Our mate Sean happened to celebrate a birthday of some significance the other day, so we were invited to join him and some close friends at Rocco's Plum Tomato restaurant in downtown Oakville. It was a lovely evening, even though I was fighting off an evil virus at the time so I didn't quite feel myself, in fact I was feeling decidedly seedy. We met a really nice bunch of people that night though, all good friends of Sean and Kim's. The restaurant lived up to its reputation for great food but very slow service... this wasn't altogether a bad thing, as it gave us time to socialise a bit, move around the table and get to meet everyone. Because I was feeling a bit below par that night, I didn't drink very much - just a social glass of wine with dinner.

On the way home, we were met with blue flashing lights in the underpass on Trafalgar Road - our first Canadian random breath testing check! As you may have read elsewhere on this blog, I've noticed that the police here have a much more relaxed attitude to speeding than the cops back in Sydney, so it was interesting to see their approach to random breath testing. For anyone that may not know, police in Sydney take drink driving very seriously, and most Friday and Saturday nights you'll see them out on the sides of the roads stopping cars and getting the drivers to blow into the breathalizer machine.

Even though I hadn't been drinking enough to be anywhere near the limit, it's always a bit of a funny feeling when you pull up to an RBT, especially when you're a bit under-the-weather with a virus because you know you probably look like crap anyway... I wound down the window and was greeted by a very cheery police officer who announced (with a very quickly-spoken Canadian accent) that he was doing a "sobriety test". He spoke so quickly that I just looked at him and said "Sorry, can you say that again?" He repeated that he was conducting a sobriety test and then asked me if I had been drinking. I said, "yes, I had a glass of wine with dinner."

He then smiled and said "Have a nice evening", and waved me on my way.

That was it? No breathalizer? No test? Of course, I would never drive at all if I'd had a few drinks, but Donna and I just chuckled about how relaxed the policing seems here. I really do like Canada!

Oh, and happy birthday Sean!