Simple pleasures and sandstorms

Ulysse Speedo app

SpeedView app

It's the little things that please me. I finally have a car with DAB radio. This morning, after Beth's lesson, I started fiddling with it to ensure that I could get BBC 6 Music and I was rewarded with the station playing 'Run run run' by The Velvet Underground. As I said, it's little things like that which make me happy.
Slowly, but surely, I am tinkering with my car to get it set up exactly how I want it. No, I'm not talking about suspension or anything technical like that, I'm talking about linking my phone to the entertainment system via bluetooth and having it secured in a convenient position. Now I can switch from BBC 6 Music to my MP3 library to answering phone calls by voice command to listening to audiobooks stored on my phone. Another little thing that pleases me is how Google Maps displays a photo of the building as I near my destination - very useful when going to my first lesson with a new pupil. All clever stuff.
One thing about the Fiesta is that it is impossible to see the left side of the speedo from the passenger side. It reminds me of when my dad had a Cortina MkIII, which had dashboard dials so deeply recessed that they must have been almost in the engine. I can usually sense how fast my pupil is driving, but it is nice to know exactly. After all, too slow is almost as much a problem as too fast. You can spend money on independent HUD (Head up display) units, which project the car's speed on the windscreen, and most SatNavs will tell you the speed, but in small digits. So I speculatively searched for 'speedo' (nothing to do with swimming trunks) in the Android app store and found a couple of really good GPS speedo apps.
The first one I tried was Ulysse speedometer. This looks great and has lots of options.
The second one I tried was Speedview. It looks quite boring in comparison, but is easy to read and, although I can't quite put my finger on the reason why, I prefer it to Ulysse. The displays on both are clear and easy to read, but both have HUD options.
Sadly, it's not all fun and games. Last year was a bumper year as far as driving test results were concerned: I had a 75% pass rate in Ullapool and a 77% pass rate in Inverness; not quite as good in Elgin, but very happy on the whole (I almost forgot, 100% in Alness - but that was just one test). I would have been on big bonuses if I had still been with BSM (do BSM still have pass rate bonuses?). Anyway, this year's pass rate took a knock yesterday. Two tests, two fails...
The first one was just careless: He was on a 60mph road with a T-junction ahead and the examiner faulted him for his approach speed. "But the examiner didn't say which way we were going," he protested to me afterwards.
"All the more reason for bringing your speed down in plenty of time?" I suggested.
The second test was bizarre. While parts of England suffer drought conditions and hosepipe bans, it is an understatement to say that we have not had the same conditions up here. In fact, while we have been thankfully spared the snow that recent winters have brought, it has been rather wet. So much so, that Loch Glascarnoch has been so full that the dam at Aultguish has sometimes overflowed. However, yesterday, my pupil and I would have killed for a few more spots of rain....
A combination of dry weather and strong winds meant that the topsoil was becoming quite dusty. During her test, on the same 60mph road that my earlier pupil had failed on, the wind whipped the sand and dust into clouds that swirled across the fields and roads. Unfortunately she just got a but ahead of herself and, instead of braking first, she wasted valuable time considering whether or not to put the fog lights on and the examiner judged that she had been going too fast for the conditions.
Later, when I got home, Jane asked about my day and I told her about my pupil's tests.
"Did you not teach her about driving in sandstorms?" she asked.
Silly me, it must have slipped my mind.