Be Excellent To Each Other

Mimimimimimi

Figaro figaro figaro

I think they are about £20/25 an hour now

I think I paid £10 an hour for mine back in.... Erm.... when I was 17 or 18? 1997/8 then.

Nice one Mimi, good luck with it all.

Can't remember how many lessons I had (they were for my 17th birthday) but I did pass first time.

3rd time mother fudgers. Woot!

I passed first time, but what really helped me is doing two-hour lessons instead of one.

That said, I was always a nervous driver before and after passing my test and hopefully I can get away with never driving again.

Mine cost me £20 p/h a few years ago. I spent weeks and weeks having one hour lessons, once a week and it was so stupid. With a young baby and lack of sleep etc by the time the next week rolled around I'd forgotten virtually everything from the week prior. As soon as I started having two hour lessons it clicked a lot faster. I wish I'd had 2-3 hours a week, I could have saved a fortune.

Mimi - it was a huge deal for me taking lessons, in part because I felt like I'd missed the boat because of age, and because my ex didn't want me to have them (obviously realised that the more independence I had the more likely I was to leave him..) but it makes such a difference day to day. And now I zoom about everywhere Good luck, I'm sure you'll rock

1st time passers sub forum request.

First time passers are shit drivers

I could also see you in a Nissan S Cargo, though not necessarily in that colour scheme.

Six lessons. Passed first time. In fact my driving test was 16 mins long. I remember noticing by the clock on the dash of the car. 30 years ago this year!

Had a 30 hour intensive driving course with BSM and failed the test at the end of it. Then waited two years, then had about 10 more hours and plenty of practice in between and passed with flying colours.

People that pass second time around are the best drivers, obv.

30 hours? Fuck. How many days is that spread across?

How many accidents have you had?

One.

(I jest above, of course. I doubt there is any correlation)

Ahem.

The other one doesn't count.

I passed third time.

I caught the bottom edge of my car on my gate post twice in the first week of driving and rear-ended someone when traffic suddenly stopped short of a roundabout, because I was shouting at the kids to shut the fuck up so I could concentrate on my driving (irony). Luckily I had braked soon enough that it was literally just the last couple mm of travel and the only damage was a split in my number plate. The folks I bumped let me go.

Touch wood, despite several near misses (people driving at me, I mean) I'm otherwise accident-free in 4 years of driving.

And the one in your pants?

Oh wait, nor does hitting Egg/Toby's parents gate on our way from Gaywood's wedding to the BeexBQ.

Are they brothers?!

Tyre get! Including fitting and cleaning up the alloy on the inside because of all the shit I'd pumped into it, £233.

Apparently it would have been unrepairable anyway as it'd got a nail stuck right into the inside sidewall.

So yes, you can get a 'lot of car for the money' with a big stupid ten year old Mercedes but VERY EXPENSIVE if you ever need anything for it.

I think you knew that going into the situation

No, I just couldn't remember whose place it was.

6 days - started on the Friday with 4 hours if I remember, then 6 hours for the Monday-Thursday, then 2 hours on the Friday morning to prepare for the test, then the test Friday afternoon.

Looking back on it, I was bound to fail with that kind of regimen. Way too much to take in.

What problem did that solve?

If they say "balance" hit them over the head with the empty can of gunk.

Lack of money.

Quite.

I fucking hate mechanics like that.

Hsd a quick look at lunch. Second cinder from from left is quite wobbly. Good few mm movement in all directions. Will investigate further at weekend

Forgot how annoying defrosting the windscreen is. At least the full can of de-icer that's been rattling around the footwell of the passenger seat all year finally had a reason to be there!

Don't be tempted to set off early if everything's not yet de-fogged or de-iced. Those extra few minutes sat on your drive are better than crashing.

Just general advice there from me sitting in my car this morning with the MAX button on. Not singling you out, Kern.

No worries. I've not felt comfortable driving off when all I've got is a small letterbox to look out of.

I once read on a poster in a service station toilet whilst attending to other matters that turning the air conditioning on helps clear the window quicker so I always do that but have never tested it properly.

Air con on. Full blast on the screen. Internal air circulation.

Or if that doesn't work, rub your sleeve on the inside of the window and call it a "fucking cunt"

Most cars these days have a single button that does all those things in one.

Well, apart from the fucking cunt bit.

I must confess I'm a twat for setting off when I probably shouldn't visibility wise. I do recall one winter day when I had to stop at the end of our lane for a bit, as hanging out the driver-side window to see is really not a recommended way to drive, and I was like, 'Come on Al, this is pretty fucking stupid, even for you'.

Maybe in your fancy dancy Mercedes there's a button. I bet it comes with a special sleeve as well!

I often see people on the way to work overtake me dangerously.

I have a solid 30mph limit all the way to work, through various villages, so there's little to be gained, but I can't help but wonder what's so urgent that these people have to gain the extra 3 metres of journey space.

"Got to get to work! Quiiiick!"

Dunno. Maybe their journey has lots of traffic lights and getting ahead of the cycle means time gains?

I think you're missing the point, even if they manage to make an extra minute or two saving on their journey, all they've achieved is getting to work early - hooray!

Or 'not late' which is somewhat more important.

Plot Twist! Russ's speedo is configured wrong and he is, in fact, driving everywhere at 26mph, causing much early-morning fury!

You jest, but I think I remember Honda had an issue with their Fireblade motorcycles speedometers under reading and there was a recall to fix it.

It's pretty common really, even tyre wear has an effect. I heard somewhere that vw golfs (mk4/5 i think) all run slow up to 10%, its legal to under read, but not to over read. from production anyway, I don't think MOTs care what it says.

It'll have to be exactly as wrongly configured as my sat nav I suppose. I don't *think* they under-read.

Also, there's two things that I can see if you're late:
1) If you're repeatedly late it's your own fault and you should set off earlier.
2) If it's a one off because of bad weather or traffic then your job should be understanding. If being late once can lead to a stress causing situation (disciplinary, warnings etc), then it's a terrible job and will give you stress related disease and you'll be dead soon anyway. Most likely from crashing into oncoming traffic.

Sat navs are only accurate if you're going along a straight, flat road. If not, it's likely your speedo is better.

Oh it's definitely 1) for me, but I'd rather have an extra ten mins in bed.