An ill wind

I really didn't like that..... That was a morning I don't want to repeat.
Last night, I was aware that I was getting low on fuel, but it had been a long day and, after my last lesson, I just wanted to get home. With hindsight, I should have taken ten minutes to go to my usual petrol station.
This morning, I had to set of just before 6.45am. The trip computer told me I had 24 miles worth of fuel left in the tank. I know it's not 100% accurate, but I was confident that I had plenty of fuel to get to the only petrol station in Nairn, 8 miles away, that is open at such a time. I pulled into the forecourt, only to find..... No diesel! Mon dieu! Cripes! and various other expletives. My options were: a) to wait in Nairn for half an hour until the two other petrol stations opened; or, b) press on to the next petrol station in Inverness, 16 miles away.
If I waited in Nairn I would have to cancel my first lesson. If I drive on to Inverness I risked running out of fuel (and then having to cancel maybe two lessons).
Not wanting to cancel a lesson, and being confident of my ability to drive in a fuel-efficient manner, I decided to drive on. I turned off the heater and the music system, then waited until a big lorry passed by, so that I could follow in their slipstream. As I pulled out behind the lorry, my trip computer said that I had 15 miles worth of fuel left.... And 16 miles to the next petrol station. Unfortunately, it just had to be the morning that a fierce gale was blowing straight towards me.... Why couldn't it have been blowing the other way?! So, despite the lorry ahead, I could still feel my car battling hard against the wind. And the miles left in my fuel tank were counting down fast.
12 miles left, 11, 10.... The wind was, if anything getting even stronger and I was having to press quite firmly on the accelerator to stay behind the lorry and not lose momentum. 9, 8, 7 miles and I still had more than ten miles to go. Not only that, but, on that stretch of the A96, there are not many places I could pull over and feel comfortable leaving my car if (when?) I did run out of fuel. By the time I reached Tornagrain roundabout I apparently had 3 miles of fuel left. Thirty seconds later the trip computer said 'Time up..... You are about to grind to an embarrassing halt.' (it didn't really say that, it just said '0 miles', but it might have well had said that). And I still had over five miles to go. I didn't even have a downhill stretch to help me (and even if there was, I'm convinced the wind was strong enough to try and push me uphill). The lights of Inverness and the Kessock bridge were getting closer.... At least now I wouldn't have to walk too far to get a can of diesel. Half a mile to go and I could see the lights of the petrol station teasing me. 200m and just two more roundabouts to go. Please don't run out of fuel on a roundabout. Phew! I got through the roundabouts and, to my immense incredulity and utter amazement, I made it into the petrol station and, thankfully, up to the pump. Never, never, never again do I want to put myself through that.
And I was going to end this post there, but the evening was equally tense.....
The wind didn't let up all day; if at all, it got stronger. So it was an unusual challenge on some lessons when some pupils were quite alarmed to feel how much the wind (especially a crosswind or headwind) could affect their steering. And home was an especially welcome sight for me at the end of the day.
Jane and I were sat, just finished dinner, enjoying some wine and listening to the wind howling around the house. Suddenly, there was a bang, a flash of light and the power went. We half expect a power cut when it's this wild but, looking out the window, I could see that some nearby houses still had power. Then we saw that one of the overhead electrical cables had been blown off the telegraph pole. It had crashed down onto the road, twisting in an arc over my neighbour's car and partly blocking the road. After calling the electricity company and the police I went out to see if there is anything I could do. It had only just missed our cars, so I moved them round the corner to try and create more room in the road. I've seen films and television where a live electrical cable snakes around, sending showers of sparks flying. Would this really happen? I usually have a scientific curiosity, but I certainly wasn't going to be experimenting with what was, as far as I was concerned, a live electrical cable. So, having moved the cars, I retreated to the safety (but darkness) of our front room to wait for the police and electricity company to spring into action.
A couple of minutes later, I watched in horror as the lady in the house opposite stepped outside her gate and, without a second's hesitation, grabbed the cable to try (unsuccessfully) to move the cable!!! She didn't die. Her hair didn't even stand up on end.
Why is it that, when you get a power cut, you get a strong desire for a cup of tea? Luckily, our neighbour, Irene, is a gem, and came round with a Thermos of boiling water (a bit disappointed that she didn't bring any cake though). She was far more proactive than the services - the electrical engineers took 2½ hours to turn up, and the police didn't bother at all! When my neighbour had grabbed the cable earlier I had wondered if I had been a bit silly not wanting to touch the cable. But when I saw the engineers handling the cable with 2m wooden poles I was relieved that I hadn't.

Lighten up

Some of the hardest stuff with learning to drive involves getting used to exactly how firm to press a pedal, or exactly how much to guide the steering wheel. You take all this for granted when you have been driving for a while, but can be quite difficult when you first start learning. Some controls, however, are much more straightforward..... Or so you would think.....
Lights. They are either on, or off. That's it. You don't have to get just the correct amount of brightness. You just have to decide when to use them. It shouldn't be difficult. I have had mini-rants previously, concerning indicators, but the correct use of lights has been my bugbear of late.
Firstly, lights on your car are not just there to help you see, but also to help you be seen. The choice then, is to select the light that gives you the best visibility, makes you visible to others, but doesn't blind others.
Side-lights: In the US they refer to these as parking lights, which gives you a good idea of when you should use them - when parked at night in a speed limit over 30mph (and when you want to make your car more visible when parked). Of course, they can be used whilst driving, but it should only be when the speed limit is 30mph or less. A lot of people seem to think, at dusk and dawn, 'it's only a bit dark.... I'll only put on a bit of light' and put sidelights on. Wrong. At faster speeds sidelights will have little effect on making you more visible, especially if there is a vehicle behind you with headlights on. Admittedly, some sidelights are brighter than others, but if you decide that it is dark/gloomy/wet enough to reach for your light switch, why not just turn it that extra little click and put your dipped headlights on?
Headlights: If you think it is getting fractionally harder to see ahead, then others are finding it harder to see you. So put your dipped headlights on. You don't have to wait until everyone else has done so.
Full-beam: Firstly, you don't need them when there are streetlights. You need them when there are no streetlights and you can't clearly see what is happening ahead (or where the road is going). So, in my opinion, you don't need them at dusk. The other day, after sunset, it was dark enough to require dipped headlights, but I could clearly see what was happening ahead without needing full-beam. Despite this, I lost count of the number of oncoming cars heading towards me with full-beam. And that brings me on to the next thing.... If you can see the arc of headlights swinging round a corner ahead, don't wait until the car is in front of you before dipping your lights. And THEN.... have the courtesy to wait until the oncoming car has completely passed before whacking the full-beam back on.
Fog lights: This crops up as one of the 'show me/tell me' questions, and the answer required is 'when visibility is less than 100m' (or words to that effect). Usually this means fog, but snowfall can reduce visibility to this distance. Rain can reduce vision below this distance, but it would have to be very heavy rain. Putting your rear foglights on during normal rain is unnecessary and can be irritating to following vehicles. Front foglights I don't really have a problem with (unless they are incorrectly aligned). I sometimes hear people moaning about people using front foglights unnecessarily, but I don't see that it causes a problem. Sometimes I am bemused when drivers have front foglights and sidelights on, or, even more bizarrely, front foglights and no other lights - I struggle to understand their thought process - but it is rarely a problem. I read a post from someone claiming that, in very thick fog, front foglights are obviously helpful (not all cars have them), but he claimed that dipped headlights can cause too much of a glare, making sidelights preferable. Maybe, but I would still use dipped headlights - mainly to make me more visible to others - and drive at a reduced speed if the glare was making vision that bad.
Roll on midsummer, when this becomes far less of an issue. I can already feel my next mini-rant brewing - roundabouts (especially lane discipline)... You have been warned!

Sneaking in at the back

I feel a little bit like arriving late to school, or work; trying to sneak in unnoticed without the teacher/boss spotting me. Over eleven weeks since I last set finger on these pages. I used to to think I was slacking if I went eleven days without a post. Shockingly poor form on my part.

"Well? BOY?!?! What is your excuse this time?!"

"Um...."  I can't think of a good reason. I have just been neglectful. There have been many times, these last few months, when I have thought of something I wanted to write about, but then changed my mind; or become so busy with other things that the moment passes and I have lost the urge to write. And sometimes, when I have thought 'I must write something in my blog', I have had a severe case of writer's block and not been able to think of anything worthwhile to say. But so much has happened: We have had new additions to our family ('Hello to Frankie and Dolly') - and one subtraction ('Goodbye Jilly'). I have had a healthy run of pupils passing their tests and being replaced by new pupils. We have witnessed all manner of bizarre behaviour from pupils, other road users, and even examiners. In fact, in such a time of change and surprise, the only thing that seems consistent is Liverpool FC's inconsistency.

So.... Happy New Year. Let's get the niceties and formalities out of the way. I hope 2013 will be the happiest and healthiest year yet. From a business point of view, I will be happy if 2013 is even 75% as good as 2012. Perhaps I should be more positive.... more..... thrusting. But, in truth, I was too busy in 2012. Where I used to claim that I was flexible, as far as fitting in with my pupils' needs, I just haven't been able to always give everyone the time that they wanted in recent months. I have spent ages trying to jiggle my diary around, constantly trying to create space to fit extra lessons in. And I have been lucky in that there has been a much smaller proportion of lesson cancellations, compared to some previous years. But, sometimes, I have actually been relieved when someone has cancelled. I shouldn't say that, I know. But it's true.

I have previously talked about pupils who have wished to remain anonymous, and I will always respect those wishes. And I have sometimes even had pupils ask if I would mention them in this blog - I can't imagine why, but I have done so on occasion. But, usually, I only mention pupils when they have passed their test, or done something else equally praiseworthy. Of course, being so lapse of late, I have not congratulated anyone for months. So.....

Congratulations to Rachel and Jamie on the birth of their baby girl, Frankie. I'm far too young to become a grandfather for the FIFTH time! (But, I'll make an exception in this case). 

Congratulations to Aaron, Alasdair, Alexander, Alison, Alistair, Andrew, Andy, Ashleigh, Ashton, Beth, Bethany, Brianna, Caitlin, Catherine, Catriona, Christopher, Conner, Daniel, Emma, Emma, Erin, Fergus, Gigha, Gracie, Hannah, Hayley, Hollie, James, James, Jasmine, Jean, Jemma, Jennifer, Jennifer, Jim, Joanne, Jodie, Josh, Julie, Kelly, Kerry, Kim, Lauren, Lawrence, Lean, Leanne, Lewis, Liam, Louise, Marcus, Mark, Matt, Melanie, Mhairi, Michelle, Nicola, Nigel, Olivia, Oonagh, Paul, Pauline, Piotr, Rehan, Robbie, Rory, Ross, Ruairidh, Sandy, Sarah, Seoras, Sophie, Struan, Tanja, Thomas and two others, who prefer not to be mentioned, on passing your driving tests in 2012. I wish you all safe driving. (and apologies if I missed anyone.)

Congratulations to Joanne on conquering Kilimanjaro. Various other pupils have done extraordinary things in 2012, but I think Joanne's was the one I was most in awe (and most jealous) of. 

New Year's resolutions? Hmmm....well......ummm......let me see....... I guess I should try to be a bit more organised. Maybe 'organised' isn't the exact word.... Perhaps 'structured' is better. I have done enough 'New pupil dances' (Apologies, Lochrie, for pinching your phrase) in 2012 to wear out several pairs of shoes. The trouble is, I don't like turning work down. There was a few weeks towards the end of the Summer when I seemed to be taking on another new pupil almost daily, but then I would worry about how I could possibly fit everyone in. In fact, I did turn down four new pupil enquiries over the Summer, but perhaps I should have turned down more. So, New Year resolution is to try and make my diary more structured and only take on new pupils when they can fit it around existing pupils. 

Ok.... I don't want to overdo it. I'm out of shape, blogging-wise, so I think that will do for now. 

Wishing you all the best for the New Year and I will try not to leave it so long next time.

The Heart of Darkness

So, for the last few weeks I have been getting up at 4.00am, two or three times a week, to do 5.00 - 7.00am lessons.
The first fifteen minutes are on rural roads, with no lighting, then we get into Elgin (or 'El-jin' as my satnav pronounces it, as though it is a Spanish gin). Town or country, it really is a different world at that time of night/morning. I always have The Specials 'Ghost Town' going round my head when we get to Elgin.
In many ways, the pupil benefits from lessons at this time because the roads are almost empty so we cover more ground. The main disadvantage is that they don't get the same practice dealing with meeting, crossing and emerging.
Now, it could be the headlights in our mirrors, but it seems that vehicles follow much more closely at this time. And there is much more speeding. OK, with empty roads you expect cars/vans to be going faster than usual, but not that fast.
On the other side of my area darkness causes other problems. Deer are a common hazard on the roads but, some roads, such as the A835 between Inverness & Ullapool, can seem full of deer in places. A few years ago I was giving a lesson at night when I saw the reflection of our headlights in a pair of eyes. I covered the brakes, a good thing too, as the deer sprung out into the road. We both went for the brakes and stopped within 2 metres of the animal.
A couple of weeks ago, someone who passed with me last year wasn't so lucky. She came round a corner near Loch Glascarnoch and hit a deer. She is the complete opposite of a boy (or girl) racer, but just got caught out.
Obviously we practiced many emergency stops in our lessons, without problems, but, in a real situation, those quick reactions become vital. I don't know exactly what happened -maybe she doesn't know herself - but sometimes reactions are delayed due to a split-second denial of what is in front of you.
It affected her confidence initially, but she was forced into repeating the journey when a colleague dislocated a shoulder and she had to drive her 60 miles to hospital.
The horror, the horror! (cine-literary joke).

Lucky dip

A somewhat embarrassing incident the other morning:
I often carry a small, pale blue backpack in my car with me. It contains my laptop, lunch, a few documents and various bits and bobs.
My pupil was asking about changing her address on her driving licence. Because my own driving licence was in my backpack I reached into the back seat to get my backpack. I opened the main compartment and rummaged through, looking for my appointments diary (which contained my licence). It didn't seem to be in the main compartment, which was worrying, so I looked in the smaller front compartment. Not there either so, getting quite anxious at the thought that I had mislaid my licence and my diary, I rummaged through the main compartment again. It must have been 20 seconds before I realised that I was looking in my pupil's pale blue backpack - not mine! I hastily zipped up her bag and spluttered an apology. She didn't really say much, but she certainly didn't seem bothered.
I still shudder at the thought of her wondering why I was looking through the contents of her bag. Hopefully not a mistake I'll make twice.

Open all hours

One of the bonuses of being self-employed is that I decide what hours I work. Having said that, I try to be flexible and do my best to fit in with what my pupils/customers want. A few years ago a pupil, who had her test the next morning, called me to ask if she could fit in another lesson that night. I tried to reassure her that her driving was easily good enough to pass, but she really wanted an extra lesson. As a result, I fitted her in at 9.30pm, so I didn't get home until nearly 11.00pm.
Then, last year, another pupil, with an 8.40am test, wanted a two hour lesson before his test, so I set off to work at 6.15am that day.
A couple of weeks ago, a new pupil had her first lesson and we were trying to arrange the next few lessons. 
I remember trying to arrange a lesson with someone who asked me for a morning lesson. I offered her 11.30am (it was the only slot I had left). "No, that's too early for me. Have you got anything later?" she asked. Not really my definition of 'morning'.
So when she asked me "Do you do mornings?" I wondered exactly what time she had in mind.
"What time would you like?" I asked.
"Five O'clock?"
"A.M?"
"Yes. Can we do 5.00 - 7.00am two our three times a week?"
Slightly shocked, I agreed.
The first morning I was cursing myself for agreeing to such an early start (especially as my alarm was set for a mere five hours after flying back from Birmingham). But, now, I quite like these early lessons. Elgin is almost completely empty at this time, so we get so much done in those two hours. And it is quite nice getting two hours work under my belt, then going home for breakfast to set me up for a full day's work.
I might change my mind again next week when her colleague starts lessons with me, meaning three 5.00am starts and two 6.00am starts in one week.

The mild wild West

It was a black night. The landscape was black, the rain was black and the sky was very black. I was even dressed in black. The rain was unrelenting and bounced back angrily from the pavement while lightning cracked the sky.
I stood facing the building for a few second, had a quick glance around, then pushed open the door. A dozen pairs of eyes turned to look at me while the barman looked down at the glass he was polishing. I ordered a drink and took a seat in a corner.
The door opened again and all eyes turned to look at the four figures, all dressed in black, who stood surveying the scene. Their eyes met mine and I stood to face them.
That was as dramatic as the whole evening got. Joan, Robbie, Pam and Effie - the other four members of 'Way Out West', our quiz team from The Argyll, Ullapool - were in town. We were in South Queensferry for the Scottish final of the Great British Pub Quiz.
Although it obviously increased our chances of winning, I was actually disappointed with the fact that there week weren't dozens of rival teams. Anyway, you can only beat what's in front of you and, like a cerebral Mo Farrah, we stretched our lead as the night went on. We won an unusually tasteful trophy and some cash. But, more importantly, it meant we qualified for the Grand Final of the Great British Pub Quiz in Villa Park, Birmingham.  And so it was, that last weekend, we flew from Inverness to Bristol, then caught the train to Birmingham to stay overnight in an hotel - all for a quiz.
The final was very different to the Edinburgh final. A quite grand affair, in Aston Villa's function suite, with professional lighting, a full Audio-visual set-up, electronic buzzer rounds, a whole team of people collecting and marking answer sheets, a rather impressive buffet and free beer! The whole thing was very organised and professional, and was co-hosted by Mark 'The Beast' Labbett (from ITV's 'The Chase'). The only trouble was, there were (gulp) 25 teams.
Well, it was a fun event, but we didn't exactly excel. There were a couple of buzzer rounds, which proved to be our downfall. One was a gamble round where there were big points to be won for gambling on an answer as early as possible, but you would lose points for an incorrect answer. We just played it too safe and waited too long to be sure of not making a wrong answer, but missed out on the big points. As a result, we finished a rather lowly 18th. However, we were made a big fuss of by the hosts and the organisers, simply because of the 1000 mile round journey we had made, and consequently, when we were presented with our regional champions trophy at the end of the night, we probably received the biggest cheer of the night.
So, congratulations to The Lions (who won), and 'thank you' to the hosts and to Punch, who sponsored the quiz and made such a big fuss of our team.
We almost didn't bother going to the final, because it was such a long journey, but we agreed it was all worthwhile in the end and hope to get through to the final again in the future.
Way out West will ride again. Yee Ha!