Aaarrrggh! I can’t bear it any longer. I am in Inverness Test Centre while Kevin is out impressing the examiner (I hope). He is not the most confident of pupils, but, if he can get a grip on those nerves, he should sail through. However, it is not the angst of waiting to see how he gets on that is getting to me. It is not even the fact that the heating in this room is turned up far too high. No, what I am desperately trying to ignore is Jeremy Vine on the waiting room radio. He seems to be everywhere on radio and television at the moment, but I just cannot stand him. He actually has great personal taste in music, but there is just something about his manner and his tone that sets my teeth on edge. It could be worse… at least Kevin will be back before Steve “Copyright” Wright can send me screaming from the room.
One nice little feature about the Fiat 500 is the ability to discretely plug a USB stick into the hi-fi system. Ok, it is hardly cutting edge technology, but it does mean that I can conveniently download loads of music onto a tiny bit of plastic and do away with the ugly connecting leads I used to connect my MP3 player to the Corsa’s system. Even better, I have started downloading podcasts of radio shows I want to listen to, then I can enjoy the mix of chat/music at times that suit me, rather than being forced to listen to whoever is live at the time.
The next step is to find somewhere I can download audio books. When we moved to the Highlands, I still had a business in Cambridgeshire, so each Sunday night/Monday morning I would travel the 500 miles north to our house, then, on Thursdays, I would do the return journey back to our pub. Usually this was by train, but sometimes I would drive or fly. I never really minded the commute. On the train I would kill the time by watching DVDs or doing paperwork on my laptop, but the best way to make the drive seem shorter would be to listen to audio books. Now, as much as I love the 100-minute drive to/from Ullapool, it would be nice to make better use of that time as well as gawping at the scenery. I haven’t really investigated this yet, but if anyone can save me some time by pointing me in the direction of audio book downloads, I would be very grateful.
(Glancing at watch) Still no sign of Kevin - this is a good sign (so far) because he ‘just wants his test over with’ and I stressed to him the dangers of rushing. I actually had a pupil on test a few years ago who rushed round the whole route and rushed his manoeuvres. I was sitting in the back of the car, feeling quite uncomfortable. As we approached the Test Centre I checked my watch and saw that we had been out less than half an hour; “Blimey!” I thought, “that is the quickest test I have ever known.” Except it wasn’t…… the examiner instructed my pupil to drive past the test centre and we then did another loop, up onto the A9 and, ten minutes later, back to the test centre. My pupil would have passed but, during that extra loop, he changed lanes without checking his mirrors and the examiner gave him a serious fault.
Kevin is back…….. Looks like good news…….. I can see the examiner getting the blue pass certificate out.
It was good news. Kevin passed, first time, with seven minor faults. He works at a centre which is close to one of the test routes so, when I picked him up for the hour lesson before his test, I took him (approximately) round this route. It just so happened that this was the exact route the examiner then took him on, so he felt quite comfortable. His sister, Catriona, was the girl I mentioned the other day, who had passed after only 21 hours driving. Kevin didn’t quite beat that but, as I pointed out to him, those last few extra hours of lessons he chose to take gave him a little extra confidence - It may even have been the difference between a pass or fail.
Very well done Kevin. Good luck with your search for a car and I look forward to seeing you soon for your Pass Plus course.
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