Hi Tamara and All, Talking about driving tests takes me back tiddly-pom years (too many to tell you all - suffice it to say I passed when I was 17) when I had my driving test. The examiner was late (very late!) so we did a much abbreviated test, and he promptly failed me. At which my driving tutor got very cross, complained to all and sundry, with the result that I had another, free, driving test, but with one normal (?) examiner, and the Chief Driving Examiners from the nearest two towns.
The first calamity was that the car was locked, and the driving side door had jammed, so the key wouldn't shift the driving side locks, whatever anyone did to it. So - the first examiner turned to me and said "Well - I know its not very decorous, but do you think you could open the other side, and scramble over to the driving side?" Which I duly did, started the car, and started my loooooong second test. We had been proceeding in an orderly fashion down one of the shopping high streets in St Albans, when a small child threw a ball out into the road, and went after it himself. I slammed on the brakes, stopped in confusion, and the examiner in the front hurled himself out of the car to berate the child and then the child's mother. When that was over, we started again - and they still made me do another two emergency stops as they said I hadn't been going quite fast enough for the proper emergency stop to count! By this time, I was in a state of numbness, and just carried on doing what I was told! We did everything the test should have done, but we did it all twice, and some things - like an emergency stop - three times! The test took a lot longer than the normal test - we even got caught up in a rush-hour traffic jam in St Albans - but when it had finished and - to my speechless joy - I had passed, one of the examiners in the back seat told me he had seen nearly nothng of the driving as he had hay-fever, but it had been an exceptionally smooth ride! I was so glad to get it all over with though! I never want to have to do anything as nerve-wracking again - I don't know about other countries, but in the UK, the driving test seems to assume almost 'right of passage' significance, so we are all scared witless before we even start. Carol - in Suffolk UK you are much > more stringent than we are in doling out driver licenses. Here, a 16yr > old, can get a license, often with just 5 hours of driving experience > (10 in the car, but half spent as an observer, while another student is > at the wheel). And they don't even have to take the test (my son > didn't) if they pass the school exam, which is mostly theoretical. > To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
