(no subject)

First driving lesson this afternoon. It went OK. Peter, my instructor, drove us out to one of the car parks at Stokes Bay. We started with 'cockpit drill' - check that the doors are closed, the hand brake is on and the gear's in neutral, that you can see everything out of the mirrors, and that you and anyone under 14 have seat belts on - then he ran me through the pedals, steering wheel and the ignition. I got a bonus point for knowing what the brake pedal does beside slowing the car down (turns on the brake lights).

I spent the next hour or so driving around the car park under Peter's guidance, with the odd stop to allow people arriving or leaving in the car park to clear away. I had a few difficulties getting starts right - taking the clutch up to the 'bite' and keeping it there, while also keeping the accelerator (the gas as he calls it) at the right level - and some of my stops were juddering halts, but by the end I was doing OK as far as the pedals, handbrake and gears go, although my steering remains primitive.

(no subject)

Back to college tonight to sit the multi-choice exam for the last module, Using IT. I did run-throughs of the practice tests for three-quarters of an hour, and went for a cup of coffee before sitting down to tackle the test. The exam was much tougher than the practice tests, and for the only time throughout the course I've come out of an exam not sure that I've passed. I need 80% - 20 of the 25 questions - but made so many educated, or pure, guesses that I can't say for certain that I didn't get more than five wrong.

Left the school just in time to miss the bus.