Driving - The Test

I've just read my Driving posts from March and there's a reason for this. To see what I did in the past to compare it with yesterdays drive. It was then that I realised that in the last post I said I passed my theory test. That was in August. It's now October. Turns out I wasn't as good a driver as what I thought I was so I had to move my test back. This was a good thing. Or was it? It turned out my test was on the 4th of October; the same day the driving test got changed. The change was half an hour of standard directional driving from the examiner and then 10 minutes of independent driving. No instructions; just get from one point to another following a map or signs. One maneuver was taken out so that left only one to do in the test. I thought it was a lot easier to be honest.

So then, test day. No whisky for dutch courage, this was the real thing. I got picked up by Alan at 11:30 on the Monday morning to do a recap of everything from all reversing maneuvers to the emergency stop. Everything. I've come such a long way since the first lesson and to tell you the truth, I was bloody nervous. My first attempt n'all...
I drove to the test centre and parked up and waited for my examiner. Dave Slim, his name was. He was an old timer so the emergency stop was well out of the question. I did my eye test, (I didn't have to unlock the car door. It didn't turn up on the test) and the 'show me/tell me' question and then we were on our way. Well, what to say. Only one maneuver. And it was my all time favourite; a turn in the road, done seamlessly! Fantastic! Ironically, part of the test was done following the route I did in the morning, with a few stop/starts thrown in along the way. Then we came up to a roundabout. I knew how to tackle roundabouts in the past but this one threw me off completely. I did the unthinkable. The unreasonable. The damnright silly! I stalled! I did not want to do that. But I got the car started and I went off behind some houses. After trundling along at 30mph down a road I got told to pull over. This was the start of the independent driving part. I got given the directions to follow and then I set off. I got to another roundabout and didn't stall. But got marked down on hesitancy, but more on that later. I then proceeded down past my own house and onto the A46 single carriageway. This mean another roundabout which was done perfectly. Down the 46 is went, slamming it into 5th but keeping to the limit. I didn't go above 60, which was a shame. But I knew that at the end of this was another roundabout and then homeward bound. If only a Polish car hadn't pulled out, dramatically plummeting my speed to 30mph. I finally got to the roundabout and turned straight in without stopping. I then drove back to the test centre and finished.
Dave then said rather slowly, "What I'm going to do is tell you where your good points were and bad points and show you them and how they correspond to my examiners criteria...oh by the way, you've passed"
Wait, when breaking news, you say that first!



FIRST!


Not last!

But I passed. I didn't want to but I did! I was ecstatic! I could hardly believe my luck! I got 6 minors and no majors. First time! Heavens forbid, I can hardly believe it now. They took away my license. I'm now waiting to a brand new pink full license. I can now drive any car. There is not going to be anyone sitting to my left that is going to criticise me on every little thing. Of course, I'm going to be safe. I'm going to be very safe. I haven't got a car. But the fact goes, I did when I didn't believe I could. It just goes to show: Every cloud. Every single cloud! Every one of them...
Every cloud has a Diesel Weasel!

 Wait...what?