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Dec. 30th, 2009 04:45 pmMany thanks to everyone for all the good luck messages yesterday, much appreciated.
The hour's lesson before the test got off to the least auspicious start possible when I mounted the kerb within 400 yards of setting off from home. "That's exactly what you don't want to do this afternoon, not looking where you're going," was Peter's unsurprising comment. He tried me on a turn in the road with a car in the way, on which I managed to stall twice when moving away for the final leg. He then said they wouldn't put me in that position on the test, he "just wanted to see how I coped".
Had a few minutes' wait in the test centre, during which Peter chatted to a colleague who was there waiting for one of her students, before my examiner appeared. He seemed a nice enough chap. I was a bit surprised when he told me to get straight in the car, as Peter had primed me to expect to lead him for a walk around the car with one or other set of lights on; when, as soon as he sat down beside me, he made a mark on the paper, momentarily I feared the worst but kept my head clear. I had to do a turn in the road, and pulled it off without anything going wrong, though I wondered if I'd been marked down for over-revving up when setting off on the final leg. With half an hour gone the examiner asked me to do an emergency stop, I did an OK one, and he said "Thank you, I won't ask you to do another one of those." I couldn't help wondering what to read into that. Towards the end we did a parallel park; as it happened, that was the other move Peter had gone through with me during the first hour. That time I'd been too late starting to put the rightward steering on, but this time I did OK although I wondered if I'd feathertouched the kerb at the very end.
Finally we arrived back at the test centre and I managed to steal a quick glance at the examiner's mark sheet. I was just taking in that there didn't seem to be four faults in a bed anywhere; before I got a proper scan of the failure-offence columns, he saved me the trouble by telling me I'd passed. He did, though, tell me to stop braking where it says 'SLOW' on the road - "That just means ease off the gas a tad and be careful, and watch for the hazard ahead". In all I had five faults : two for appropriate speed and one each for gears, overtaking (I knew that must have been my sitting behind a cyclist for a while then overtaking him on the approach to a junction, safe though it turned out to be) and hesitation. He asked if I wanted my full licence sent to me; I said yes so he held on to my provisional ones and made me out a certificate.
And then Peter gave me a lift home. Obviously he was delighted for me, though he did observe that he was going to miss our chats about football - all his other students are women, none of whom are footie fans. "Well, now the expensive part starts," he said. "Tax, insurance, car maintenance, MOT, petrol..." We shook hands and wished each other Happy New Year and good luck.
The hour's lesson before the test got off to the least auspicious start possible when I mounted the kerb within 400 yards of setting off from home. "That's exactly what you don't want to do this afternoon, not looking where you're going," was Peter's unsurprising comment. He tried me on a turn in the road with a car in the way, on which I managed to stall twice when moving away for the final leg. He then said they wouldn't put me in that position on the test, he "just wanted to see how I coped".
Had a few minutes' wait in the test centre, during which Peter chatted to a colleague who was there waiting for one of her students, before my examiner appeared. He seemed a nice enough chap. I was a bit surprised when he told me to get straight in the car, as Peter had primed me to expect to lead him for a walk around the car with one or other set of lights on; when, as soon as he sat down beside me, he made a mark on the paper, momentarily I feared the worst but kept my head clear. I had to do a turn in the road, and pulled it off without anything going wrong, though I wondered if I'd been marked down for over-revving up when setting off on the final leg. With half an hour gone the examiner asked me to do an emergency stop, I did an OK one, and he said "Thank you, I won't ask you to do another one of those." I couldn't help wondering what to read into that. Towards the end we did a parallel park; as it happened, that was the other move Peter had gone through with me during the first hour. That time I'd been too late starting to put the rightward steering on, but this time I did OK although I wondered if I'd feathertouched the kerb at the very end.
Finally we arrived back at the test centre and I managed to steal a quick glance at the examiner's mark sheet. I was just taking in that there didn't seem to be four faults in a bed anywhere; before I got a proper scan of the failure-offence columns, he saved me the trouble by telling me I'd passed. He did, though, tell me to stop braking where it says 'SLOW' on the road - "That just means ease off the gas a tad and be careful, and watch for the hazard ahead". In all I had five faults : two for appropriate speed and one each for gears, overtaking (I knew that must have been my sitting behind a cyclist for a while then overtaking him on the approach to a junction, safe though it turned out to be) and hesitation. He asked if I wanted my full licence sent to me; I said yes so he held on to my provisional ones and made me out a certificate.
And then Peter gave me a lift home. Obviously he was delighted for me, though he did observe that he was going to miss our chats about football - all his other students are women, none of whom are footie fans. "Well, now the expensive part starts," he said. "Tax, insurance, car maintenance, MOT, petrol..." We shook hands and wished each other Happy New Year and good luck.
