By I think that pretty much says it all...
Well maybe not quite all; for those wishing for a little bit more information, I failed my driving test for the second time.
Not even half-way through my test and coming off a mini-roundabout in Workington, the test venue, there's a pedestrian crossing less than 10 yards further away. For those that know Workington, it's the one next to B-Wise and the Co-op; just down the road from Yankees. Anyway, as I came off the roundabout the lights on the crossing were green and I started to accelerate away from the roundabout. However they soon changed to red, and just fractionally before I started to brake the examiner took matters in to his own hands and slammed on the brakes for me. We ended up well over 5 feet away from the crossing. At this point I thought "I've done nothing wrong here, but because he's took action I'm going to get failed." Anyway, after a couple of false starts I finally managed to get going again, only to stall at the next junction, the traffic lights outside Yankees. I feel that this was due to being a nervous wreck after the first incident, and by time I got started again the lights were back on red and had to stop in a hurry. Anyway, the examiner got me to drive to a relatively safe location and elected to terminate the test at that point, in the interests of public safety. Suffice to say I wasn't amused at his actions, but obviously he did what he felt was necessary. I've ended up with 4 minor faults, a serious for the traffic lights, and a dangerous for the pedestrian crossing.
As a result I've decided to take a 5/6 week break from taking lessons, until the new year, but have already booked my next test. Dave, my instructor, isn't working over the christmas period anyway, so I'll only miss 2 potential lessons, and will get right back in to the swing of things week beginning 5th January, which gives me 3 weeks before the test. I'm also considering seeing if the doctor would be willing to prescribe something to help me calm down before the next test. Driving with my instructor is an absolute breeze. I never get nervous and am usually pretty much on the ball. Put an examiner beside me and I fall apart, big-time...
At least one good thing to come out of this is that I have even more time to save up, and if things go well in January I'll be able to order a Ford Focus at just the right sort of time to get an 04 plate...
Hmm, learning to drive; is it really that good an idea?
