English Hairy Beasts

This blogging thing is catching on. A friend has been sufficiently inspired to start his own. Laugh at the photo and the french girls comments on http://jonlawn.blogspot.com

Jon Lawn is another character from Colchester Essex, where the wife-to-be lives (until july 29th!!!!) , and has the unfortunate experiences of being a good friend to Jon for a good many years.

This here is Jon in a more typical pose:

I think you can all understand why he is dubbed a hairy beast......

Not quite London

Another day at the driving school! We drove up, via several B and A roads, to a village called Wells-by-the-Sea, in Norfolk. The instructor, who's been doing this a few years, happened to know a remarkably good fish and chip shop there...

The photo is of our current car, with Joe the other student sat in the driving seat (thats on the right hand side, for the benefit of those in strange lands). Myles the instructor is hidden on the passenger side. There should be 3 students in the car, but we lost our other guy on the assessment (as in he failed) so we're down to 2 students in our car.

Norfolk constabularly were a bit bemused by 7 met coppers all turning up at once. A Thames Valley police training car also turned up so there were 11 coppers making sure the harbour front at Wells was very safe today. Myles broke up a fight between a seagull and a duck so we were put to use.

Things are progessing nicely on the course. We are currently doing lead-follow exercises with our 'sister' car to start getting us in the frame of mind for pursuit training next week. Had one entertaining moment where I made sure the ABS worked correctly on the car in the morning but no harm was done, and nobody was alarmed (well, not much) or put in any danger.

Other things. Hairy bearded gorilla type JimBob the original native Alaskan has also started his own blog. He calls himself Custarditus Villainous or something and I've put the link in to his page on the right. Log in and poke fun.

I know I know.....

I know I haven't updated in a little while.... just a short note to say driving course is still going good. Had a mid-course assessment today to make sure we are competent enough to do the final 2 weeks of pursuit training. Passed it, which is all jolly good. Unfortunately one of the other students in the car failed so there are only 2 of us left now.

Shall update with something suitably rude to say about Americans in due course.......

How rude

A birthday card from a certain set of relations................! A prize of one birthday card envelope to whomsoever guesses which set of relatives sent it.....

cheese

Bec really doesn't like the first photo of us two... so here's a different one!

Day 2

Actually saw the inside of the car today! Am driving a 2.8 litre V6 Skoda Superb. The first half of the day was on closed roads, batting up and down, checking our gear changes, steering and braking. Second half of the day we went out and about roads north of london, were we drove round, partly to get a feel of how the car works and responds. The main idea was to give the instructor an idea of what our strengths and weaknesses are, and where he needs to focus his attention. I need to improve on my overall smoothness (a smooth drive means a more stable car, which is safer)- gear changes were on occasion a little jerky. I also need to improve my mirror work: we need to (and will be failed if we consistently don't) check mirrors every time we slow down, speed up, change direction, or see or anticipate a hazard. This works out as every 4 seconds or so!
There was probably a whole lot more that needed to be improved, but the instructor probably doesn't want to knacker our confidence too much yet!

Driving school: Day 1

A very boring day. Admin, checking paperwork, classroom stuff. Actually out in the cars as of tomorrow