Yesterday
I had my assessment for my upcoming large vehicles/C1 driving test.
Having driven the truck once or twice this summer, before we realised I
needed to upgrade my licence - once with disastrous consequences, when
the gear box went boom - my confidence was hardly soaring.
It went as well as could be expected. Steve (from Lancing Driver Training)
was everything you’d want in an instructor, cool, calm, encouraging;
quite the opposite of having my darling Huw in the passenger seat,
screeching “DON’T PANIIIC!” at every gear change and passing car.
The
hour passed quickly with one mounting of the kerb and only a couple of
hairy moments. He assured me I’d only need a four day course, with the
test on the fourth day, as opposed to the usual five, so I left feeling
I would one day soon be a confident, fully qualified driver of large
vehicles...and over £500 lighter. Huw of course is spared all this
additional hassle and expense as he has “grandfather status” on his
ancient licence. It really is called that, and I can’t help reminding
him at opportune times!
So
now it’s full steam ahead, as it were, towards the final hurdles.
Before I can begin my course I must pass the hazard perception and
theory tests. My world has therefore become a blur of stopping
distances and EU regulations about driving hours and questions such as:
You
are the driver of a refrigerated vehicle loaded with hanging meat
carcasses. You should be especially careful when turning corners
because of the
(a) wave effect
(b) camber effect
(c) gravity effect
(d) pendulum effect
Honestly. Has it come to this?
Mind you, if Huw still insists on being the world’s worst back-seat driver, maybe that question might not seem so irrelevant.
