Toot toot!

Happy belated 16th Madi!

It was Madi's birthday last Sunday and she asked everybody to tell her about their best road trip or how they learned to drive. Granted it's a few days late, but here is my story. Well, stories really...

Once upon a time, in a land far far away (England), there lived a princess (ehm, me) who wanted to learn how to drive. So, she phoned around and found a teacher who could teach her how to drive. This teacher was a soft-spoken young man (very!) and half the time the princess couldn't hear a word he said. And then one day this teacher told her that he had to stop teaching her! He was only a learner-teacher and had failed his teacher exams three times. 

My very first car: a Fiat Panda

Another teacher was found who was not as soft-spoken and he taught her a few things. Then the princess went up for her exam and failed. Completely as the second teacher had thought since the first teacher hadn't taught her enough. The second time she went up for her exam though: she failed again. But the third time she was lucky! She was finally allowed to drive a car.

A few years later this princess had moved to another far far way land (the Netherlands) and decided she wanted to learn how to drive a bus. She phoned around and found the only school that would actually teach her. Her teacher was not a young soft-spoken man. It was an old man who saw bikes and cars everywhere and stopped her so often, it was not very nice. One day her old teacher had another engagement and she got another teacher: a youngish man who put his feet up on the dashboard and told her to drive. She asked to keep him and that was fine they said.

For the bus it took a lot more than just passing a driving test. There was the technical exam (passed because the princess was a woman taking her bus test, all the princes who knew a lot more about lorries failed), the administrative exam (passed) and the rules/regulations/road test (passed). And then there was the regular driving test. Which she failed.

My coach during one of my first trips

Fortunately the princess passed the second time around, because it was really really expensive! On January 7th 1999 she had her new driver's license and she started driving a bus professionally from March 1st that same year.