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Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop

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On 07/08/2024 10:20 pm, NY wrote:

> On 07/08/2024 15:45, JNugent wrote:

>>> I passed my test in the early 80s. Your 60 years sounded a lot, until 
>>> I worked out that I've been driving 43 years!
>
>> Fifty-two for me, and that at a North London test centre notorious (so 
>> my friends told me) for failing first time candidates "on principle".
> 
> My first test was with an *examiner* who seemed to have a similar 
> policy. He was morose and lugubrious, and had a truly VILE temper if you 
> asked for clarification of his instructions. He was known by most of the 
> test centres in the Home Counties (my instructor said) as "Mr Hemlock" 
> and he had been moved from one centre to another all over, because 
> no-one had the courage to sack him as temperamentally unsuitable for the 
> job, but at the same time, they didn't want to work with him.
> 
> He made a boo-boo right at the start with the sight test: he asked me to 
> read the number of the car that I was taking the test in (which I 
> believe is on the candidate's details to guard against that!) and was 
> not impressed when I joked "I'll read that one if you like, but it's my 
> examiner's car so it's not a fair test. Perhaps you should choose 
> another car." I was "trying to be clever" for pointing that out - but I 
> wasn't going to have my test ruled invalid because *he'd* cocked up the 
> eyesight test.
> 
> I applied my route knowledge of the town where I took my test. There is 
> a two-lane urban road which widens out to three lanes at some traffic 
> lights by a roundabout, with a lane each arrowed left, straight on and 
> right. Some distance before the lights there is even a sign "Get in 
> Lane" with the lane usage marked. As I approached that sign I asked 
> "Which way will you want me to go at the lights, so I can get in the 
> correct lane?" He barked "I'll tell you when I'm good and ready, and not 
> before" so I replied "In the absence of clear instructions I will take 
> the default straight ahead." As I was coming to a halt in the middle 
> lane, he said "Turn left". So I indicated and waited for someone in the 
> left-turn to let me go ahead, and talked through my thought process "He 
> has flashed me and given me a beckoning sign, so he is aware of me. He 
> has stopped and is still stopped. I judge that he is letting me go. I 
> will go cautiously in case he changes his mind." Once I was round the 
> corner I said "*That* is why I asked you for directions - to avoid that 
> very situation".
> 
> The only person I know who passed was our neighbour who had to learn to 
> drive in her sixties when her husband could no longer drive. She said 
> that his words were "I am very sorry to have to tell you that I cannot 
> find any grounds that will allow me to fail you, so against my better 
> judgement I am compelled to pass you."
> 
> On my third test (I made a silly mistake on the second) they wheeled out 
> the head examiner. He looked back through the other examiners' notes on 
> me. "Ah..... [long pause] You had Mr Hemlock [he used his real name] for 
> your first test. I'm not surprised you failed." And he grinned at me. He 
> didn't need to say any more.
> 
> I later heard from my instructor (via my sister who also used him a year 
> or so later) that another test centre had finally sacked him. They 
> started by getting an examiner-of-examiners to sit in on all his tests, 
> and then asked him to explain why his test results were so poor in 
> general but so good when he was being examined. Apparently there was 
> dancing in the streets, both by instructors and other examiners when he 
> was sacked!
> 
> Just my bad luck to get the bad-apple examiner on my first go. I'm sure 
> I made mistakes, but probably 50% of the blame for failing my first test 
> was down to his attitude. 40-odd years later, I can laugh about it. I 
> hope they threw the book at that guy because he seemed to regard it as 
> an offence if he had to pass anyone. An examiner needs to recognise that 
> a test is a stressful time for anyone and not to make it any worse by 
> being bloody-minded.

:-)

I took my first and only driving test in 1972, in a 1959 Ford Anglia 105E.

It had no seat belts, of course.

The examiner sat slightly sideways, all the better to watch what I was 
doing. As I approached a zebra crossing, a small boy ran out of a 
sweetshop on the opposite side of the road, straight onto the crossing. 
I did an emergency stop and the examiner hit his head on the windscreen.

As I said, I passed first time. My mates couldn't believe it.

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Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop NY <me@privacy.net> - 2024-07-09 14:51 +0100
  Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop Colin Bignell <cpb@bignellREMOVETHIS.me.uk> - 2024-07-09 16:38 +0100
    Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop Nick Finnigan <nix@genie.co.uk> - 2024-07-09 16:49 +0100
    Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop nospam@please.invalid (AnthonyL) - 2024-07-10 11:58 +0000
      Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop NY <me@privacy.net> - 2024-07-11 14:39 +0100
        Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop JNugent <JNugent73@mail.com> - 2024-08-07 15:45 +0100
          Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop NY <me@privacy.net> - 2024-08-07 22:20 +0100
            Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop JNugent <JNugent73@mail.com> - 2024-08-08 00:34 +0100
          Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop Colin Bignell <cpb@bignellREMOVETHIS.me.uk> - 2024-08-08 08:41 +0100
            Re: Indicating when about to overtake a bus stopped *in the road* at a bus stop JNugent <JNugent73@mail.com> - 2024-08-08 15:34 +0100

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