I find myself saying "when in Rome....." so many times to explain behavior I find myself doing that I would never do in America. I would give you some examples, but my mom reads this, and she would call me, and I would get into trouble.
So I will tell you a story about Rob. His mom reads this too, but she is used to his kind of trouble.
Last week Rob had to go into the provincial town for the day to take care of some things. While he was there, he decided to take care of the yearly car inspection/registration things that must be done. The previous week he had paid the insurance for another year on the car and found out in the process that he had some speeding tickets. Who knew?
Where we live there are cameras at random places that will just snap your picture, record your speed and send you a text message telling you of the ticket. Rob changed his phone number after registering a year ago, so he hadn't received any of these notifications. Not good.
Rob found out he had SEVERAL tickets. So last week when he went to the provincial town to pay them he was told that he had 15 points on his driving record, and to keep driving he could only have 12. The lady then asked him if he wanted to take his test again or did he have a friend he could give the points to? What? You can give your points away? Just like that? He told her he would be back.
In the parking lot he had noticed several men milling around his car and generally loitering in the parking lot. He decided to find one of them and ask their advice. The man he found looked at him and said, "Let's get in your car and talk." Two men jumped in the back seat and the conversation went something like this, "Pay us a fee of the tickets, plus a little bit more and we will get rid of your tickets, your record will be clean. Oh and we can take care of your inspection as well."
In a country where red tape is the norm and if you need to get anything done, you should plan for it to take days of running around for the right paperwork, fees, different offices, the right people not being in the office, etc.....Rob got the whole thing taken care of in 2 hours. He was happy and pleased for the whole process to be finished. And he got the guy's card if any of my friends ever need any assistance.....
When in Rome.....
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6 comments:
I thought I had heard it all...
You're right we're used to this kind of trouble (as you've been witness!)! Classic Rob!
I had forgotten the incident where Rob and I were coming back from Kentucky with two used buses! Rob got a ticket for "following too close" ("drafting"), Donna said it was my fault (probably rightly so) because "I was the adult, and I let him do it"! In an attempt to keep it off his driving record, I called the DA in the county in question, to see if we had any options. When I got through talking to him and hung up, I realized----I think I just bribed the DA (NOT my intention!)!!!!!
I may read everything but that doesn't mean I "get it!"
I may read every thing but that doesn't mean I would "get it!"
I guess "giving your points" to someone else is their rendition of going to driving safety class. Rob sat through several of those to clear his record.
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