Monday 21 January 2013

SNOW!

Don't worry, this isn't a stupidly, annoyingly chirpy blog post all about snow and how awesome it is. It's a stupidly and trying very hard to be amusing blog post all about snow and how shit it is.

It happens every year: the whole country comes to a standstill over a bit of snow. While I enjoyed the fact that on Friday I didn't have to go to uni and that I got to leave work an hour early yesterday, I do not enjoy the constant rush of people panic buying, my post being delayed (not that I ever get anything - I'm still at that age where it's exciting to get post), and the fact that there is nothing to do at work.

I have a brother who lives in Canada, and from the pictures I've seen, they get so much more snow than we ever have - but things still carry on over there. Today, 90 schools in Northamptonshire were closed. I understand we need to keep the children safe and the staff can't make it in, but jeez, if we as a country were better prepared for snow then we wouldn't need to close the schools.

I hardly ever got snow days when I was at school (you cannot believe how old I feel just thinking about typing that sentance), the first one I got was in year 12. While it was nice to have a day off, my school wasn't the most organised - which resulted in me walking in carrying a fuck-off psychology textbook (900 pages I'm talking here), my folder for psychology (which was jam packed with all the sodding notes we had to take) and my DT folder; falling over multiple times, and getting to the locked gates only to be phone by my mum telling me they had literally JUST updated their website saying they were closed. Cue me arriving back home, soaking and freezing.

While I would have happily took a snow day if work decided to close, I just think its pathetic how everyone's lives have to stop because of a little sky jizz. I know it's dangerous at times and I'd rather not drive in it, but tomorrow I'm going to have to because of an agreed group contract that I signed saying we'd attend unless ill.

And what's with the constant photos on Facebook? Seriously LETS ALL TAKE PICTURES OF THE SNOW BECAUSE WE'VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE AHH AWESOME! Why?! We hardly ever get nice weather but people don't take pictures of the sun shining on their cars parked in the driveway. Okay, it's a bit pretty. But I've seen snow before, and I'm sure I'll see it again.

Monday 14 January 2013

Lifescouts: Driving Badge!

I'm a fan of Alex Day on YouTube. If you've never checked out his channel, you can do so here. He makes some pretty good videos and now and again does projects, mainly music/charity stuff. His most recent though has excited the crap out of me because it's such an awesome idea. It's called Lifescouts and is based around when kids would get scout badges for the achievenments. There's different badges for different life experiences such as hot air ballooning, playing guitar, visiting the Empire State Building etc. and the idea is if you've done what the badge represents, you retweet/repost/Facebook it with your experience, so people get to find out your story. And, even cooler, you can buy them too. You can watch the video of it here and check out the badges here. I don't have a Tumblr account (well I do, but I don't use it that often), so I'll just be reposting the badges I've 'achieved' on here.

I'm pretty gutted to find out I've only done one of the experiences so far. And that's one that probably everyone else has done. And that's driving. Passing my test took a hell of a lot of effort and mentally fucked me for a while. I passed my test 4th time, over 3 driving instructors, over 2 and a half years. I can't even bear to think how much money was spent, but those are the statistics I'm sticking with.

I passed my theory test 4 months after I started learning to drive (told you I was a slow learner) but didn't book my test until July that following year. I failed. The most annoying part? 7 minor faults, but I ended up with 2 major faults, involving changing lanes on a roundabout and clipping a wingmirror down a narrow street. Not going to lie, I was crushed and cried my eyes out the second I got home. But because I was going to uni in September, I still wanted to pass, so I managed to get a cancellation for the 13th of September - the day before I moved out to Northampton.

Again - failed. 10 minors but failed on steering and control of the car when I mounted the kerb pulling out of a junction. Cried a lot again, but quickly forgot about it with the stress of moving away to uni.

It wasn't till January that following year that I started learning again because I spent a while trying to work out if I could afford it. I eventually started learning again in Northampton, which is hard, I must say. I ended up booking my test for July - which, surprise, surprise, I failed. This time with 4 minors. And the annoying thing was that I didn't think I'd done anything wrong - even now I can't actually remember what I failed on. I can look at the forms in my drawer, but that requires effort. But it was probably a steering fault knowing me.

I was beginning to lose all hope given that in September my theory test was going to expire (yes, I had really dragged it out for that long), but I was lucky enough to get a cancellation on the 13th September, exactly a year after I failed the second one.

Shitting myself immensely and anxious to the point where I was physically shaking, I got into the car with the examiner knowing this was it. Although he was much nicer than the previous three. I remember distinctly, it was going rather well until he pulled me over and asked me to do the left reverse. I cocked it up so badly I ended up on the other side of the road. Instead of fucking it up even more, I asked if I could take a minute to pull myself together. And bless this lovely guy, he told me to calm down and even said "I haven't failed you" and actually began to help me by giving me hints on where to steer.

When we got back to the test centre I was sure I'd failed, given that there was another 20 minutes of the test left after I had my panic and I was just making so many mistakes. When he said "so, that's the end of the test" I instantly cut him off with "OH GOD I'VE FAILED HAVEN'T I?!" on the verge of tears. I distinctly remember his exact words as being "I'll pass you." Just relief. Everywhere. Again, I can't remember exactly, but I think I passed with 7 minors. And I will always be grateful that I had such a lovely examiner.

The day my pink licence came through the door (as sad as this sounds) I was so happy. I genuinely felt like a grown up. Despite the fact I can just about park and that I haven't done a left reverse since my test, or a reverse park since before my test, I am proud of the fact I eventually did it. Although now I'm paranoid about speed cameras, seeing them as evil things that just live to take my precious licence away from me. Not that I do speed, ever, but when you suffer from a phobia that causes you to have occasional bouts of OCD, your mind gets a bit compulsive about the important things. To this day I see my driving licence as my most expensive possession. It's genuinely the most expensive thing I own given the amount of money spent to get it.

So, (and I hope I don't jinx things by doing this) I am proud to say that I have well and truly earned my driving badge.