The Driving Test

In order to 'Drive Thru Our Lives' here we had to take a driving test and I will tell you that the very thought struck terror into me. It's been a few years, OK a good few since I took my driving test in England...and I failed first time round.

A drivers license is very necessary here because obviously it enables you to drive, it also acts as your photo-id which you have to carry everywhere with you and present fairly regularly, I was very nervous carrying my passport around all the time knowing my propensity to lose things and I don't lose any old things, just important things. It also enables you to own a car - if you also have a social security number...but that's another story.

We had the date set and around about 100 pages of North Carolina Highway Code to revise and just the sight of all those pages were overwhelming and we just didn't feel confident enough so we postponed it for a week. The day approached and Ian thought about postponing it again but by this time I just wanted it over and done with - if I failed I'd just have to take it again the following week.

The day came and we made our way to the test centre. We presented our paperwork and waited to called by our assigned examiner. Mine was Miss Frosty and I don't think it helped her mood when I pulled out an anti-bac wipe to clean the binocular like eye test machine - I'm not THAT fussy or an OCD case but it did look very greasy where hundreds of other foreheads had probably rested to take the eye test. Next was the computerised multiple choice theory test in which you had to get 20/25 correct to take the driving part of the test. Thanks to Jo (a Brit friend in New Jersey) I was well prepared for this as she'd told me about a website where you could practice questions. The test wasn't hard but some of the terminology was very different to the DVLA version and I can't now remember all the examples but...'defensive driving' was one. Should you practice defensive driving? Ian and I both thought that this would be a bad thing but apparently defensive driving is a good thing! I got one wrong and passed on another because I just didn't understand the question and it was onto the 'driving' test.

Ian took his first and passed, so there was no pressure was there? Me and Miss Frosty make our way to Ian's hire car and in my head I keep repeating to myself, speed limit (I'd been practicing for days at trying to stick to it!), 3 point turn and emergency stop. After checking the car for road worthiness we were off. One thing I had noticed was that there is usually a speed limit sign at least every 200yards along every road - but not this one! I hazard a guess that it's 45 and breath a sigh of relief when I do eventually see a sign. Around this time Miss Frosty thawed and became quite chatty which I didn't think was very helpful and made me wonder if it was a distraction technique!

So ten minutes in and I've observed and stuck to the speed limit, turned left and right, carefully 3 point turned and I'm thinking, 'just an emergency stop to go, just an emergency stop to go.' When Miss Frosty says 'stop' I did THE best emergency stop I've ever done...only she didn't quite want it to happen then because she actually wanted me to just stop and then show her how good I am at reversing. Ooops! Thankfully she saw the funny side, I reverse, we drive on and then she lets me do my emergency stop. Not quite as good as the first but it was good enough.

Back to the test centre to be told I had passed, have my mug shot taken and to hear that my license will be in the post in a few days. Celebration time! - Ian and I actually had lunch together, on our own, which I don't think has ever happened during the last 5 years!!