Test Stess.

So, Monday morning I finally wrote my learner's license test.If you'd been paying attention you'd have noticed my mention of making the appointment four months ago. There's a four-month waiting period for leraner's tests. There's a waiting period that long because people keep failing. People keep failing because the test is hard. Tricksy multiple choice questions. Rurgh. And me being the great overthinker.

The last time I wrote the test I failed it by one point. Admittedly I had only learned in a scanty fashion and used the wrong book (not the new K53 one with the 180 step-by-step instructions for changing lanes*). But still. Tricksy! The wording of the test is both vague and layered and it can be hard to distinguish the correct answer from the less-correct one. So the test is hard. And I'm not a fan of tests or exams anyway. God knows how I made it through Uni. I know of at least one exam (Introduction to Critical Thinking) where I got halfway through the fourth and final essay, decided I had enough marks to pass, handed in my paper and left. I wasn't enjoying the experience**.

So, this exam I had four months to prepare, which turned out not all that helpful since I only started learning last Wednesday. No, sorry, Thursday. Wednesday I merely took the book out and looked at it***. In any case, Sunday was a flurry of learning and Grey's Anatomy****. Monday Morning I woke up ridiculously early, bathed, dresssed, and picked up my book. The words swam in front of my eyes. I struggled on for a bit, gave up and headed to the Traffic Department, muttering road rules under my breath, as one does.

Having arrived early, I was dismayed to discover that when they say be there at 8:00am, it's part of an evil scheme: you sit down for the test at 8:30 and there's another 20 minutes of torturous explanation of how the test works. Well, the explanation takes about 5 minutes; what delays the issue is this:

"for code 8 license, please answer questions 5 to 52, then skip the rest and continue from 69 to 84. Any questions?"
"um, yes, what do we answer if we're doing code 8?"
"for code 8 license, please answer questions 5 to 52, then skip the rest and continue from 69 to 84. Any questions?"
"I'd like to know: what do we answer if we're doing code 8?"

argh.

Anyway, long story short, I passed the damnable thing, so now am on the next phase of my journey towards driverdom. Which means that one day I'll be able to blog about petrol prices like the rest of you.


*you're checking mirrors and blind spots so often you never seem to actually be looking at the road, is that all that safe?
** I got 68%, if you're interested.
*** getting my mind ready for the learning experience. It's psychology and perfectly logical.
****about time I started catching up with season 3. Don't tell me what happens!

Let's Just Pretend Like I've Been Here All Along.

I've been on leave. The thing with leave is a) you enjoy it far too much to want it to end and b) when you do return to work all the things you loathe about your job are thrown into sharp relief. I'd really much rather be waking up at 10am, pottering around for a bit and planning my reading material and location for the day. Ideally I'd like to become a professional loafer; the sort that loafs around, as opposed to a form of footwear.

I did get involved in an exhibition of 13 of my photographs, which was exciting and complicated and fun. If you're in the Durbanville area at all (before the 6th of March), head over to the Rust En Vrede gallery and check out my stuff. It's super-awesome. I think you should buy something before I become all famous and you can't afford it anymore*.

I'm not actually joking.

Valentines' day was lovely and Romantic and snuggly and I'm not going into any detail, sufficit to say that I'm a very lucky girl to have such a lovely handsome snugglebunny as I do. I did, however, get conjunctivitis, I'm pretty sure from some counter or ATM at the waterfront**. Happily, this did not ruin the evening, although I did have difficulty getting my eyes open the next day.

I also got my learner's license, but that's a thing for another post.

Now, I am nose to the grindstone, shoulder to the wheel, Sysiphusing along. Yes, I have returned to work. And those late lazy mornings already seem a thing of the past. Not all good things come to an end, but holidays certainly do.

*if you can't get to Durbanville you can always order from me directly. Yes, I'm going for the hard sell.
**Mail me and I'll send you a free macro shot of my eye with engorged blood vessels; it's fascinating.