Last week I had my first random alcohol breath test and I had to blow into a breathalyser!

We were driving home at 11 pm, as a police man signalled that I had to stop. The only problem was that I didn’t know exactly on which side of the road I was supposed to stop. We were driving on a two-lane one way road (one of the rare one way roads in Perth). The police man had a red flash light in his left hand and pointed with it to the right side of the road. That’s why I thought I had to stop on the right side. But the opposite is the case. When a police man points with his red flash light to the right hand side, you are supposed to stop on the left hand side and vice versa. As you can see I was pretty confused, but when the police man started to wave frantically with his hands to the left side, I finally realised on which side I had to stop.

Because we have an Australian driving license now, I was eager to show it for the very first time. But they didn’t want to see it. They didn’t even check the registration of the car. (By the way, in Australia you don’t have a registration paper as in Austria, only a badge on the windscreen).

The police man asked me if had a drink this night, a glass of white wine, and then he put this alcohol breathalyser in front of my mouth. I blew and the breathalyser showed 0.00. Then another police man came and gave me a small piece of paper on which it says: Congratulations on blowing 0,00! Keep up the good work - Don’t drink and drive! I can send this paper in and win a night in a golf hotel.

Isn’t that nice? They reinforce you if you’re driving slowly in a road works area, they reinforce you if you’re not drinking.

This random breath test showed me that everyone has to blow into the breathalyser. It doesn’t matter if you are able to reassure them that you hadn’t have a drink earlier the evening. Besides you don’t have to get out of the car to blow, you can stay seated in your car.

Really remarkable was that the police men were very friendly and nice and not at all grumpy or self-important as some Viennese police men are. In general I think that the Austrian civil service could learn a lot of their Australian colleages. Whether post officers, clerks or police men, everyone is nice and friendly and treats other people with respect.