I got up at 7am, and went and had a shower, then went and ironed my shirt, and finished putting my suit on.

I grabbed my folder, of paperwork, and then I got in the car, and my mate's stepfather in law gave me a lift to the court house. I got there at 8am, to find that it wasn't open yet.

I walked around the corner, and went into a little coffee shop, and I went through all the paperwork again. I finished my coffee, sat for a while, went back to the court house, it was still closed.

I went for a wander around, not many of the shops were even open, I wandered around until about 8.20am, and then went back to the court house again, it was still closed.

I was sick of wandering around, so I decided to just wait until it was opened. At about 8.30am, a guy came out of the office, and opened the door.

I went in to the front office with him, and explained that I was there for the summons, he looked up my details, and found me to be in court 1 this morning, and told me to go and wait in the waiting area.

I went and sat in there, and waited, and waited. More people came filtering in, and then the court opened at about 8.50am, and a whole bunch of people went in there, which I thought was strange, because no one had told us anything.

I waited a few minutes, and then at 8.55am I went in, since I was supposed to be in there at 9am, to find out what was going on.

I waited around, and then the police prosecutor had us all line up, and one at a time she asked who we were, the charge, found the file, and asked what we were pleading.

I got there, did all that, and told her that I was pleading guilty.

After that, we were all told to go out of the court room again, because there were too many people in there. I went out, and sat in the waiting room again.

A little while later, at about 9.30am, someone came out, and asked all the people who'd seen the prosecutor to go in there again, so I got up, and went back into the court room, and found a seat.

I sat and waited, while they went through a couple of cases in front of mine.

One was for a chick who'd been arrested, with drug charges, possession of morphine, and a few other things. She was asking for an adjournment, to get legal advice, and the magistrate told her that she'd had several weeks already, but gave her a month.

After that, a guy got up, who was there for a drink driving charge. He'd been pulled over, and found to be at 0.069 BAC. He was told that he was elligible for a restricted license, that allowed him to drive between work and home, and he needed to apply for that now. He said he couldn't be bothered, since he could just get his apprentice to do the driving.

The judgement was that he lost his license for 6 weeks.

The next case was drink driving as well. This guy had been picked up with a BAC of 0.223. The magistrate told the guy that he had obviously been "drunk out of his brain", and he received a 2 year ban, and a $2000 fine.

After that, the case was against an Aboriginal person, who was being charged with being a public nuisance, drunk in public, and vandolism, smashing a shop front or something. A solicitor got up, and said that he was representing the Aboriginal, and then the police prosecutor read out the allegations, and said that she was presenting no evidence, and the magistrate immediately said that all charges were dropped, and the case was dismissed.

How's that work? because you're an Aboriginal, and can get representation, for free no doubt, you can go around drunk, smashing up shop windows, and get away with it.

I was up next. I went to the stand. I think it was about 9.50am.

The read out my details, I had to confirm who I was. After that, I asked if I could say something, "your worship, may I say something?", and the magistrate got his back up, "I'll run the court thankyou!". Jesus. I apologised, and then the police prosecutor read out the charges.

They said something about there being one item of "history", and a sheet was given to the magistrate. The magistrate asked if I knew what it was, I said I did not, that I'd not seen the sheet, and then I was shown it, it was the speeding ticket offence I had received, in October, that caused the whole thing.

After that, I was allowed to speak, and I calmly explained that I had been working out of the state, which I had a letter from the temping agency to explain, the magistrate said he would take my word for that.

I continued, that I did not have a fixed address, have been living in a pub, and I have credit card records to show that, again, he said he would take my word for that.

I then explained that I had contacted Queensland Transport with an alternative mailing address, but it was not getting used, and then as a result the mail went to the wrong address, and that it was passed on to someone to give to me, who forgot, and that I had a letter from them to explain. Again, he said he'd take my word for that.

At this point he told me that I should have known that exceeding the speed limit by 20km/hour was a 4 point offence, and would result in the suspension of my 4 point license. I replied that I had thought it was a 3 point offence, though in all honesty, as far as I was concerned, it should have been a zero point offence, because no other fines I've got in the last 18 months since changing my license to QLD have ever gone interstate.

He wasn't interested in this, and told me that as a license holder, I was responsible for knowing the penalties of offences, and that I didn't need to receive any mail to be told that my license was going to be suspended. I'm also supposed to be psychic, and know when the suspension would start and run till apparently.

He then aked me what I was pleading, and I said that because of the expense and time involved with travelling to court, I was pleading guilty, to avoid having to come back, for a trial, or hearing, or whatever proceedings would occur if I was to plead not guilty.

I was then asked to confirm that I was pleading guilty off my own free will, and that I had not been coached or coaxed or something into pleading guilty, and I confirmed that I was pleading guilty of my own free will.

At that point the judgement was made, the magistrate said something like "let my record show that I have been convicted, and I lose my license for 6 months." I was dumbstruck.

He also told me not to apply for a license in NSW, because even though they can't pass interstate bans, they'll know if I do, and it will result in "consequences I don't want to know about", or some similar threat.

The police prosecutor asked if I had my license. I took it out, and put it on the table. She took it, I assumed to copy the license number off it or something. I asked if I could have my license, since it's my ID, and she said "No. It's gone.".

I collected my paper work, and I stepped away from the stand. I was just lost. I walked out of the court room. I felt sick.

I went to the front counter, and I asked the clerk if there was anything I had to do or sign before I left.

He asked what had happened, and I told him that I had been banned for 6 months. He asked if there was a fine, and I told him that the magistrate had not said anything about a fine. He said that was unusual, but that I would receive a letter in the mail, explaining the result of the conviction.

I then left the court house, stumbled down the stairs, not able to think straight. Some Bogan sitting outside the court house, smoking, asked if I was hot, since I was wearing a suit.

I walked across the road, to the pub. I went up to the bar, and asked for a drink. The chick checked her watch, it was just after 10am, so she was able to serve me. I asked if they weren't allowed to serve until 10am, and she confirmed that.

I took my drink, and I went and sat down. I just sat there. I couldn't do anything, or think about anything.

In the span of about 5 minutes, I lost my license, and was banned for holding one for 6 months. I felt sick again.

I sat and drank about half my drink. I called Mum, to tell her what happened, and went through it all. I said that I would just have to live in Maitland for the next 6 months.

She said something about me quitting my job, and going and getting one in Sydney or something, so I could just go back to commuting on the train everday.

I chatted a bit more, and then I got off the phone. I called the senior DBA, to let him know what had happened. We chatted for a minute, and then I got off the phone.

I called Dad after that, but then it turned out that he was at home, so I didn't need to bother, Mum could explain it all to him, so I hung up.

I tried calling my drummer mate, but he didn't answer his phone as usual, neither did my mate that plays guitar.

I wrote an SMS explaing what had happened. Something along the lines of "I was convicted. I'm banned for 6 months, and they took my license". I sent this to a few people in my phone book, who knew about the crap I was going through.

I sent it to about 10 people, none of them replied.

I got another drink, and sat and stared at the tv, musicmax was on. Hoodoo Guru's "1000 Miles Away" came on, and I sat and sang along with it softly, it sort of summed up the whole thing, except I was only 800 miles away. Spending hours in airports, in bars, lonely.

After that finished, some crap song came on, I went in to play the pokies, wasted about $5, and then came out again.

I got another drink, and sat and watched the tv again, and after about an hour, and 3 drinks, I decided to wander around Bundaberg a bit.

I wandered down the road, and then crossed the road. A huge truck came around a roundabout, without it's blinker on, and nearly ran over me. I almost didn't care, it would have been the perfect end to a perfect day.

I wandered back down the other side of the road, looking in the windows of the shops as I wandered along. I ended up going into another pub, got another drink, sat and drank it, on my own, and then went and played the pokies again, didn't win.

I continued wandering around Bundaberg, looking in a few shops, the book shop, Cash Converters. Gees there's a bunch of crap in there. Some woman came up to me, trying to sell me stuff, and I said I was just filling in time, until I fly home tomorrow, and explained about going to court, and losing my license.

She told me that if there was anything in the shop that I was interested in, that I could make an offer, and they'd do a deal. The shop was full of junk.

I looked around for a while, and then I left, and kept wandering.

I wandered all around the streets, then went into another pub, and got some lunch. I ordered it, and said out the back, to wait for it.

While I was sitting there, I rested my head on my hand, and just stared off, at nothing.

My food was served, and the chick that served it told me not to go to sleep. I just smiled weakly, and then sat and at my lunch, and then continued wandering around.

I'd had enough, I went to get a taxi, but I couldn't find one anywhere. I went around and around and around the streets, for about another hour, looking for a taxi. This is ridiculous.

It came overcast, and it rained a little bit, as I wandered around. I found the taxi rank, but there were no taxis. I sat and waited, for quite a while, but no taxis came. I wandered around again. This is hopeless. This is supposed to be the CBD, and there's not a single taxi anywhere.

I went back to the taxi rank again, and waited, eventually one turned up, but a guy came out of the pub, and got in it and went before I got there. D'oh. Another one turned up a minute later luckily, so I jumped in it, and told the guy the address.

We were going for a minute or so, when he got a call on the radio from the base. The last fare he had, had thought she'd left her shopping in the back. I had a look, yep, there were a couple of bags of shopping in the back, behind the driver.

He told the base that he'd drop it off after he dropped me off. He asked me something, and I had to explain that I was just up here to go to court, and the details of that. The driver told me how he'd been booked that morning, and the cop had been a real dickhead, didn't know what he was on about, because the taxi driver has a Victorian license, but that's fine, because you need any valid state license to get a professional driver's license, which he had, and the cop was telling him that he needed a QLD license, which is crap.

His fine was only $100 or something, so I told him not to bother, it's not like going to court achieves anything anyway. You end up with some dickhead magistrate that's not interested in anything you have to say, or any paper work, and just gives you a ridiculous penalty, for something that they caused, because the mail went to the wrong address.

We got back to the house, I paid the guy, we finished our conversation, and then I got out of the car. I went around to the back of the house, and unlocked the door, and went in.

I went and got changed out of my suit, and then went to use the computer, to check my email. I had a world of difficulty trying to get connected to the internet.

While I was doing that, my mate's mother in law came home from work, and I chatted to her for a while, told her what had happened. She told me why they were moving house, a reason that I won't put here.

I went back into the computer, continued trying to get on the net, and eventually it worked.

I used the computer for a little while, and my mate's mother in law came in, and said she was going out for a while, and would be back later, and then left.

I went through my email, put some notes on blogger. A little while later, my mate's brother in law turned up, and since I had his keys, I went and unlocked the door for him. I chatted to him for a minute, told him the story, then went in, and finished up on the computer, and went and sat in the loungeroom and chatted to him.

His mum came back a little while later, and then he went and got his xbox, and sat and played it. I went and got my book, and continued reading it.

My mate's stepfather in law turned up then, and I chatted to him, let him know what had happened.

I went back to reading my book, and then my mate's mother in law took his brother in law to work, I told him that I'd see him the next time I was up here, since I won't see him tomorrow, and I'm going home.

They left, and I continued reading my book. She came back about an hour later, and then we got ready, and went out to get some dinner.

We went to Bargara for dinner, on the way we ran over a cane toad, sweet. We went into a pub. I ordered a pizza, and while we were at the counter, my mate's stepfather in law commented to the woman serving us that I looked like Fatty Vaughton again, and made me show her my access card.

We got drinks, and then sat outside, and waited for our meals. The ticket number came up a little while later, and I went and collected my pizza. I'd thought I was hungry, but as soon as I started eating, I realised I wasn't. I only ended up eating a bit over half the pizza.

We sat and chatted for a while. Some chick came around, selling raffle tickets for a 1L bottle of grog, I think it was a bottle of Bundy. I bought 3 tickets, picked them from around the outside of the sheet, rather than 3 consecutive numbers. I sat and chatted with my mate's in laws, and waited for the chick to sell the rest of the tickets.

Eventually she did, and came around to find who won, it wasn't me, I'd picked a number that was 20 off, two rows down, so only 2 tickets away, on the sheet. D'oh.

We continued chatting, the chick came around again, to sell tickets for a bottle of Beam. I didn't think we were going to be there long enough for that one, so I didn't buy any tickets in that, but then we did end up sitting around until after it was drawn. Oh well.

We left the pub, and went for a walk around the block, near the waterfront, and around and back to the car. Before we left, my mate's in laws looked in the window of a real estate agent. I'm so over looking in real estate windows, it's all we seem to do in Maitland, and I'm sick to death of it.

We finished there, got in the car, and drove back to their house. We sat and watched the tv, "Unbreakable" was on, I read my book, and then we turned it off, and all went to bed about 10pm.