didn't quite know what to expect - the course lasts 4 hours! In fact it was fascinating and highly informative - and also sobering. The course leaders were great and totally non-judgmental and involved us (22 miscreants) in interesting discussion. It was really more of a refresher in advanced driving than just speed awareness (although inevitably that figured quite large). So I actually enjoyed it.

I'll have to be careful now however - if I misbehave again within the next 3 years there's no alternative to a fine and licence points. So I'll be watching the speedo a bit more carefully from now on (but hopefully not so avidly that I bump into something!).

Such is life.

(Note: I can't blip the actual photo taken by the police as one is bound not to distribute any copies of the info on the website.)