Don't Touch Your Cell phone while in your car

Christopher got a ticket for touching his cell phone.  I'm not even kidding.  Here's how it went down:

After Benjamin's basketball game Chris and Andrew ran to the store on the way home.  I had send him a text, along with another person...and each text also sent a reminder.  So he got four text notifications right in a row.  Thinking something was up with me (I was driving our other car home with the three other kids) he asks Andrew to hand him his phone while he is in stop and go traffic leading up to a busy round about.  He didn't unlock his phone, scroll, reply, call...nothing.  Just took the phone from Andrew, looked at the locked screen that showed his two missed text messages, and put the phone down.  10 seconds, tops. 

He then gets pulled over.

I'm not sure what I'm more surprised by, the fact that a cop saw that quick look, or the fact that there was even a cop around!  I hardly EVER see cops here in England.  To Christopher's dismay there was a big push in our little town that day and he was one of the many that was caught.

The cop was taking forever to write up his ticket, and Chris had to hurry home to get the kids to their other activities, so when the cop presented him with his ticket he signed and was on his way - already late for our other commitments.

Fast forward to getting the ticket in the mail.  That's when Christopher discovered he should've fought the ticket a little bit!  The fine itself was 200 pounds.  If Chris was a British citizen he would have had to surrender his license with his payment for the ticket for processing.  It could take anywhere from 4-10 weeks to get his license back...and in the mean time he would not be allowed to drive!  If he had just gotten his license within the last two years his license would be revoked for two years....then he would have to start all over with learning to drive (getting your license here is NOT cheap and NOT fast.  It can take a year or two).  On top of all that it is SIX points on your driving license! 

He was shocked and did some digging and found the law is very specific.  If you TOUCH your phone while driving and you are spotted it is a ticket.  You don't even have to be texting or talking.  You could be started a podcast, skipping a song, accepting a new route on google...they DONT CARE.  And yes, if you had to do any of these things while driving the law states you must exit the road, park, turn off your car - then you can touch your phone.

I think the states could implement a few of these rules! These guys don't mess around!

Feb 15, 2019 Vatican, Bascilia, Vatican Museum

Chris got the kids up and going while I recoperated a bit from the travel.  He took the kids to the Bascilia THEN even took them to the very top!  I will add his pictures when I download them.

Then I met them and we took these pictures then headed to the museum!

Just walking around Vatican City (it's own country...did you know that?)