Passed!

This being the day when my daughter passed her Practical Driving Test I'm reminded of my own.

If we can clear up the boasts first of all:  I passed first time after only 15 hours driving (not necessarily as good thing, but our family didn't have a car to practice in).  I thought you'd be impressed.

On the other hand, my daughter passed almost flawlessly today and that I cannot say for myself.  In those days the test ended with a series of questions on the Highway Code.  One of mine was, what signal follows amber?

In the whole realm of questions this one is very easy.  After all, when you know that the other two are red and green and that red and green never appear at the same time you are left with a choice of two.  I chose green.

It was a regrettable choice but for reasons I have never fully understood I was given a pass. Presumably I had already demonstrated in my driving that I did not really believe my own answer. 

What you do when warned of danger is down to two pedals - the accelerator and the brake.  As we move toward a General Election I think that moving back to London has helped me better understand the political life of our nation which is so firmly based here.  London seems to regard amber lights as a reason to hit the accelerator.  So many nation-changing decisions made during this outgoing parliament has been of the same kind.  People have warned about messing about with welfare caps, with marriage, with numbers of biological parents (good grief . . .), with freedom of speech and a host of other things only to find the accelerator pushed down.

I made a nasty mistake.  But I'm not alone.

One Month back in London

Celebrating this Anniversary today it strikes me that there are a bunch of London things that I am reliving after years of being away.

 

1. My driving has diminished.  On ringing the Car Insurer to discuss my new (higher of course) premium the receptionist suggested I might do only half or less of my previous mileage.  She was right.

 

2. My driving has deteriorated.  Perhaps not in quality, but certainly in politeness.  The tipping point occurred about the third or fourth time I was cut up by a white van that was deliberately using the wrong lane to get past a line of traffic I was in.

 

3. My parking has improved.  Basically, if you can't park your car in a space that is smaller than it there's no point in having a car in London.

 

4. I no longer associate the Oyster with the seaside but with Red Buses.
 



5. I now assume that everyone in church comes from a different country to everyone else.  e.g. Brazil, Japan, Costa Rica, Iran, South Africa, Nigeria, France, Cyprus, Poland, Malaysia, Singapore, Romania, Italy, Burma . . .

6. I am reminded that every church building in London seems to have at least two churches meeting in it, and usually one or two based in a different language.

7. I assume everyone in London has a baby - it is not at all hard to understand why London is projected to grow by a million people in the next ten years as I negotiate a thousand prams in the shopping street.

8. I have rediscovered that, while everyone outside London thinks of living there as their worst nightmare, nearly everyone who does live there loves it to bits.

9. Every loft is converted.

10. There is always an airliner overhead.