Flexing hydrangeas.
Melbourne
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Adoption Certificate for Nellie, the Daily Thread numbat (with thanks to @Catfish)
Today on our drive to Christchurch we got acquainted with Brian FM. Brian is our soul mate. π
We need a Brian here in Melbourne, only, taking playlists sent in by people.
So. This morning we find out that the awesome manager will no longer be leading our team.
As I mentioned a bit earlier today, she's the main reason I've stuck it out.
Let's see where the new year will lead. Probably out of this place.
Have you ever seen a more majestic breakfast?
240g steak, 1 avocado, one smallish zucchini, 200g mushroom, two runny yolk eggs. Butter, salt, pepper. And now I won't eat until tomorrow! I also won't get hungry til then either
spoiler
Staffy got stuck last night. No idea how she managed this one, sheβs never put the blanket over her head before.
Gosh the internal review process for traffic fines is such a crock of shit.
I'm challenging a red light camera fine as I think it was incorrectly issued - my car crossed the stop line when the light was yellow, then it turned red and the cameras went off. You have to cross the stop line after the light has turned red to commit the offence (at least that's my reading of the law). Wrote a detailed review application with reasons, my recollection of the situation, referring to the photo evidence you can access etc, all I got back is "we are satisfied the offence was committed". That's it. Pay up or go to court.
I'm in this crap position of having only my recollection of the situation to rely on. I can't prove my car was in the intersection when the light was still yellow outside of pointing to the police photo which shows exactly this. But that wasn't good enough for the review, so it's probably not good enough for court either. It's a really expensive fine too. Feels like guilty until proven innocent rather than the other way around.
I've been much more careful since this fine, the light goes yellow I'm stopping. I don't trust those fixed cameras one bit.
Ooh - I have first-hand experience with this! I had green, but needed to stop because a pedestrian was crossing the intersection illegally somewhere in Hawthorn. I was over the line, but not 100% over the line. When the pedestrian cleared the way, I continued and the camera went off. Your whole car needs to be over the line when the light turns red. The flash goes off the same millisecond, there is zero grace on that.
I challenged, and had to go to court. Explained what happened and the magistrate and he agreed that I was not breaking the law. I can't find the outcome term online now - I'm at work and don't have time to research it. I can explain what happened in layman's terms though:
When you challenge the offense, you are saying the police made a mistake. That you shouldn't have been issued an infringement. The police will fight you in court over that.
In my case, I was given a verdict that basically meant "person is guilty but there are extenuating circumstances", and I didn't need to pay the fine etc. It did cost me a day off work, though
If you are saying your front tyres were over the line, so you're not guilty, I don't think that'll fly. Your whole car has to be over the line when it turns red. In my case, they could see I was doing like 5-10km/h when the light turned red, I obviously wasn't zooming through. So while the photo didn't show the pedestrian, they believed me.
This is really helpful, thank you - tells me that I should just pay the fine. The time, stress and anxiety of challenging the police isn't worth it for me. The front tyres were over the line on red but from what I've read, with fixed camera fines, part of the car being over on red means no offence.
Fell asleep splayed out on the bed no blankets and in the middle of the night woke up shivering cold. Good times.
It appears I have a cold on my last day here. π The good news is my fam will look after me real well. π
This is it. One more day between me and holiday (except for whatever little bits I will inevitably need to finish off in the morning.
Yyyeeeeaaaah...