Baby it's cold outside.

A disappointing day. Anna had been improving steadily with her driving, so had gone ahead and booked her own driving test. Since then, progress had been a little slower than I had hoped, so, with a couple of weeks to go, I was a little concerned that she was not quite ready. The last few lessons she has worked really hard on her approach to junctions and also on her parallel parking. Yesterday's lesson and today, in the hour before her test, she drove faultlessly and we went to Elgin Test Centre full of confidence.
So why am I disappointed? What happened? Why is Anna upset? We walked into the test centre only to be told that the test was cancelled due to the weather. What weather? Ok, it is a bit chilly (6C) and there was certainly a sharp frost first thing this morning, but the roads are well-gritted and there was no sign of any problems at all this morning.
Now, just as we had built Anna's confidence to the point where she was looking forward to taking her test, we are now left wondering when her test will be re-scheduled. This will mean more expense for her as she will want more lessons to retain that confidence. It will also mean that she will have to ask for more time off work, so perhaps even more expense.
What worries me is that, if they are cancelling tests when the temperature is 3 - 6C, then there may not be many days in the next few months when they are able to take tests; thus potentially creating a backlog of tests. Whenever a pupil asks me about driving in snow or icy conditions, my first piece of advice is 'consider whether you really need to make the journey'. If you must drive, then allow plenty of time for the journey. A few years ago, when we lived in Glen Urquhart, I had to go to Aberdeen for a 9.00am meeting. This is a journey of 145 miles, which normally would take just over three hours. Some snow had been forecast, so I set off at 3.45am, allowing over five hours for the journey; I just got to the meeting in time.
I'm certainly not going to argue with the examiners. I won't put Anna, or anyone else, up for test if I have any doubt over their ability to drive me around safely. But the examiners don't know, when they first get in the car, whether the pupil is a safe driver. So cancelling tests when they think the roads are potentially dangerous is understandable...... just disappointing.