Hurricanes, facial hair and cheeseheads.

After a quiet December and a steady January, February is proving to be a very lively month - in almpst all aspects.
Last Tuesday evening, the forecast for the West coast was wild; hurricane force winds and plenty of snow were expected. As it turned out, the snow only settled on the high ground, but the windspeed reached gusts of 90mph, which proved an unusual challenge for pupils. It proved even more of a challenge back home, where signposts were snapped and our front gate was ripped from its hinges.

When you are self-employed it can get worrying when your diary is not as full as it should be. Through December my diary looked ok, but all it takes is a few cancellations to create worrying gaps and, although I do everything possible to help my pupils become good drivers and pass their test, when they do pass that means I have one less pupil. You might think that, with people turning 17 every day, new pupils would be fairly consistently spread out. Somehow it doesn't work like that. I went several weeks without any new enquiries but then, last week, 3 new pupils started, this week 3 more start, and 3 more start the week after that. A few nights ago I dreamt that I had taken on even more new pupils. The dream was so realistic that, when I woke, I was slightly panicked, wondering which of my new pupils were real and which were imaginary (they have all been real so far, I am relieved to say).

From a sporting perspective, the week could hardly have gone better. It would have been perfect if Andy Murray had not lost the final of the Australian Open. Liverpool have won their last 4 league games, without conceding a goal and, amazingly (considering where we were a month ago) are now 6th! I was worried that Torres would score against us, but I did not take into account the legend that is Jamie Carragher returning to transform our defence. It's not been the best of seasons, but, with beating Chelsea and Man Utd losing to Wolves, it was a great week.

To end the (sporting) week, I stayed up to watch the Super Bowl. After visiting friends in Wisconsin a few years back, I am an adopted Cheesehead, so I was on the edge of my seat as the Green Bay Packers clung to their lead towards the end of the game. With the Packers 3rd down and 10, with less than 6 minutes remaining, I accidently woke our dogs up (at nearly 3am) when Jennings held the catch to release the pressure and I leapt up out of the sofa.

In other news, I experimented with a beard for a couple of weeks - not a full-face one, but moustache-chin-combo type beard. It made me look even more ridiculous and I began subconsciously stroking it, so it had to go. In other facial hair news, I tried shaving underwater - not in the local swimming-pool, you will be relieved to hear, but in the bath. It is a very weird sound, shaving underwater, it sounded as though my face was being ripped off. I won't be doing that again.

Congratulations to Anna on passing her test. I bet you can't wait to take your car out on your own. See you on the roads.

I'm sure there was something else I was going to tell you........ Nope, can't think what it was. Oh well.