It was around noon last Wednesday, and I was driving a rental car on the way going back to the office. It happened on a regional road where the speed limit is 80km/h. Clocked at 108km/h down the hill, a cop car which had been hiding on the side of the road came after me, flashed it red and blue lights, and I pulled over to the side of the road as a sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

Car in parking gear. Emergency light flashing. Engine off. Windows down. From my rear mirror, I saw the cop casually strolled towards my car.

"How are you doing sir?" he said.

"Good." I lied. How would you expect me to feel good? But any other answer would deem inappropriate. I handed over my license and the little package of documents from car rental to the cop.

"Do you have a clean record?"

"Yes." This time I told the truth.

"You are the first [car] I pulled over today."

After a short pause, I said, "Will I be the lucky one?"

"I will see what I can do." His response was no relief to me. With the license and the paper in his hands, he went back to his car.

The slaughtering process was far from quick and painless. It was at least 10 minutes before the cop got out of his car and approached me again, during which lots of thoughts crossed my mind. The last thing I wanted is to let my boss know I got a ticket again, only several days after he paid for my previous parking fine.

I kept my fingers crossed. 

"Your were speeding by 28km. But since it is your first time, I have reduced it to a plus 10…..instead of paying a $200+ fine and get 3 demerit, you will have to pay $35 and with no demerit points. You may take it to the court. But if you decide to take it to the court, you may be fined at the original fine… here is your license, and the ticket…. Drive safe."

That was relief. For some reason, I felt happy about it, as it was better than what I have anticipated.

I am glad at least I am not getting any demerit point. Tis just fine.

Afterword: As I got back onto the single-lane road again, the cop had no other route but to follow behind me. For those 15 or so kilometers which I was tagged, I switched on the "manual cruise-control mode", i.e. watching the speedometer every three seconds to ensure I was travelling at exactly 80km/h. Exactly 80km/h. And throughout my trip back to the office, my car crawled at the speed as restricted by the speed limit signs. Every driver passed me with a get-off-the-road-if-you-are-so-damn-slow look.

I installed Picasa 2 as my new photo organizer. It seems to a neat little program and let you search for photo fast. It was no surprise. Afterall, Google, who owned Picasa, is still the biggest player in search technology.

While the program is indexing all the pictures I have on my hard drive, I was browsing and came across this picture of two sisters (I believe they are twins) playing in a small playground in the Whistler’s "Market Place". They are like little angels. While the picture was taken on a trip to the West Coast of Canada in 2003, this is still one of the most beautiful picture I have seen (actually I think I took this picture, but I am not 100% sure).