Rather than a stomp in the woods we drove up to Hest Bank and over to Priest Hutton to look at possible rental properties.

We looked at the dormer bungalow in Hest Bank, the cottage in Priest Hutton and three cottages in Caton.

The property in Caton looks wonderful, we just have to get Kat through the credit check!

[ADDITIONAL: Added from paper notes on 03/SEP/2009].

It’s just frustrating ’cause I know that I often drive at test standard for a couple of hours at a time. When it comes to actually doing it in test conditions I fall to pieces. Who would have thought it! Damon suffering from “performance shyness”!

I’ve just spoken to my dear friend Cassie and she told me that she shouldn’t have passed but her examiner passed her anyway. Seemingly due to her inability to distinguish left from right! This has cheered me up a little.

I will work on making sure that I am suitably prepared next time and if there is any justice it will be third time lucky!

Our outbound journey looked a little like this: We drove from Lancaster out to Quernmore, down to Forton, down to Bay Horse, and onto the A6 at Barton, down a little way and then right at Broughton, through Goosnargh, Longridge across and up to Knowle Green, sailing past Hurst Green and Great Mitton, and then down to Whalley, Read, and Simonstone, and it was only when we reached Padiham that everything went truly wrong.

All of the directions we had care of http://www.multimap.co.uk/ and by way of road signs we could see pointed to Nelson but sooner or later terminated at one junction or another for the M65! They would start off as White Signs suggesting a non motorway road, and mysteriously change to blue motorway signs for the M65 before your eyes. Whichever way you turned. I suspect I would feel less bitter about this had I not made us drive right towards that first white sign for Nelson when Dave suggested we should in fact be turning right!

Having circled around Burnley a few times we eventually succeeded in finding our way back onto the A6068 and arrived in Nelson. We set off at 2pm and didn’t arrive until about 17:20.

I think having had such fun getting there I was determined to have an alternative return route. So on the way back we went from Nelson to Colne, up to Barnoldswick across on a toilet track to Bracewell, then made a huge tactical error and drove to Skipton, although from Skipton we succeeded in finding the A65 and travelling up through Gargrave and Long Preston we eventually arrived in Settle.

The A65 road was smaller and narrower than I remembered, I had visions of a big multi-lane dual carriageway. By now it was 21:30. We were travelling through the pitch black, in torrential rain, a thick blanket of fog had descended, and much of the road was flooded. I had the windscreen wipers on the fiercest setting and it was only just managing to divert the buckets of rain that dashed my windscreen. Each time the car went cutting through one of the deep puddles (the word seems inadequate – ponds perhaps would be more appropriate) that spanned the road, the electrics in the car would become less than reliable. My battery light would flash along with my warning light, this would be accompanied with the smell of burning rubber, and suddenly the power assisted brakes were mostly chocolate teapots. Sometimes the car skidded and sometimes it did not. The lights did not completely flash on and off… they sort of strobed like we were about to be abducted, although I suspect the UFOs were put off by the weather!

We passed through Giggleswick (I have to mention it cause I like the name so much) on to Clapham and then finally we were at Ingleton. We turned right onto the A687 and travelled west to Burton in Lonsdale, Hornby (where Katie and I once set off in a Hot Air Balloon) down to Caton and then finally back into Lancaster! We arrived at about 11pm. All in all it was very “Special”!

Not the “Highway” or the “Freeway” but “Carriageway”! How long since carriages the main mode?

It was good to get onto a straight road after all those corners and I got my trusty Renault Clio up to 50mph for the first time, sailing through gears happily and smoothly. On the way I got to negotiate my first stopped traffic lights which was relatively simple, although it was a strange feeling to be in stationary traffic and not be a passenger. I was sort of tempted to stare about, but knew I still had to keep my eyes on the road.

Once on campus as I already said I encountered my first mini roundabout, which was fairly obvious …and of course I got even more practice at driving carefully at low speeds.

I could learn to really hate speed bumps. I got to drive myself home for the first time today!

Due to the fact that I had expressed suprise to Stuart at the change of location and the necessary change in driving style, he had decided to try and get me to practice cornering back off on the country roads so we could get in a bit of distance too. …and of course I’d got it into my head that because of what we did yesterday we would be again on the small roads practicing T junctions. So I was even more confused than normal.

I learned to use the clutch as well as the accelerator for control during cornering. I managed to perfect the creeping forward and see the road clearly before turning a blind corner. I also practised ensuring that my cornering position follows the curve of the curb. My instructor Stuart again praised my driving position on the road and my steering. All of this was very different from my second lesson, and I didn’t feel as though I had progressed as much as last time. I was a little disappointed, but then I realised that it’s much easier to drive in straight lines, at whatever speed, than it is to negotiate parked cars and work out the priorities and safest places to pass oncoming vehicles. That takes so much more concentration, even without the children playing and people walking dogs. Stuart reinforced this and told me that I was progressing well, and seemed to be picking things up naturally. I was especially pleased when he said that he thought I would be a good driver and not just someone who scrapped through their test. I thought it best not to ask whether you get bonus points for hitting pedestrians over retirement age or with prams.

When he asked to change places I thought I’d done something wrong or that he wanted to show me something, it didn’t occur to me at all that the time had flown by and that my lesson was over! Fortunately I’ve got another lesson tomorrow! Yay! So this time I don’t have to wait so long!

I’ve decided to keep a separate and more detailed account of what I’ve done and what I now should know lesson for lesson on the main body of my site. I also intend to include links to those lesson accounts from here… so faithful blog reader… you won’t miss out if you don’t wish to! I just figured too much detail here would be painfully boring for you lucky people who already know how to drive!

So what did I do today?

I started the same as last time in the car park near the Ashton Memorial. I practiced starting and stopping, steering this time including mirrors and indicators, and a few gear changes, this time getting into third.

…and then it was out onto the road. Having negotiated my first speed bump, I turned right and we were off… I can’t explain my delight at being in amongst the other traffic. I managed a few right turns and got up to 40mph in third gear. My driving skill was slightly impeded by my new found enthusiasm for actually driving out on the road with real obstacles and real pedestrians to hit.

I found that I was quite good at noticing hazards on the road and accounting for them in my driving. I hope I can still say that after I’ve taken the hazard perception element of my theory test.

If you want to look at more detailed description of what was covered you can visit Learning To Drive: Lesson 2. [Okay... Okay I know I haven't actually done this yet... but I will... no really I will]!