My year of learning continues!
Today (Friday 13th November 2009) I passed my driving test!
After working loads of hours this week (74 hours over 5 days) and having two driving lessons, I was feeling really tired.
So, when it came to test day I was really tired, and the 1 hour lesson before the test did not go well, not well at all!
My test was at Kings Heath in Birmingham. I arrived and found that there were 4 other people having a test at the same time, of which I found later that I was apparently the only one to pass!
My examiner was a guy called Jeff, and he was a hobby IT'ist. So we got chatting as I drove.
The test started off as a couple of Show Me/tell Me questions. Both of which I easily answered.
We set off, and all the time I was concentrating so much and trying to drive in a safe and consistent manner. We headed out and around the Kings Heath roundabout and onto the road to Evesham, which is a national speed limit road. Whilst hitting 55Mph the heavy rain started, so I had to put on the wipers, and at that speed as a (at the time) un-qualified driver is a little scary.
We then moved onto the manoeuvres. I eventually had to do three. They were the 3-point turn, reversing around a corner and the emergency brake. The first manoeuvre went really well, which was the reverse around a corner. I absolutely nailed it!
The 3-point-turn was going well, and I was about to complete the manoeuvre when I let the clutch slip too much and I stalled *arg*. This did get to me a little and I was so annoyed with myself.
We then went on to some more driving and the examiner made me pull over to the side of the road, where explained that he wanted me to perform an emergency stop. With it raining heavy, I was a little apprehensive, but he made it happen whilst we were under and under-pass, which was dry. No problem!
We then headed back to the testing centre. I did fail to make sufficient progress at one roundabout, so I knew that would be a minor. However, I thought it to be better to keep 10,000% safe and not risk it, just for the sake of a minor.
We pulled back-up to where we started and I was delighted to be told that I had passed! Yay!. Turns out that I received 4 minors (one for the stall, one for not making progress, and two apparent failed to observe - disagree with those, but what the hay!) out of an allowed 15 minors. Obviously with no serious or dangerous.
Can't believe it, I'm a qualified driver 