It is official, I am now a full licensed driver on the Irish motorways. It was by no stretch of the imagination easy even though I drive only automatic cars (here). We purchased an automatic nearly two years ago after I told my husband that if he wanted me to drive we would have to get a different car because driving on this side of the road + manual transmission was out of the question for me. I had applied for and got my first provisional a year before this point. 5 weeks after buying the car I took my test, and obviously failed. But due to the wonderfully weird Irish system, until last June I was able to drive on my second provision without a licensed driver in the car so there was no rush to re-take the test. After June 2008 with its crackdown on provisionals came and went I continued to drive... illegally, which really made no difference to me because I have had an American license since I was 16 and never been in an accident or in receipt of a speeding ticket. But as my second provisional is due to expire this August I said what the hell. Also I was slightly embarrassed that my youngest brother - in - law (19 yrs old) was taking his test.
With this in mind I decided the time had come, I had been 'practicing' for two years here. I booked a pretest for yesterday. It was noted that my tail brake light was out, so I rushed off to get it fixed. There was an annoying light on in my dash - for the catalytic convertor, and even though it has passed the NCT last month, I would not be able to take the test until the light was off. So I booked in the car to the Honda dealership to have it looked at. I went off for an hour and came back to find there was nothing they could do. Uh, you are the Honda dealership, authorised to work on Hondas? The service guy was apologetic but didn't really seem to grasp the gravity of the situation (i.e. 80 euro for pretest, 90 euro to have car fixed, 70 euro for driving test - all non-refundable at this late stage). So I did the only thing that I know how to do in these situations.
I cried hysterically. Now when I am upset, I mean really upset, it is not a pretty sight. My face gets blotchy and red and very puffy. I sobbed until my shoulder shook. Of course, these tears made him extremely uncomfortable but he was unrelenting, there was nothing they could do in the time before the test. Plus it as just a driving test. "Just a driving test? What the fuck do you know? It has taken me two years to re-take this stupid thing." I don't think that won me any friends.
Frantically I called the driving school. Yes they had a car I could take the test in, yes it was free tomorrow. It would cost me 140 euro. In desperation I paid it. I mean what was it going to cost to fix a car with nothing wrong with it? The car arrived 1 hour before the test, it was a techtronic automatic - totally different from my Honda CRV - a Japanese import. Well to make a long story short, I passed. In fact I only received one mark on the entire sheet, that is nearly unheard of!
All day I have been singing in my brain the MC Hammer song we all danced to in 6th grade "Too Legit, too legit to quit... hey hey" We gotta represent for O-town.
