Yesterday amongst the post was an official looking letter from the Centraal Justitiee Incasso Bureau. As anything official looking always means trouble in Holland I was hoping that it would have RC’s name on it Unfortunately this was not the case and I handed it over to RC for him to open as all the letters arrive in Dutch that exceeds my primary school vocabulary.

RC: Ooooooohhhhhhh (laughter) it’s a speeding ticket.

Me: Really, dang, when was it I’m sure you must have driven my car that day.

RC: No it was you coming home from work, look it was at 3:56pm.

Me: Yes but when was it because you always go over the speed limit.

RC: The 24th of September

Me: That was a Saturday wasn’t it??? (counting on fingers and praying it was a weekend)

RC: No, that was a Monday – my birthday was the 21st which was a Friday.

Me: But…but….

RC: (laughter) You went 4km over, its for 14 euros – the world’s smallest speeding ticket (smug laughter)

So upstairs we went with RC laughing and me trying to figure out exactly where it was I got caught and how many more there would be.

Speeding tickets in Holland are very strange items. You do not get points on your drivers license but instead only the fine, which you can just quickly pay and forget about. You never have to accept blame, sign on a dotted line or even confirm who was driving the car. You just pay and move on.

So common speeding tickets obviously are I even got a free bookmark telling me the practical reasons of why I should slow down while driving including that it consumes less petrol and therefore is better for the environment.

You also get a huge amount of time to pay the bill. This speeding ticket doesn’t have to be paid until the beginning of December.

So throwing the ticket on the front room table with a mental reminder to pay it later I texted my friend who also lives in Holland to tell her of my first speeding ticket ever. The response I got back…

‘Uh oh, Resident Cloggie No. 2 just got a 23euro ticket too’