Monday, November 15, 2004

All Roads Lead to Rome, Except the Ones That Don't...

The time of good luck-wishing is over! Let a new time of good luck-wishing begin! >.> Well, as some of you know, I had my second driving test this afternoon, and actually a full ten minutes before I thought it was. I'd originally noted it down as 2:40 rather than 2:30, so that was a bit of a shock. When you're tense, everything comes as a shock, heh ^_^; My driving instructor picked me up as he usually does, an hour before my test was due to start to give me time to relax into the car and get myself settled into actually driving around. After about five minutes, I adjusted my right wing mirror because it was out of line- the annoying thing about driving is that you set everything up while you're sat still, then you change to a completely different posion when you're actually moving, so you have to adjust everything all over again. Rrr. Anyway, that out of the way, we practiced a maneouvre I wanted to go over (reverse round a left-hand corner), and that went okay. Promising stuff, no? Apart from the few minor niggles that appeared later on coming towards my test, that is. I could feel the pizza toast I had fo breakfast rising high in my stmach. By the time we got to the waiting room I was sure I was going to throw up. Luckily, I didn't, and nor did I when I actually came to sit in the car. That would have been at least a minor offence. The instructor I had was none other than the guy who failedme last time- Big Jason ^_^; Still with his slightly slurred speech and reassuring voice and his somewhat imposing form when he sat down, he asked me two questions about the car- how to check the oil and check the Power-Assisted Steering was working. In a cunning show of foresight, I asked my driving instructor to go over this with me earlier, so I knew everything already ^_^ At least, I presumed I did. I think I did. We drove off. The hour before the test everything seemed really quite quiet, but then again we were around the more rural end of Chichester. The bypass wasn't quite as friendly, and junctions were almost always guaranteed to have people moving in and out of them just when you wanted to go. But go we did. Everything was going okay until we reached a hair-pin corner of a left-hand juntion where I had to brake around the corner to avoid hitting an oncoming silver car. Perhaps it was further away than I thought, but I figured it might at least be a minor for lack of perparation or something like that. Then came... THE MANEOUVRES! It felt like we went through the entire list of things to do, apart from parallel parking (thank God) and bay parking. The Emergency Stop wrenched me from the seat with a satisfying feel that I wouldn't have hit whatever imaginary thing the instructor imagined me to be imagining when telling me to stop. Reversing around a corner seemed to go okay until I suddenly became aware that a car had zoomed past in front of us and I hadn't noticed it. Bugger. Bugger bugger bugger. Observation in maneouvres is something they can fail you on even if you miss something as small as turning your head over your right shoulder every few seconds. That was forboding. but I tried to ignore it and carry on. Then came the clincher. Bear in mind that if the examiner interferes in any way, you fail instantly. It's been a cloudy day, but not overly dark. But we came to a road with a canopy of trees hanging over it, and as we travelled down the instructor said some rather ominous words: "It's getting dark earlier in this itme of year, isn't it?" I looked at the clock. 14:58. "Wow, yeah. It's only three pm." "It's almost becoming difficult to see cars on the road, especially dark blue ones." "Yes, I see what you mean." Me, of course, being totally oblivious to the fact that the car I was driving was dark blue, and also seeing the junction ahead, left the auxiliary controls where they were... ...after we pulled out from the junction, the examiner told me in a rather frustrated voice to put the lights on. Surprisingly enough, I managed to keep my composure while we drove back into the test centre and he finished off the paperwork before telling me my results. "Well..." he started. I looked around at the other learners taking their tests that day- all of them seemed rather downcast. When I first drove the car in half an hour earlier, there must have been five cars all wanting to come in at once, everyone having scheduled a test for this day. I didn't look at him, but watched the brick wall to my right. "...I'm pleased to tell you that you've passed, but by the skin of your teeth." I listened very carefully- I already knew where I'd gone wrong and I knew what he was going to say. Had the rest of the journey not been such a 'lovely drive', as he described it, he'd have failed me. I was just never to forget that having my lights on is a great benefit to other road users. I nodded ferverently and looked at my test report. Three minors. Three! I couldn't have hoped for a better result. I was expecing seven or so, but three?! Wow. He gave me all the bits and pieces I needed to fill in to get my full license and I took them with glee, approaching my driving instructor who shook my hand and drove me home. I phoned Mimmi as soon as I got back, then sent out hundreds of text messages to my friends to tell them all ^_^ I'm so relieved to have that out of the way. The red 'L' plates have been stripped from my car, all I need now is my red piece of plastic that will give me and my parents more freedom. *grins widely* I'm pleased.

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