Wednesday, November 14, 2007

6 months without driving...

My day started with going to a Court House in Fanling. It was an indeed a fine day with sunshine and breeze. It was a day that my driver license was taken away for a period of six months for the observation of a speeding charge. My license will be reinstated in mid May.

I felt bad initially when I was caught. However slowly I accepted it after I got the court summon. I checked around people and all the legalities and it seemed to me there was no way to cut corner. I was faced a penalty of 12-month driver license suspension.

I got lucky because of a fault of preparation by the police prosecutors in a case much earlier that morning. The judge had reprimanded the malpractice of the prosecutor. So when it was my case the prosecutor skipped all the supporting details and only listed the basic fact. I was sentenced to a fine and a six-month license suspension with immediate effect.

Joy! I got lucky. Quickly answering a few questions of the judge on my speeding incidence I walked away gracefully without a hesitation. Did I feel guilty about what I did? Well, should I be? It is just a day in my life. In ten or twenty years there will be little or no significance of it.

The question now is to face a lifestyle without driving. My wife is still driving when we share our journey. It has been more than 20 years without public transportation as the means of commuting to work and places. So I resort to public transportation - bus and MTR. So far so good (as of two months later when this essay was written in early Jan 2008). Do I miss driving? Honestly it is in between not a whole lot and not at all. Do I feel itchy about driving? Not at all. I have been sick of driving for so many years so taking a break like this, in my personal opinion, is really a nice thing. I feel my life, while mingling with the general public, is then more three-dimensional. I have to admit that there are at least 2 hours each day I lost on getting myself from one place to another, which I find I could do something else if I am not driving.