Am thoroughly soaked after walking to work. On the way I saw a frog lying upside in the road, the poor bugger. I hate seeing dead frogs, and I was quite surprised when it moved so I picked it up and put it on the verge where it was less likely to be killed. And yes it was a frog, I am aware of the differences between frogs and toads. It was a fat blighter too! Annoyingly the workmen have closed pedestrian access on Primrose Hill now, so I had to walk up a mud track in the rain.

All this, of course, was after my driving test which was this morning. I've never been so nervous in my life about anything, I'm not a fan of one-on-one tests as they make me really nervous. Last night was worse when everything culminated. I had a beer to try and settle my nerves and played with some more OpenGL to try and forget about it.

This morning I was surprisingly calm. My reasoning for this was the fact that I knew that I could now face the fear head on and get it out of the way rather than dreading it for days on end. Somehow the realisation that I could now just get on with it made it a little more bearable.

When Andy Bowker arrived at 9:44 I was starting to feel the nerves again, and I made a number of really stupid little mistakes during the hour before the test. I soon started to calm down again and things picked up, but then we had to go to the DSA and park up ready for the test. I could see the last person who had taken their test as they left but was unsure if they'd passed or not.

We parked up and Andy took me through all the controls one last time to make sure I knew where everything was for the maintenance questions that they now ask you to answer then we locked the car and he gave me the key. Somehow that was a bit of a confidence boost as it reminded me that all this was so that I could have my own car with my own key - it was almost like a symbol of the point of this exercise, and so that helped a lot.

There was a short wait inside the test centre and when the examiner appeared he had someone with him who I soon after found out was also coming on the test with me. I'd been dreading this, as if one person isn't bad enough. We went through the paper-work and then walked to the car. There were the usual simple maintenance questions and the practical test began. My heart was running at triple speed by this point but he piped up a conversation which helped; telling people mundane facts about your life is surprisingly good for the nerves.

All seemed ok at the start following an intricate route through the town which tests for various things, from observation to control to speed and ability to read the road. In fact everything seemed fine until we got to Penglais hill and I put the car into third, which was fine for cruising but not for getting my speed to 30 Mph. I had to shift back to 2nd, which I don't think he liked, and then back to 3rd once we had a little more speed. That wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been carrying two passengers, but never mind. No point crying over spilt milk.

Things progressed quite nicely until I was asked to take a parking position and brushed the curb. D'OH! I wasn't sure if that was a failable offence: It is certainly a failing offence on the turn in the road. We carried on and did some other stuff including a turn in the road, an Emergency stop (which wasn't good as the brakes were wet and I was carrying extra weight). At one point I think I scored brownie points by asking the bloke in the back seat to take his arm off the seat as it was obscuring my vision out of the rear window. Hehheh.

After what seemed like ten minutes or so of driving we were obviously heading back to the test centre. Not a good sign, it suggests you've mounted up the minors and they've accumulated to become a major - ie a fail. We got back and he didn't ask me to do a reverse bay park, which is his usual finishing touch. Damn. I drove into the parking bay, switched the engine off. He took a moment to organise his paper work. I awaited the final blow; the "I'm very sorry, but on this occasion you have not passed your test..." spiel.

When he spoke and said "Well I'm very pleased to tell you that you've passed your test" I mentally heard what I was expecting to hear, and there was a strange sort of verbal double-take going on inside my head. My facial expression almost certainly remained grave as I threw my head back and said "Thank God I don't have to do that again!".

I'd passed with 8 minors, most of which were down to nerves. Silly things like brushing the curb, failing to check something on the turn in the road, gear selection etc. After signing what seemed like a mountain of paperwork he explained how to go about getting my license updated. We got out and went to meet Andy who didn't seem at all surprised. I'm not sure if that's because he was confident in me or because he's just been doing it so long that it means nothing to him.

He drove me back and we had a chat about PassPlus and driving in general before I got out. I'm really thankful that I chose to take my test in Aberystwyth, Andy really helped my driving improve a lot. If it hadn't been for him I'd still be dipping the clutch on corners. Strange how nobody else picked up on that. Thanks to Andy I can now go back to Nottingham and collect my Peugeot 106 and start living a life of freedom.

Suffice to say I'm in a good mood right now... Wow, this is one hell of a long Blog! You are now free to go and do something more interesting.