I got up, got ready, and went to work.

I don't know what I did in the morning, something unremarkable.

We went for lunch, somewhere, and then went back to work, and I continued working on whatever unremarkable thing I was doing.

I got a phone call from home, a whole bunch of mail had been dumped in the mail box, and I was in a world of shit.

The main letters, were a letter to say that my license was going to be suspended for 3 months, or I could take a 1 year, 1 point license, (a "first and final notice"), a reminder that I'd not replied to the first letter (how is it a "first and final notice", if they've sent me a reminder? duh?), and the the result of my conviction.

Now I don't know what's going on. WTF do I have a choice of a 3 month ban/1 point license, when I'm supposed to be on a 6 month court ordered suspension. Hello?

Mum told me about the first letters, I was thinking I could be smart, elect to have a 1 point license, and then transfer it to NSW (though forgetting about the fact that I didn't have a physical license to transfer, since the police prosecutor took it).

Then she went through the other letter, the result of my conviction, which claimed that I had to pay a $500 fine (which was the first I'd heard of a fine, otherwise I would have paid it at the court, before I left), and went on to say that I had to hand in my license at a Queensland Transport office, or I'd be committing an offence.

Hello? they took it off me already.

WTF is going on here? A fine that no one said anything about before, and supposedly having a choice of a 3 month ban, or a 1 point license, when I'm on a court ordered suspension already. Don't these people know what they are doing??

It got even better from there, the fine had to be paid by the 6th of June, ie next Monday, or I have to go to jail for a month.

Terrific. I rang up Queensland Transport, to find out why they were asking me to choice what suspension I want, when I'm already on a court ordered suspension. Apparently they didn't know anything about the court ordered suspension.

Nice and organised. I then asked why I was having to make this choice, and they explained it was because of "accumulation of points". Here we go again, WTF points are they talking about? from the speeding fine? how can that be, I haven't paid it yet?

Obviously they work differently to NSW. I haven't paid the fine yet, I was waiting for the reminder, to argue about the rego plate details being wrong, but I never got it, and it went to SPUR, and obviously, up there, when it goes to SPUR, they treat it as accepted, by not even paying it.

Totally ridiculous, this means, that even if you want to go to court and argue, as I had been planning to, because I didn't pay it, they take it that I'm accepting it anyway, and would be suspending my license.

If I had been to choose the 1 point license, in order to keep my license, while I went to court to sort it out (if I'd not been suspended by the court), then they would have said by choosing the 1 point license, that I'd "admitted guilt" or something else, and not had a leg to stand on in court.

What a fucked system.

I told them that I would not be responding to the letters, since my license is already suspended (and if I had, who knows what will happen, perhaps their whole system will explode, because I have 2 suspensions on my license at the same time), and wanted to know that nothing would happen as a result of not responding.

I was told that nothing would happen, and then hung up on the person. I didn't want to speak to them anymore.

I called Mum back, and explained how disorganised they were, and what the story was.

I then called up Bundaberg courthouse, to find out where the hell this fine came from, which the magistrate had mentioned nothing about.

The woman asked me to wait, while she went and found the file. She told me that the magistrate wasn't their normal magistrate, he was just visiting, and that the fine details were written on the file.

I said that the magistrate had not mentioned it as part of the conviction, or I would have paid it right then and there, and get it over and done with.

She told me that I can get a transcript of the court room on the day.

Yeah, and I'm sure I'm going to get it in the next 3 days, and that if it's not in there, they're not just going to add it in there, by which time I've defaulted on my fine payment, and I got to jail.

I didn't bother to go into any of this, I just told the woman I couldn't be bothered, and hung up.

Yet again, what a fucked system. The magistrate definately did not mention the fine at the time, or I would have argued about the fact that it cost me nearly $2000 just to go to court on the day.

Maybe I should have gone to the minister about it.

I tried to call home, but the line was busy.

I got really pissed off. I must have almost had steam coming out of my ears at this point. Trying to think logically, to write code, just wasn't going to happen.

I went upstairs, to find out what was going on, and if we could go to the pub, because I really needed to drink something.

I waited around for a few minutes, and a couple of people asked me what was going on, because they could see I wasn't happy. I explained to the sysadmin, and the manager of royalty, how screwed over I was getting.

We left, and went to the pub. After a few drinks, I felt a little better.

I facetiously sent an SMS to my mate's ex gf, for dropping all the mail off at my place. If she'd done her usual trick, of hanging on to it forever, then I would have missed paying the fine, defaulted, and would be going to jail.

It's hard to convey sarcasm across SMS, or else some people aren't the brightest, and she immediately replied (for the first time ever, without it taking me 3 weeks to get in contact with her), with "no worries".

A whole bunch of guys from work came in, including a couple of guys who works closely with the minister. I hadn't met them before.

We chatted in the pub for ages, and then we all left. The senior DBA and I went back to the room briefly, and then we started heading to the club.

We got across the road, and the guys that work with the minister were waiting for a taxi, we chatted to them for a while, and one of the guys told me that they know I'm the blogger.

Ooh dear, my cover's up, I'm not as anonymous as I thought. He told me that the public relations people had come across the day I described when the minister and Bob Carr came to open the building.

I thought back to what I could remember writing on that day, probably it was the bit about me, wearing a hawaiian shirt, nearly bowled over the minister in the fire stairs.

I mentioned that, and the guy told me that they'd loved it, found it hilarous (not that action, my blog, and my description of the day).

We chatted a bit more, I was a bit distracted, worried about all the stuff I'd put in my blog, and if there was anything incriminating I'd have to go back and edit :-) (I haven't edited it, so if there is anything incriminating in this blog, it's still there).

They gave up waiting for a taxi eventually (useless taxi service in Maitland, there might as well not be one), and called for someone to come and pick them up.

The senior DBA and I left them, and walked down to the club, had dinner, a few more drinks, and then walked back to the pub, went to the room, and I went to bed.