This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway
Yesterday morning I finally passed my driving test on what I tell people is either the third or the fifth attempt depending on how much I think they're going to laugh at me!
I first started taking lessons in Summer 2007, sometime after I graduated from Southampton, and prior to this I'd had a few lessons from my dad. From October of that year to January I was in New York, interrupting the flow somewhat (although I seem to remember that when I got back I was somehow actually doing better than when I'd left!) and I had my first test in Reading in March. Out of all the fails this one was actually the closest, the only major thing I got dinged for was not looking in mirrors enough. Or so the examiner claimed, apparently to convince them you sometimes have to exaggerate the head-turning movement as if you'd just been hit by an invisible left hook in a slow-motion Rocky replay. Although I should have got it first time, I have a feeling that could have ended in disaster when I consider how much I've learned about driving between then and now.
I then moved away from the Reading area and headed south in pursuit of employment. My second test was in May, which required me to go back to my parents' house for a Saturday test, and I think I got maybe two or three lessons' practice before that one.
After failing that one I made a really, really big mistake. I didn't get behind the wheel for another 10 months! Seriously, if you are learning to drive do not take huge gaps if you can possibly at all avoid it.
Anyway, finally in March this year I got off my arse, found an instructor down here on the Southampton test route, and another three tests later here I am.
So if we discount all the stuff I did up in Reading (*cough*about 40 hours worth if I recall correctly*cough*), it took:
* Three tests.
* 78 hours of lessons over almost exactly nine months.
* An expenditure of (78 x 24) for lessons, (1 x 31) for a theory test retake as the original certificate expired after two years, (3 x 62) for practical tests, and (3 x 60) for two and a half hours of my instructor's time each time I took the test = a grand total of £2269, which has been a not insignificant chunk of my spare salary this year!
*A little piece of my soul.
The test itself was rather nerve-wracking (it always is for me) - we almost didn't make it due to roadworks, and there were several points during the test where I honestly thought I'd buggered it up yet again. The worst of these was when I had the fortune to be first in the queue at traffic lights at the top of a very steep hill (for anyone who knows Southampton, it's the hill going past the train station towards the Civic Centre). When the lights turned green and I attempted to pull away, I found that for some reason the car wasn't going anywhere and the gearbox was making a distinctly unhealthy sound. Looking down, I found I'd left the fucking thing in second gear.
I ended up with nine minor faults which I'm told is about average.
But never mind all that, now I can stop giving money to my driving instructor and give it to the oil and insurance companies instead! No more waiting on train platforms. And now I can start exploring the New Forest and the Dorset coast properly.
I think next year is going to be a good year.
I first started taking lessons in Summer 2007, sometime after I graduated from Southampton, and prior to this I'd had a few lessons from my dad. From October of that year to January I was in New York, interrupting the flow somewhat (although I seem to remember that when I got back I was somehow actually doing better than when I'd left!) and I had my first test in Reading in March. Out of all the fails this one was actually the closest, the only major thing I got dinged for was not looking in mirrors enough. Or so the examiner claimed, apparently to convince them you sometimes have to exaggerate the head-turning movement as if you'd just been hit by an invisible left hook in a slow-motion Rocky replay. Although I should have got it first time, I have a feeling that could have ended in disaster when I consider how much I've learned about driving between then and now.
I then moved away from the Reading area and headed south in pursuit of employment. My second test was in May, which required me to go back to my parents' house for a Saturday test, and I think I got maybe two or three lessons' practice before that one.
After failing that one I made a really, really big mistake. I didn't get behind the wheel for another 10 months! Seriously, if you are learning to drive do not take huge gaps if you can possibly at all avoid it.
Anyway, finally in March this year I got off my arse, found an instructor down here on the Southampton test route, and another three tests later here I am.
So if we discount all the stuff I did up in Reading (*cough*about 40 hours worth if I recall correctly*cough*), it took:
* Three tests.
* 78 hours of lessons over almost exactly nine months.
* An expenditure of (78 x 24) for lessons, (1 x 31) for a theory test retake as the original certificate expired after two years, (3 x 62) for practical tests, and (3 x 60) for two and a half hours of my instructor's time each time I took the test = a grand total of £2269, which has been a not insignificant chunk of my spare salary this year!
*A little piece of my soul.
The test itself was rather nerve-wracking (it always is for me) - we almost didn't make it due to roadworks, and there were several points during the test where I honestly thought I'd buggered it up yet again. The worst of these was when I had the fortune to be first in the queue at traffic lights at the top of a very steep hill (for anyone who knows Southampton, it's the hill going past the train station towards the Civic Centre). When the lights turned green and I attempted to pull away, I found that for some reason the car wasn't going anywhere and the gearbox was making a distinctly unhealthy sound. Looking down, I found I'd left the fucking thing in second gear.
I ended up with nine minor faults which I'm told is about average.
But never mind all that, now I can stop giving money to my driving instructor and give it to the oil and insurance companies instead! No more waiting on train platforms. And now I can start exploring the New Forest and the Dorset coast properly.
I think next year is going to be a good year.