Notes From The Road

[ 5 February 2008, 11:31 ]

[Guest post by Audrey.]

For those who don’t know, I’m actually away from Melbourne and the iCiNG bowl for a little while. I’ve taken a couple of weeks off work so I can go help out some friends at the Big Day Out, and my friend and I decided to road trip it back to my hometown of Adelaide for the show there.

I thought I’d share a quick anecdote with you about something that happened on the drive over, as I think it’s the perfect example of why you should be trying to be a nicely dressed, polite, upstanding-pillar-of-the-community type of guy at all times.

Somewhere near the Victoria/South Australia border, a police car came up over the horizon towards us. Just when we got nearby, he flashed his lights and whooped his siren for us to pull over. Yup, I’d been picked up for speeding. Evidently Australian police cars now have some sort of sensor thing up on the roof and can detect the speed of oncoming traffic, or something like that. So be warned, drivers!

Now, you must keep in mind that being me, of course I was still wearing a nice outfit, despite the fact I’d been cramped in my car for ten hours in thirty-degree heat. Most guys would be sweating it out and drinking cans of Coca-Cola while driving in their stubby shorts, flip-flops and a wifebeater singlet. On the contrary, both myself and my friend were still comfortable, but not looking like disgusting slobs. I had some comfortable high-top Nike sneakers, my favourite jeans, and a simple white shirt with my messed-up-by-the-wind hair hidden under my grandpa’s old grey trilby.

The policeman asked me to step out of the car and we had a little chat. He asked me why I was speeding, I explained it was just an oversight and apologised… you know, the usual. In my head, I told myself that frankly, the guy had every right to pull me over. I was speeding. That’s against the law. It was time to accept responsibility for my actions, and not be all freaked out and nervous and make stupid excuses that I was sure the policeman had heard a million times before.

He was a nice guy though. And after talking a while, he told me that although I had crossed the ‘technical’ speed to warrant a fine (I was doing 118kph in a 110kph zone), he was only going to issue me a warning. No fine. No deduction points on my license. Essentially just a slap on the wrist, and he sent me on my way.

Chalk it up to guardian angels or whatever, but I’m convinced that his attitude to me and his decision to let me off was based purely on the fact that I was polite, not scruffy, sensible and — to put it bluntly — not an asshole about the whole thing. Too many times you hear stories of guys putting up a fight or getting really defensive when pulled over by the police, despite the fact they have actually broken the law. I guarantee if I’d been some sloppy, smart-ass, dirty guy I’d be holding a sizeable fine in my hand, instead of this mere precautionary notice.

I guess the lesson here is that first impressions do count. While most of my advice to you all will be to dress how you want and to embrace your own personal style, you need to always be prepared, and you definitely need to know where the line is in regard to pushing boundaries. There’s always a time when you have to ‘play the game’ and make sure that you are respectable, respectful and downright sensible.

And like I always say — being a proper gentleman isn’t a summer retreat or something you turn on and turn off. You need to embrace your gentlemanly ways and keep it up all the time.

Manners and politeness should come naturally, and this is a great example of why it needs to happen.

Drive safe, kids.