Aw crap!

I failed my driving test. I only got four minor faults, but I got two serious ones, ha ha.

I'm disappointed, but the major faults were both on my reverse round a corner which was an unmitigated disaster. The rest of my drive was really good and so were the other manoeuvres (reverse park, emergency stop, hill start). But the reverse round a corner. Yikes.

I was so worried about being too near to the kerb that I went wide. I mean really wide. So wide that I was probably in danger of clipping the opposite kerb. It was easily the worst one I've ever done. Worse than the very first time I did it and I didn't even know what I was doing or which way to turn the wheel. When I realised that I couldn't see the kerb (the one I was meant to be staying near) in my wing mirror, I knew I was in trouble.

So then I tried to reverse closer. I looked up and thought - hmmm, I'm on the wrong side of the road, that can't be good - then I carried on reversing staring wildly into the wing mirror. And then the instructor said, 'You'll have to stop there. You're an idiot.' He didn't really. He said, 'You'll have to stop there, there's a car behind you'. Which I hadn't noticed because I was staring into the wing mirror desperately trying to see the distant kerb.

I suspected (quite strongly) that I'd failed there and then. But then as I was driving around I thought maybe you get another chance. Maybe if my next manoeuvre is good he'll let me off that one. But no.

It's annoying that I've got to pay for more lessons and there'll be another �80 for another test, but I'm glad that I've got the new instructor who I love. I'm sure he'll be able to sort my reverse out for the next time. Also, I'm sort of glad that I've done it cos I won't be so nervous next time (I don't think). Since I was young, I've always had taking your driving test in mind as a huge scary thing. Well, it wasn't so scary after all. And it was only half an hour. So. Onwards! (Not backwards.)