Luck

Passed my driving test guys!

How, I'll never know; I'd have failed me quite frankly.

With 9 minors, it was still a way to go until the 15 minors that would constitute a fail. But still, i think i'd have deserved more.

It started off with the independent drive. "Turn right out of the test centre and follow the signs for Totnes" I was told. Turning right out of the test centre was fine, finding the signs for Totnes on the other hand was not. About 5 minutes later he told me to pull over and said I'd taken a wrong turn about 30 seconds after leaving the test centre... He then told me to follow signs for Teignmouth. Inside i go "YAARSHSHS!" I live in Teignmouth, I've driven back from Newton, home LOADS of times... Didn't stop me from misreading the road markings and ending up in the wrong lane and unable to merge in... I end up in a part of Newton I'd never been before...
He tells me that where I am is not on any of the test routes and that he'll have to make it up on the spot for the rest of the test.

Only a minute later he pulls me over and it's time for the hill start. Having been bullied into 'over-the-top-checking-around-me-before-pulling-off' by my instructor for a good 8 months I do just that; failing to notice that I'm still indicating to the left and probably more importantly that I'm in neutral...
I swear to God I found the bite. Swear to God. But no, I take the hand break off and go rolling off down the hill. So it's break hard and hand break back on. "Lets try that again shall we" comes the tired sounding examiner as he scrawls in red pen again; it hasn't yet left his hand.

After this I was pretty sure I'd failed and just drove. The maneuver went okay (a reverse round corner, for those interested) and although we didn't do an emergency stop as such, an old lady tripping into the road with a pushchair constituted me doing and almost emergency stop anyway...

Drove round an industrial estate for about 20 minutes - pulled into the test centre - he told me I'd passed, - went home :)

People excited for Eurovision tomorrow?!

Until next time xx