"A groan of tedium escapes me, startling the fearfull, is this a test, it has to be, otherwise I can't go on"

I got my american drivers license the other day. Only having gotten my australian license a few years ago, I am still fairly familiar with the australian testing process (well the west-australian at least). The american test was remarkably easy in comparison. The entire test took about 10 minutes, I had 3 major manouvers. I had to parallel-park, reverse around a corner & stop on a hill. In addition I also had to know my hand signals, and show that I had decent reaction time.

Overall you can loose 20 points before you fail the test. I completely stuffed up my reversing around the corner (I was told to look over my shoulder rather than use my mirrors, which threw me off), by turning to late, and I ended up out in the middle of the road. For this, I lost 2 points. So one major manover blown, and I loose 2 points ? What the hell do you have to do in order to loose all 20 ?

While I hated the australian system while I was being subjected to it, I do believe that it made me a better driver, and it ensures we have better drivers on the road.

Though, both systems do not prepare you for driving on ice, which is an 'interesting' experience. Coming up to a traffic light, doing about half the posted speed limit, your foot is flat to the floor, ABS is chugging away, and the car just won't stop. Not fun :-(

Oh yeah, I know my blog is causing weird stuff to happen on the planet. Damned if I know what is causing it. I'll look into it over the weekend.

[ Tool - The Patient ]