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Small, unworthy things: part whatever


S John

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Thanks everyone! 

2 hours ago, Isis said:

Congratulations!

I'm thinking that when I get paid for writing this post-grad course I might use the money (some of the money, depending on how much it costs these days?*) to do one of those intense week long courses.

*when I was 17 lessons cost £10 a go

Just checked and you can get a five day course plus the exam for £250. Bargain!

I would soooo do that. 

It took me 1.5 years of lessons here and there and probably like 2-3 grand LOL. I would NOT DO that again. 

 

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5 hours ago, Isis said:

Congratulations!

I'm thinking that when I get paid for writing this post-grad course I might use the money (some of the money, depending on how much it costs these days?*) to do one of those intense week long courses.

*when I was 17 lessons cost £10 a go

Just checked and you can get a five day course plus the exam for £250. Bargain!

You lose a lot between lessons. I did 4 hour days before my test. No way would the same amount of time behind the wheel over 10 weeks have been the same. 

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23 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

I passed my driving test! Took me 1.5 years and I failed the first time around but I am soooo relieved

Congratulations :)

9 hours ago, Maltaran said:

All the best people pass second time :)

This is very true. Passing first time is just showing off.

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On 1/11/2019 at 12:39 PM, Theda Baratheon said:

I passed my driving test! Took me 1.5 years and I failed the first time around but I am soooo relieved

Congrats! It took me two times to do the written test, but I only needed to take the driving test once, and I got perfect marks for it. Haven't driven much since we've moved back home, but it's nice having a driver's license as ID.

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@Triskele

My theory is that things like that are annoying mainly because of the cumulative effect of annoyances involved with living in a big city around a lot of other people all the time.  Human beings in general, and I know I’m guilty of this sometimes too, often suffer from a terrible lack of self awareness in public.  A lack awareness of other people’s time.  And a lack of awareness that they take up physical space.  

It’s not that urban dwellers are the problem, people everywhere are like this.  Its just that in urban environments, with so many people in close proximity, the unintentional oversights, the blatant selfishness, or even the just plain old fuck-ups by our fellow man tend to take a toll over the course of a given day or week.  

For example, if you live in a small town and you are next in line at the checkout and an old lady is paying by check and digging through her bag for individual coupons, that would be a slightly annoying thing, but it might be the only annoying procedural thing that happens all day, maybe even all week, so it kinda rolls off you without too much impact.  She’s old, give her a break.

But if you live in big city and stop at the store on your way home from work after someone 3 cars in front of you, who has already sat through 2 iterations of a traffic light, and for some unknown reason fails at their duty to FUCKING GO as soon as feasible and causes you to miss the light AGAIN (but of course they make it), then you can’t find parking becuase 3000 other motherfuckers need cilantro or something, and then you are roaming around in a crowded store and at least 3 or 4 different people decide to just stop in their tracks in the middle of the aisle causing you to have to contort your body to avoid collision, and then at the salad bar dumb shits are taking 6 or 7 stabs at the black beans when one or two is clearly enough if you aren’t a compete fucking dunce and lacking in motor skills, and THEN that old lady with the coupons happens, AND you’ve kinda had to pee this entire time - well that’s the stuff that snowballs and brings a generally friendly person to the brink of full blown misanthropy.  This death by a thousand cuts kinda thing happens to me all the time.  It’s usually not any individual thing that gets to me, it’s just the relentless wave of minor annoyances.

I like people.  I even love a lot of them.  But there’s just SO MANY of us and I can’t handle us in large groups because it only takes one inconsiderate person to gum up the works and when there are a lot of people around there’s a ripple effect you wouldn’t get if life were lower density.  Which is why I’m ready to retire to rural life as soon as is feasible.

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13 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

You lose a lot between lessons. I did 4 hour days before my test. No way would the same amount of time behind the wheel over 10 weeks have been the same. 

I definitely lost a lot with each break. And tbh I was probably test ready a lot sooner than this. My instructor even told m to postpone it for another MONTH or more and I said “no I’m still going to go for my test” and this time I passed and the examiner said there was nothing wrong with my driving. So I definitely think those extreme driving course should might be worth it. My dad learnt in RAF and did something like that too 

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14 hours ago, Triskele said:

Along the same lines:  Someone's just got a coffee and is now at the station where one can add milk/cream, sugar, carcinogens, use a stir stick, etc...It does not take five minutes to do what you need to do at this station.  You do not need to take a sip of your coffee after you add some cinnamon, put it back down, stir it some more, add some more, sip again, etc...Not only would it never occur to me to do this but I would fully expect that if I took five minutes doing this that someone behind me would poor hot coffee on my, and I would deserve it.  

People act like they are making a drink in their own home when they do this, rather than being in a public space which they are required to share with others. The best bit is where, after two minutes of watching someone faffing, they will look up, see I'm waiting and make some kind of gesture which implies that I can also use the facilities! BUT I CAN'T BECAUSE YOU ARE IN THE WAY. Seriously, I am not going to lean across someone to grab something. I do not want to touch people I don't even know. 

Another variant of this one is where the person in front of you at the tills in a shop finishes their transaction and indicates that you should approach the counter to begin your transaction EXCEPT THAT they are still stood in front of the till and/or card reader putting their stuff away. JOG ON. When you've finished is when I will approach - so just get on with it. Why should I have to use only a small portion of the space or lean over you to make a payment? 

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10 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

I definitely lost a lot with each break. And tbh I was probably test ready a lot sooner than this. My instructor even told m to postpone it for another MONTH or more and I said “no I’m still going to go for my test” and this time I passed and the examiner said there was nothing wrong with my driving. So I definitely think those extreme driving course should might be worth it. My dad learnt in RAF and did something like that too 

I always think driving is a lot down to confidence. The basics are actually quite simple, what tends to hold people back, myself included, is the fear of doing things wrong and being too interested in what other drivers are thinking of my driving. Even now if I haven't driven for a while I feel quite nervous getting behind a wheel.

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I was 30 when I passed my driving test after 4 fails. I’m so rules oriented that I never drove unaccompanied when, I’m Ireland, it is semi assumed that a learner will drive when and how they like. Among my fails:

breaking a read light ( in my defence, the light had only started working the previous day after being installed and unworking for 3 months. )

unable to start the car. My Mum had locked the wheel when parking.

unable to open the car. My Mum had gone off with the keys.

My major issue was driving one or two hours a month, when I visited my parents. Genuinely, I think to be a good driver, you need to be driving regularly   .

7 years driving. No accidents. No accidents around me. I’m generally a polite and considerate driver, albeit with a tendency to speed on motorways. Also, other drivers, indicators are way to use, figure them out!

 

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9 hours ago, Deedles said:

I was 30 when I passed my driving test after 4 fails. I’m so rules oriented that I never drove unaccompanied when, I’m Ireland, it is semi assumed that a learner will drive when and how they like. Among my fails:

breaking a read light ( in my defence, the light had only started working the previous day after being installed and unworking for 3 months. )

unable to start the car. My Mum had locked the wheel when parking.

unable to open the car. My Mum had gone off with the keys.

My major issue was driving one or two hours a month, when I visited my parents. Genuinely, I think to be a good driver, you need to be driving regularly   .

7 years driving. No accidents. No accidents around me. I’m generally a polite and considerate driver, albeit with a tendency to speed on motorways. Also, other drivers, indicators are way to use, figure them out!

 

My mum was 40 when she passed and passed on 4th time. I think because of nerves because she’s never really been in any accidents or anything. 

I think I’ll be quite a cautious considerate driver but I don’t want to be too nervous on the roads. 

Right now I just want a car so I can get driving and practising straight away!!!

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19 hours ago, Triskele said:

I'm amazed at how often in these situations people are genuinely, sincerely surprised when they realize that there's another person in the shop that is also going to use the station that they themselves are using.  That seems to go hand-in-hand with the obliviousness of taking ten times longer than is necessary at the station.  In my experience, they actually seem to usually feel badly that I was waiting, but I would bet in most cases those folks will not change their behavior next time.  

Of course they won't.  Primarily because their heads are STILL up their own asses. 

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17 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

My mum was 40 when she passed and passed on 4th time. I think because of nerves because she’s never really been in any accidents or anything. 

I think I’ll be quite a cautious considerate driver but I don’t want to be too nervous on the roads. 

Right now I just want a car so I can get driving and practising straight away!!!

I failed the written part of my driver test the first time.  

For the driver portion, I lived in a pretty rural area growing up, and when it came time to do the driving part I had this good old boy instructor.  He said, ‘you know where Big Island is?’  (It’s a town about 25 miles away from my high school with really curvy / twisty roads to get to it.)

 I said ‘yes’.  He slumps down in the seat and says, ‘ok, drive there while I take a nap, you’ll wake me up if you’re taking the curves too fast.’

and he really did doze off for some of it!  Not the whole time, but still.  In hindsight, the freakin’ balls on that guy trusting an unknown 16 year-old to drive him around on some fairly challenging roads when he’s not paying attention.  :lol:  I passed the first time, but obviously my instructor was pretty laid back.

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7 hours ago, S John said:

I failed the written part of my driver test the first time.  

For the driver portion, I lived in a pretty rural area growing up, and when it came time to do the driving part I had this good old boy instructor.  He said, ‘you know where Big Island is?’  (It’s a town about 25 miles away from my high school with really curvy / twisty roads to get to it.)

 I said ‘yes’.  He slumps down in the seat and says, ‘ok, drive there while I take a nap, you’ll wake me up if you’re taking the curves too fast.’

and he really did doze off for some of it!  Not the whole time, but still.  In hindsight, the freakin’ balls on that guy trusting an unknown 16 year-old to drive him around on some fairly challenging roads when he’s not paying attention.  :lol:  I passed the first time, but obviously my instructor was pretty laid back.

And...you paid for this “lesson”? 

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8 hours ago, S John said:

I failed the written part of my driver test the first time.  

For the driver portion, I lived in a pretty rural area growing up, and when it came time to do the driving part I had this good old boy instructor.  He said, ‘you know where Big Island is?’  (It’s a town about 25 miles away from my high school with really curvy / twisty roads to get to it.)

 I said ‘yes’.  He slumps down in the seat and says, ‘ok, drive there while I take a nap, you’ll wake me up if you’re taking the curves too fast.’

and he really did doze off for some of it!  Not the whole time, but still.  In hindsight, the freakin’ balls on that guy trusting an unknown 16 year-old to drive him around on some fairly challenging roads when he’s not paying attention.  :lol:  I passed the first time, but obviously my instructor was pretty laid back.

That's kinda hilarious LOL. I'm in a pretty rural area myself so I guess it's the best place to LEARN to drive because here I have tiny, windy country lanes and also motorways so not too bad. 

I passed the written part first time with full marks though, weirdly enough. 

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I have an almost paralysing fear when I’m in the driver’s seat so as of yet I’m still not passed and have no intention to do so anytime soon. I’ve no idea where that fear comes from as I’ve never been in a car accident, or near to one. My dad has been, but my fear pre-dates that.

I also didn’t like my instructor and their style of teaching, which didn’t help.

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8 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I have an almost paralysing fear when I’m in the driver’s seat so as of yet I’m still not passed and have no intention to do so anytime soon. I’ve no idea where that fear comes from as I’ve never been in a car accident, or near to one. My dad has been, but my fear pre-dates that.

I also didn’t like my instructor and their style of teaching, which didn’t help.

I couldn’t stand my instructor - I don’t know why I didn’t change because one of the best things about passing is never having to sit in a confined space with that man ever again LOL. 

Hope you can work through that fear at some point - I’m hoping the freedom of driving is going to alleviate some of my depression because and I can actually leave the house now lol

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17 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I have an almost paralysing fear when I’m in the driver’s seat so as of yet I’m still not passed and have no intention to do so anytime soon. I’ve no idea where that fear comes from as I’ve never been in a car accident, or near to one. My dad has been, but my fear pre-dates that.

I also didn’t like my instructor and their style of teaching, which didn’t help.

Before I started driving regularly I would have nightmares about having to drive. Even though I had passed my test the thought just terrified me. The whole idea of driving seemed so difficult and fraught with danger that I couldn't ever imagine myself doing it. Now I almost enjoy driving. Almost.

What changed it for me was actually just being let out on my own to drive, with nobody to watch me, so that I could figure out what to do in my own time. The structured nature of the lessons really put me on edge I think.

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4 hours ago, HelenaExMachina said:

And...you paid for this “lesson”? 

That was the test!  I don’t know if it is still this way, but in the much of the US you are allowed to drive at age 15 as long as there is an adult related to you in the car.  So when you turn 16 and it’s time to take the real test to get your full license most kids have a decent amount of experience driving already.  My dad taught me to drive, I just had to prove to someone with state credentials that I could do it.

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10 hours ago, Theda Baratheon said:

That's kinda hilarious LOL. I'm in a pretty rural area myself so I guess it's the best place to LEARN to drive because here I have tiny, windy country lanes and also motorways so not too bad.

I learned to drive in the Scottish Highlands, which meant I got plenty of opportunity to demonstrate hill starts, but never had a lesson involving such exotic things as motorways or roundabouts.

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