It's Official!!!

What's official? You want to know? Well... I PASSED MY DRIVING TEST!!! Woooooo!!! I'm soooo pleased! I really wasn't sure this morning whether I would pass or not, but I did... that's all that matters! 

The last few nights I have been dreaming about driving and it has be driving (ha ha) me mad!! On Friday I dreamt that my sister's friend was driving my mum's car. She was texting at the same time, which made her go off road, run over a rabbit and crash the car. Nice. No one died though - all good! Saturday Night was incredibly annoying as it was stopping me sleeping, so it took me AGES to actually drift off and then I kept waking up throughout the night! Last night, it took me a while to drift off again but I don't think I woke up really! 

I'm glad it's over now because I have been getting really nervous about it - but it really wasn't that bad to be honest. My driving instructor advised me to have a good breakfast and preferably eat a banana, as it is supposed to calm nerves! I did both, and I actually think it works... honestly! 

I had an hour and a bit of driving before my test, which also helped to calm my nerves and clear up a few things too! Then we went to the test centre... dun dun daaaaah!! 

After signing the little thing I needed to, I answered my 2 show me/tell me questions and then got in the car... show time!! Eeek! 

Overall, the drive was pretty good! I nearly did make a major booboo but managed to sort it out just in time, phew!!!! I had to do reverse left on a wide bend for my manoeuvre, which went well. We had practised that just before the test so that was good! I also had to do the emergency stop... now this, I was nervous about because I had pressed the wrong pedal first twice before and I so desperately wanted to get it right! Thank God I did!!! We then went back to the test centre and he told me I had passed, with 6 minors, and gave me the test sheet and my certificate. He then told me where I went wrong. I knew where they were but I didn't care too much because I had passed and I was far too preoccupied with thinking about that! 

The examiner was nice, so that was good. He was a little too chatty for my liking though, as I was really trying to concentrate! But I suppose that is better than sitting in complete silence, because that would be so nerve racking! He was telling me weird stuff, like his daughter dressing up as a dinosaur for her children... and also about a so-called paedophile that we saw while driving! Weird! 

Once I got home I really didn't feel any rush to get back to school so I got the phone and called a few people... only one of which answered (my Mum). She knew I would be phoning and answered the phone with a very questioning 'hello?' rather than 'hello this is Karina talking from blah blah blah' whatever she says. 

I decided to answer with a very quiet, sad sounding, 'hello' to which my mum replied 'are you ok?' and I said 'err yeah... I PASSED' and then of course she said something like 'aaah yaaay well done, I'm so proud of you' and all that jazz!! After I finished my chat with her and failed to get hold of anyone else I phoned, I got a phone call from a friend of mine, Moritz, congratulating me, which was lovely! 

I then wrote a text and then sent it to a fairly big group of people and of course posted the news on facebook! Then I fed the cat and went to get the bus. When I got into town I was thirsty so I wasted more time in going to Tesco to buy a drink. I got into school at 11.30am in the end, which was about the time I thought I would get there anyway!

Most people had already heard that I had passed my test by the time I got to school, so there was no need for me to shout it out, I wouldn't have anyway! Mel said 'OMG Steph you passed your test, well done!' and I said 'how do you know' and she said '... you posted it on facebook' - I had completely forgotten!!

After lunch the day was a bit crap... did my maths test (hard) and then had an after school French exam which was just ridiculously hard!!!  Anyway... I don't care, I passed my frikin driving test and I'm so so so so pleased!!!!

STOP!

Well hello there :)

This is another one of my driving blogs as I just got back from my lesson and thought that I would share, just to be nice :) 

We had a quick drive on the dual carriage way on the way to where we would be doing the cross roads, one way road and angled turnings. This time I felt a bit more confident on the road as I it was nice and light (on the way) and also I was surprisingly not bothered about going 70mph, so I felt quite a lot more confident this time as I really did not like them the last time I drove on them! 

We did all the crossroads, one way roads and angled turnings and then we drove to a quiet road where my instructor told me about emergency stops and I admit, I was a bit scared. But anyway, he talked me through how to do and the signal that they give to tell you to stop. He told me that when he was learning to drive the instructor used to literally bang their clip boards on the dashboard! I think that would just make me jump, so I'm glad they have changed that now! They now look around, put there hand up and then when they want us to stop they put they hand forward quickly and say 'STOP!' - much better. 

We switched places in the car so he was driving so he could could give me an example of what to do. He got to 20mph on the road and then did the emergency stop. It was obviously quite abrupt but it just kind of made me giggle, which is obviously better than being scared. He then gave me a second example just to see if I noticed a difference from last time as he had deliberately done it so that the ABS would kick in too so it didn't feel so smooth. I was quite pleased because I realised, yay!

Then it was my turn... dun dun daaaa! First we just sat in the car with it in neutral and with the hand break on and then he did the hand thing and said 'STOP' and... I missed the brake pedal a bit hahaha! Glad it was the test run. The second time I got it though, yay! 

Then it was time for the real thing so I started the car and got it to 20mph, he did the hand thing etc and I stopped the car. It was ok but the stop was not quite quick enough so we did it again and it was much better but we sort of stopped and then I tool one hand of the wheel and said 'was that ok? oh crap I have to put the hand brake and that on' just as he was pointing at the handbrake! It was rather funny, I can be so blonde sometimes. It literally just slipped my mind! 

Then I drove back home on the dual carriage way, missing my turning on the round about without even realising, but we got there in the end. Well, I've got to make something funny out of driving, right? 

Hopefully we won't be doing the emergency stop in 2 weeks time on the Tuesday as I will have a cake for my friends Amy's birthday and I wouldn't be too happy if I were to mess up the cake and have to give it to her if it were spattered and smushed to the side of the tin it is in! Hopefully that won't happen but, Amy, I apologise in advance in case that does happen :)

Bye for now :)