Test

[Rhubarb]

0

Good God. The road test here takes 20 minutes. I am so glad I am here!

I so wish I was too, I would have whistled through
I have to be honest I wasn't confidant about Thursday (so you know where I'm going here). When I got to the school on my baby 125 both Paul and Bill were already there looking very somber. They had had a break in and 4 bikes had been stolen and one trashed and parts stolen.
At least the other lockup hadn't been broken into, but the bike I had been using was gone. No worries they did have two more. So I had to get use to another bike (ok same model just felt different for some reason). So its a two hour ride with the last hour on roads I was totally unfamiliar with, through the city, over a toll bridge and past the naval base. We went and got lunch and Bill did his best to keep my nerves down. I felt really shaky.
You are no longer allowed near the test site until one hour before the test so I couldn't even go and see the track until I went to book in. The instructors aren't even allowed to park in the test centre, they have to leave their bikes outside on the airfield and walk in.
The examiner was nice enough but ....I couldn't understand his accent, he was Scots!! What the hell? France is closer I'd been better off if he spoke in French.

So, you know I failed.
The other instructors were gob smacked how far we had ridden and said no wonder I struggled, I was so tired, remembering I have only ridden this size bike once before. None of their students had travelled more that 20 miles, one even lived on the airfield housing estate! He walked across from his house to collect his bike from his instructor (who was a really nice lady- ex Army driving instructor). She gave me a few tips 'us girls must stick together' which was very helpful.
The lad in front of me failed on the slow ride (so did I! My best feature, I hate putting my feet down) but the examiner was so short and he walked so slow a tortoise would have failed. I slowly over took him and at one point was keeping pace, which I thought was what he had asked me to do (that accent!)

Judith- lady instructor told us that she had an American living here and needed to take his UK licence. She took him through the CBT (the test I have now) and he said that would have been advanced training in his State.
Our laws are ludicrus, because although I failed....I was able to ride the two hours home again and get back on my little 125 to go home.

Judith also told us this American need to get his car licence too, he had been using his US licence for a year. He drove himself to the test centre, afixed L-plates front and back and the examiner failed him after the test. He took the L-plates back off and drove home. Now actually if your a resident you need an instructor sat with you at all times and if you do fail they must drive you away from the test centre and you are not allowed to drive for the rest of the day or re-apply for 5 working days to re-take the test. That doesn't apply with non-nationals- no wonder our roads are bonkers!

So, I think it will be October before a re-take. God! I hope the examiner speaks English

*Note Bill told Paul, I am a really good rider and although I was really tired at the end of the day I did a near perfect ride even using indicators correctly and the Save a Life glances at just the right times, including a perfect emergency stop when a kid decided to to a U-turn in the heavy traffic we were 'white-lining' through.

Poor Mark was disappointed though, he told me he was looking to buy me a Suzuki 400 for my birthday (in pink and blue).