sirsimplysaw.com – one breath at a time

Today 23rd December 2010 (it should be 23rd Dec 2009, thanks Boss Banana for pointing that out ) mark a very very special day to me, is not because it is the eve of the Christmas Eve. Well today marks my 1 year anniversary of not driving a vehicle, can you imagine it one whole year ME not driving. Driving was really like big part of me, I think I definately drove more frequent than I sending text to a girl, partly because I am a sad and lonely young man without much life. Ahha, who cares. Anyway honestly I do enjoy driving very much when the traffic is light and when the atmosphere is nice but the high price of petrol do take some part of fun away from driving.

Before I start my lame story let me just briefly explain to you how the insurance for car works over here in UK. Unlike in Malaysia when a car is insured anyone with a proper driving license can drive it, if you have one car in your household, you dad can drive it, your mum can it, your grandma can drive, your sis can drive it, your aunty can drive and even your house dog can drive it provided it can drive and has a valid driving license.

Here is a little bit different, lets say if your household own a car lets call it Civic, if you dad wanted to drive Civic he must have insurance to drive Civic if your mum want to drive Civic then she must have ANOTHER insurance to drive Civic. If your household has 2 cars namely Civic and Altis, if your dad wanted to drive both Civic and Altis he must have one insurance to cover him while driving Civic and another insurance to cover him while driving Altis so he must have 2 insurance policy in order to drive both cars. So in short the insurance here indirectly cover the driver instead of the car.

How much you are paying for your insurance policy depends on 3 main criteria :-
1.) where you stay
2.) your driving experience and age
3.) your car type

Insurance policy can be very expensive if you are younger than age of 25 , if the area you are staying in consider high risk in crime rate and if you are driving brand new expensive car. Sometimes the insurance policy can cost you as much as £ 2000 per annum even though the market value of your car is just £ 1000 simply because you are consider high risk driver/owner. Thats why there are plenty of drivers out there in UK especially those immigrants are driving without proper insurance cover.

So why didnt I drive for one whole year ? Basically this day last year I was driving my boss car without proper insurance. When it isnt your day , it just isnt your day. Somehow some police patrol car that patrolling the street RANDOMLY stop my vehicle to check my details. Unfortunately even though I am legally permitted to be in this country I was driving without proper insurance cover so I have to sit behind a police car while they take down my details and stuff, mind you I was sitting in BMW  police car so I dont really mind. Actually my boss wanted to include me in the insurance to drive the car for that day but it cost £ 2,500 just to cover me for one freaking day. Any sane man would know thats not the sane things to do , I mean even the operator on the line giggles when she saw the figure.

Anyway they towed my boss car away and weeks later I received a letter from the Magistrate of Manchester asking me to attend a court hearing  for that driving offence. I was devastated at that time because according to the police officer there will be no further action taken against me but just tow away the vehicle I was driving. All the time I been a very obedient and nice citizen in Malaysia and just a few months in the UK I was already been summon to court, ahha something must not be right here. Since driving without proper insurance is such a norm over here, I can see ten of thousand or even hundred of thousand of this cases happening in UK every year so I was given an option to plead guilty by writing without needing to attend the court.

In order to avoid all the hassle and harsher penalty I plead guilty by writing and was fine a considerable amount of money for such a minor offence . They had my driving license for a couple of months apparently some guy forget to post it back to me and some guy accidentally archive my license. So since the day I was stopped by the police officer which is on the 23rd December 09 I havent been driving simply because it is just not worth it.I mean cars are cheap here, I can easily get a second hand car for less than £500 but the insurance simply too blardy expensive. I do miss the feeling of driving but I guess it just have to wait till I am back in Msia.