h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Marv

I'm all right. Things are a bit crazy around these parts. Settling into a new place and a new job and living with the boyfriend officially is a big adjustment. I'm still slightly nervous about the parents knowing that we share an apartment. It's weird.

Still trying to get online more often. It tends to be a losing battle sometimes. New job is great, though. I'm working as a Training Intern for a local Police Department. It's a pretty easy job and I get to check out the internal workings of the PD. All in all, a good thing.

Where did we go wrong? Sea wants to be a cop .

Glad to see you back in the Atelier. Lots of new faces around here if you just look about.

Hey does the new job mean you get to fix parking tickets and whatnot, sea?

I told you all I failed my driving test first time cos I nearly ran over a milkman, didn't I? Still, I meantain I drive perfectly safely now, although my mother has a tendency to clutch at her knees and suck in her breath every time I approach a corner or a junction.

Hi sea!

As far as I can see all a driving test does is make sure you can handle a car relatively safely and know the highway code (or are at least a good guesser). I don't think you really learn to 'drive' until you are in a car on your own.

Hopefully, No2 son will get the Polo sorted out soon for another learner to practice on. They will be getting a bargain as No2 son has replaced the timeing belt, head gasket and the clutch.

The only thng I'm not entirely happily about with me new car is that it has permanent traction control. It will make driving down the single track, high hedge country back roads a different experience. The Black Beauty just loves them and still holds tight to the road when a Range Rover or Jeep 4x4 comes roaring round a blind bend with no passing place in sight. The only drawback then, is that the Celica is so low slung that I can't get up the bank to get out of the way. So I breath in, hold steering wheel firmly and put my faith in ABS, we usually manage to stop bumper to bumper with the 4x4 owner gesticulating wildly which I put down to their knowing they were guilty for driving badly

[Munchkin]
Passed on the second attempt, failed the first due to going over a blind summit on the wrong side of the road. There were parked cars on my side, but I surprised someone coming the other way. Never quite worked out what I was supposed to do, get out and walk to the top of the hill to see if it was clear? After passing I barely drove for ten over ten years and now drive like a particularly nervous Granny.

[Amy]

waves to sea and B4 - if that flash going by was B4

Munchkin, the pictures I've seen of roads in Scotland make them look very narrow. That would make me drive like a nervous granny, too. Instead of like a out of hell, which is what I've been accused of by my mother.

I think the reason I managed to pass the first time is that I was getting two lessons a week for about three months. I also had the incentive that if I failed that time I'd have to take the new style at the time theory test as well as the practical test (I passed a couple of months before that came in )
Currently over visiting my sister in the wilds of the country. They've recently got the vehicle I want, an old long wheelbase LandRover 4x4 with LPG conversion. I'd not have to worry about too many speeding tickets with one of those.

It took me three times to pass the test. The first time I bumped into a car behind me while parallel parking (the driving instructer said 'keep going'). There was no damage done as I merely "kissed" the bumper but that's why I failed. Other than that I had no points taken away. This was the first time I parallel parked in the car I was driving and I blame wheel responsiveness.

The second test I failed miserably. It was horrific. Different driving instructer who didn't like me from the get go. Come to find out he goes out with all the drivers that failed the 1st test and he only passed 11 students in the previous 4 years. A civil suit was brought up against him later and he thankfully no longer has his job.

Third time I had the same guy as first. Received a 92% on my driving (I had received a 100 on my written), points were taken away from not using a directional signal to pull out of my parking space, in a parking lot , and for not driving "offensively enough." Crazy world where courtesy gets you minus points.

On the whole dyslexia issue, I have very specialised dyslexia. Basically, I have extreme problems with processing mirror images. My brain just can't tolerate them. If you had me map certain vectors on a grid, 99.8% of the time I'd map them the exact reverse of what they should be.

I am also maths dyslexic, meaning my brain has a hard time with numbers. A lot of it is me second guessing myself as I know that my brain is capable of devious deeds.

When I was in high school, my father decided I needed to learn to drive. Heck, I was perfectly happy to tool around town on my 10-speed bicycle, and my friends had cars so I didn't NEED one. Anyway, he had this older Chevy truck with the gear shift on the steering column, that we took out for the test driving. I'd already passed my Learner's Permit test, knew the road signs and regulations, but hadn't had any practical experience. I was doing pretty good with it in the straight-ways because there wasn't that much shifting to do, but the corners and intersections played h*ll with my nerves, not to mention my Dad's! I gave him a case of "white knuckle syndrom"; we never did the imprints out of the dashboard...

Later in the year in school, I got the chance to take Driver's Education, which was a review of all the regulations and some driving practice with an instructor in an Automatic "point and shoot" car. The car was set up kind of funny, in that it had a secondary brake system pedal on the instrucor's side so he could mitigate a potential accident. Thankfully, I was paired with other learners who also had some skill and the instructor never needed to use the 'emergency' measure.

I didn't bother with getting a full license until I joined the military. Then it became a matter of pride, as I was the only person in our department without one, and in our job we were required to drive any number of different vehicles, some ranging up to 2-1/2 to 5-ton capacity. I felt dwarfed by the size of these machines. Before I actually got my state driver's license, one of my co-workers taught me how to use the clutch properly, something I hadn't mastered. Eglin AFB has a HUGE 3-county reservation and he took me out to one of the dirt roads to practice. He parked the vehicle on a gently rising inclined stretch, filled with potholes and washed out on either side, and sent me to the driver's seat. Then he coached me through finding the "break point" on the clutch, where you feel the equilibrium of the engine as it just begins to engage the drive train but doesn't propel the vehicle. After I realized I had CONTROL of that function, there was no stopping me from learning a wide variety of vehicle types and gain my qualifications.

B4

Balancing the clutch is something you have to master fairly early on here in Guildford. Although the North Downs are not particularly high, the town centre is on the side of a hill. Also the High Street is cobbled and very slippery in the rain. It is now one way only, uphill, and is closed to traffic during part of the day, but it was open to two way traffic when I was learning and a nightmare for all learner drivers.

The sense of achievement when I mastered the technique without the instructor having to resort to his dual controls, was a definite high point. Hill starts both up and down where another necessity early on in my driving course.

I am considering getting my motorcycle endorsement soon. I rather want a motorcycle, and I don't want to risk the ticket I got the last time...

The trouble is, I don't know how you legally get the bike to the DMV to take your riding exam. Guess I should call them up and ask.

[{Courtesy}]
*passed the written & driving exam on the first try*

Where I learnt to drive and took my test, in Swindon UK, all test routes went round the magic roundabout. This is a horrendous piece of road engineering supposadly combining the best of mini roundabouts with a big roundabout but generally ending up with the worst possible way for things to happen. (see A381089 for a description of another one). Locals got used to the almost free for all going on but visitors to the town always found it a bit of a shock! Saying that at least it was only a single junction turn to the right you got on the test there.

The first car I owned, as well as the car with which I learned how to drive, were both manual (stick) transmission. In 1999 I bought an automatic and, after four years, I *still* find my right hand moving to fiddle with the gear shaft and my left foot searching for something to stomp on.

"I'm okay as long as I think "liver" and "spleen" rather than left and right. Though people don't tend to understand if you say "turn to your spleen side, then take the first turning on your liver side"

Rolling On The Floor Laughing My Ass Off!

Ah... the Magic Roundabout, Phil. I took my first test in Swindon.

http://www.strum.co.uk/wessex/brunpic.htm
and
http://www.swindonweb.com/life/lifemagi0.htm

I confess to being rather fond of it!

Ben

Oh dear is it that odd to think liver and spleen? I guess most medical students don't have problems with left and right before they do anatomy, I'll ask around next time I'm in the pub.

Bryce - well my education was only unconventional because I was home educated for two years and we didn't really concentrate on English once I could read. Then when I went to school I found spelling dull so I refused to bother with it.

A magic roundabout? It looks like a way for many people to get very dead in a short time.

[]

{[caer]}