Room with a view

It feels quite a while. It’s only been two months, but it seems longer than that since we had any driving tests in Ullapool. Not sure why. December’s tests went ahead as scheduled, but, for some reason, there didn’t seem to be any tests at all in January. Maybe after last winter the DSA thought it best not to risk cancellations due to the weather but, as it turned out, mid-January was fine in Ullapool.

Anyway, I have four pupils taking their test today; two first-timers and two on their second attempt. First up, at 8.40am was Jason. Although he lives in Ullapool, he had his first attempt in Inverness last Summer. On that occasion he gave me the wrong test time and I actually had someone else out on test at a time that clashed with his. My daughter, Rachel, came to the rescue with her boyfriend’s souped-up turbo Astra, which made Jason’s eyes light up at the prospect of driving it, but, of all the things to fail on (considering the power he had beneath his right foot), he failed for hesitation at a roundabout. Since then, he has been working down in Perth and has waited before returning home to take his test. Yesterday he had a two-hour lesson and I made it as tough as possible for him - parallel parking in the busiest road, 3-point turns (sorry, ‘turn-in-the-road’) in a narrow street and every junction from every direction. Hopefully, his test could only be a piece of cake in comparison. It paid off and he has just passed with 3 minors. A very good result (but one minor fault more than he picked up in the whole of yesterday’s lesson).

The 9.37am test was not so successful. She stalled at a crossroads, something she NEVER usually does, and lost confidence after that. I didn’t sit in the back, so I can’t be sure, but sometimes, for some unknown reason, pupils drive differently in tests to how they do in lessons. Who knows. At the moment it’s not too bad, we only have to wait until April for another attempt.

No time to muck about because the next test was at 10.44am. This meant Seonag only had about five minutes to drive round a few junctions and do one parallel park before returning to the test centre. The relative rush didn’t seem to phase her though and she passed well; again with three minor faults.

My last test of the day was another first-timer. Lisa has been very conscientious and, rather than just trying to get through her test in Ullapool, has also taken lessons in (much busier) Inverness. My 2nd floor corner room at the Caledonian Hotel overlooked the village and gave me a great view of many junctions - I felt a bit like Ed Harris' character in The Truman Show. As she drove by I could see the examiner recording a fault, but could not make out whether it was a driver (minor) fault or a serious fault. It must have been one of her six driver faults because she had no serious faults and passed. A good thing too, as she had told everyone when her test was and now she could look forward to breaking the news at The Seaforth Inn.

That was only half the day done as I still had four more lessons in Ullapool. 3 passes out of 4 tests isn’t bad, but I’ll keep trying for that 100% test day. Next month I have potentially eight pupils taking their test on the same day, so 100% then would be fantastic.