Friday 14th September, 2012

Despite the satisfying, albeit delayed, outcome at Flushing Meadows I had been fully anticipating writing you a message that reflected general gloom and despondency chez Sandison and yet it turns out that this is a story of surprise, joy and love. I was expecting to have to report on yet another 60 lids down the drain spent in a futile attempt to get one of children across the finishing line in their driving test. On top of which a Vodafone bill had just arrived revealing that my youngest daughter had managed to run up a bill of £33 in 14 seperate 118118 calls made last Saturday afternoon when she was meant to be watching the Burghley Horse Trials. Maddening. But would you believe it, early yesterday morning, three and a half years after her first driving lesson, Hen passed. Yes, Hen. Not Jimmy, three years her junior, who had been quietly confident - even though she has failed her test three times in the last couple of months - that she would be qualified before Hen. Jimmy has felt she has had the edge ever since, all those years ago in Thailand, she was out of nappies months before Hen could be bothered to look after her own business. Sibling rivalry. Terrible thing, though I should say Jimmy was delighted at Hen's success. "This opens up a whole new world of opportunity for us Hen" she said ominously. Anyway I digress. I was talking about money. Of course test fees kind of pale into insignificance when you consider what we have spent on driving lessons for Hen over the years which also helped lessen the blow of having to insure her. I was pleasantly surprised in fact. I don't want to tempt fate but the RAC may wish they had demanded a bit more than the £750 they did to cover our aged VW Polo. So, it was a very happy home last night and we celebrated wildly. Hen revealed, that whilst she had not repeated previous errors which had included breaking a red light and requiring her examiner to perform an emergency stop, she had been convinced she had failed and burst into tears of surprise and joy when her examiner gave her the happy news. Wiping the tears away as she added her signature and dated the Pass certificate she noted it was the 13th September. "Unlucky for some, but not for me!" she told him gleefully. It was at this point I suspect the poor man began to wonder what exactly he had unleashed on the roads of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk. He would be even more concerned if he saw her latest Facebook post after she had spent the afternoon getting used to the sensation of driving on her own. "Jus been patrollin Gazeley-Ashley way, watch out bitchez imma ridin ma weeeeels." So what of the love angle this week? Maybe it was the champagne we were toasting her success with over supper yesterday but Hen started to get quite emotional again as she discussed the contribution her driving instructor Colin had made. As you would expect she has been through quite a few instructors over the years. Colin has only relatively recently come onto the scene. He is 67 years old, married, although apparently he and his wife have seperate bedrooms, and Hen later in the evening told us how much she loved him. Apparently he was friendly, wonderful and gorgeous and witty too. He has some great one-liners many of which she recited to us though I can only recall two of them. "Better to arrive 10 minutes late in this world, than early in the next" and "Early observation = early information; Late Observation = pain in the ar*e." Anyway, at this point, after a tiring day, she shuffled out the kitchen telling us she was off to write Colin a letter.