As I Xi It v2.3

I’d been driving the Polo since March and have never actually cleaned it properly. It was spick and span when passed to me and has since been filled with plant debris and more soil particles than you can shake a stick at.

There were some big bird poops on the bonnet from when I went to Gloucestershire in June which nature had refused to wash off dispite the heavy rains in the subsequent months. The inside windshield was grimy dispite my best efforts at trying to clean it the other day making lights from passing motorists more distracting than usual especially at night.

It was a sunny day, there was space in my driveway and the road more or less clear so I could practise some reversing manouvers. I managed to reverse into the driveway and avoid marking the Discovery. So far, so good.

Next I proceeded to vacuum the innards. That too went without a hitch. Then gave the rubber mats a good scrub.

The disaster and annoyance came when I tried to use the pressure washer. For some reason, it has a euro two pin plug so I went in search of my adapter. Plugged it in and managed to blow the fuse. Went searching for Dad’s adapter and it worked. I attached the hose and started jetting away as one does only to then find that the hose has come off the tap. This went on for a while and to add to its nusiance, the Discovery left far too narrow a gap for me to be able to quickly run to and fro the pressure washer to prevent the build up of pressure from the tap connection from blowing out the hose. So, I went back into the house, got the key to the Discovery and reversed out a bit. Next, for some reason, the pressure washer wouldn’t work. It turned out that I had actually pulled it out the wall plug when trying to clean the other side of the car. Plugged it back in and still nada. At this point, I had only cleaned half of the car. Finally, fed up, I jacked it in, threw a tantrum and went for the very reliable bucket and sponge method like a common person.

The windows were still smeary on the inside even after using Windeze and kitchen towels. I tried again with a microfibre cloth which seems to have improved things. We shall see how well when I next drive at night.

What was to be a quick vac inside followed by a blast of the pressure washer pretty much too all afternoon. I did however manage to drive out and park in my favourite parking space directly opposite the house before the neighbours got back from the afternoon school run.

Hmn… I’ve just noticed that I’ve parked it right under a tree. One thing’s for sure, car washing is not a line of work I’ll be venturing into.

West Sussex again, this time for some camping in Graffham.

12►

Since passing my test this time last week, I’ve driven twice – the first time to the garden centre/fish shop which was pretty simple and straightforward; the second time was to Denham Country Park where I picked Bone up on the way. On both occasions, I didn’t get beeped at even when I got in the wrong lane of a big roundabout. I don’t know if it’s because it was a sunny day which makes people more agreeable or that traffic was slow. De rigueur for being in the wrong lane is for someone to start tooting their horn and then someone else follows suit and then more people join in because they don’t want to feel left out. The victims of such honking abuse tends to be those in L or P marked cars.

I haven’t bothered with P plates because 1) I reckon people take advantage (I have little faith in my fellow humans) and 2) I’d rather spend those few quids on something more exciting. Motorists do tend to judge each other based on whether they have a letter or not stuck on their car. When I was an advanced learner, even I was annoyed by other learners, blocking the road when doing their “3″ point turns and driving slowly. There’s actually no rational reason for me to feel that way, even worse that I know I shouldn’t feel like that, but do, if anything I should be more sympathetic. I dunno, perhaps all this woe with my PhD (watching paint dry is more exciting) has made me more cantankerous.

Anyway, top three things that annoy be about driving -

1) People randomly crossing the road when my vehicle is on the move,

2) Big, multi-laned, complicated roundabouts,

3) SatNavs sending me to my destination via circuitous routes.

Seeing as my car has a cassette player, I had a rummage in my cassettes collection and this popped up. I remember buying it from HMV back in the day, oh the memories.

Surely this must be a collectors item now?

I passed my driving test yesterday (yay!) and decided to reward myself with a nice new timepiece – a Casio Protrek 2000 with all the bells and whistles – atomic sync, solar, altimeter, barometer, compass, sunrise, sunset, oh and of course, it tells the time. Now I just need a mountain to climb…

Yup, the manual really is that thick.

It's not as big I thought it'd be.

This weekend, we drove up the A40 and I noticed that there were quite a lot of people parked up on the hard shoulder suffering from vehicular problems. Since I’ve been learning to drive (finally, some say), I’ve been reading my driving books and realised how none of them actually follow the book. If you’re on the hard shoulder, you and all your passengers should get behind the barrier and onto the bank while waiting for help, but there were families just loitering behind the car. You don’t get behind the barrier just for fun, you do it because its safer than standing on the roadside where cars are whizzing past you at 70 mph. The hazard lights should also be switched on.

It seems odd that to pass ones driving test, you don’t actually have to learn how to drive on the motorway. In fact, learner drivers aren’t allowed on motorways.