Diary Of An ADI - A Driving Instructor's Blog

100% Test Pass Rate Continues

22/01/2011

Well done to Francis W, who passed first time with 8 driver faults yesterday.

Of course, this maintains my 100% pass rate (for 2011) so I can be super-smug.

Seriously, though, Francis had a full Chinese licence and his 12 months of UK driving was almost done. It was a case of dealing with the usual bad habits people acquire when they drive on their own, along with the also-usual difficulties more mature people have in changing their old habits!

It’s nice when you get people who you actually feel safe driving with.

Thin Lizzy Documentary

22/01/2011

DOAADI

Movies & TV, Music

I caught the tail-end of a BBC 4 documentary last night, looking at Thin Lizzy. You can catch it for a limited time on iPlayer.

I must admit that I didn’t realise what a complete and utter mess they got themselves into through drugs.

I went to see the current line-up a few weeks ago at Leeds, and although the music was great, the crowd was a little boisterous. I didn’t mention it in my original post, but I nearly (only nearly, I stress) got into a fight with some leather-clad jackass who decided to come in 2 minutes before Lizzy came on, barge his way to the front, and try to stand directly in front of me (I shoved him out of the way). But one of the other dickheads in his entourage was smoking pot – and I mean huge spliffs – all through the gig. I hate the smell of the stuff. The Leeds O2 Academy staff doesn’t give a toss about people smoking whatever they want in there – when I saw Gary Moore there not long back you could smell cigarettes all the time, and it wasn’t from outside.

But back to the crowd… bearing in mind I’ve been to all sorts of gigs over the last few years (including Bullet For My Valentine, recently, where I narrowly avoided getting slung in the middle of the mosh pit), this was a complete throwback to the bad old days. It was such a dramatic change for a band which is essentially living out its final days by basking in its past glories (nothing wrong with that at all, I hasten to add), that it’s had me wondering for a few weeks.

But now I understand.

I suspect that much of Lizzy’s reputation is built solely upon their drug-ridden past, and Phil Lynott’s untimely (though, after seeing the documentary, not as unexpected as you’d have thought) demise prevented any further reputation building. I suspect quite a large portion of those present were attracted to what reputation had been built up to and including Lynott’s death.

Phil Lynott was a nice bloke, but he just destroyed himself. The others were lucky. He wasn’t.

Orange Maps

19/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Computers & Tech, General

One of the less pleasant experiences of my trip to Glasgow yesterday… Orange Maps.

Now, I have a Tom Tom sat nav, but I don’t use it very often. It was great playing with it when I first got it, but I quickly realised that I don’t need the darned thing. It was a pain having to keep setting it up, then keep removing it for security purposes, plus charging it and keep docking it to update it.

And of course, being a bloke means I can find my way anywhere – in the dark, blindfolded, in a coma – without having to ask anyone for directions or use a sat nav in the first place.

However… trying to find an obscure place like the Old Fruitmarket in a big city like Glasgow is what sat navs were created for… but they’re still a pain to have to lug around as standalone units.

Since I got my Android phone, though, the possibility of a sat nav in your pocket became highly desirable. So I started using Orange Maps when I needed to find somewhere or navigate to it. It was OK when it worked, but a few months ago – when I needed to get to Manchester avoiding the motorways – it scared the crap out of me by deciding it couldn’t contact the Orange Maps server after it had dumped me in the middle of Chesterfield’s one-way system during the rush hour. Fortunately, it decided about half an hour later that it could contact the server after all.

Learning Point: the last thing you want is your sat nav telling you it’s lost!

So anyway, last night I’m on the outskirts of Glasgow – Hamilton Services to be exact – and I had to make a phone call. Orange Maps has a habit of terminating when you do that, so you need to tell it again where you want to go. It chose this moment to again refuse to contact the server.

I can see a connection here: both times, it was during the rush hour, so the phrase ‘server overload’ comes to mind. Well, what bloody use is a sat nav service you can’t use when other people are trying to use it at the same time?

The problem was that this time it just would not connect. Period. So there I am, paying £5 a month for a service which doesn’t work at exactly the time you need to be sure it will, literally abandoned 300 miles from home!

Thank God for the Internet (and, fortunately, getting out of the various 3G blackspots around Glasgow to be able to access it). I looked at a couple of sat nav options in the Android marketplace. I downloaded one, only to discover the configuration file… “is downloading…this will take approximately 6 hours… no, wait… 8 hours…” Aaargh! No wi-fi and a wobbly 3G! I briefly toyed with the idea of driving around to find an unsecured wireless network, but decided against that.

I accidentally found GoogleMaps (weird, because I use that all the time at home for finding out where new pupils live, but hadn’t really clicked that they had a sat nav feature on Android phones (well, it is beta). And so it was problem solved… GoogleMaps got me there without any glitches at all, and home again later on.

I cancelled Orange Maps today and won’t be going back. As usual, their customer service was excellent – just a shame that Orange Maps isn’t.

Horslips @ Glasgow Old Fruitmarket

19/01/2011

DOAADI

Music

Well – and forgive me if I repeat anything I’ve said before about this – the last time I saw Horslips was in the late 70s on their “American” Tour. They broke up two years later, and stayed broken up for the following 24 years.

I’d kept an eye on the unofficial .com website (I didn’t know it was unofficial at that time), but not frequently enough to discover they’d reformed for a one-off gig at an exhibition in Belfast – I only discovered this a year after the event (I’d have gone if I’d have known about it). Things went quiet again, and then – for the same reasons as before – I missed their 2009 and 2010 performances.

I would have missed this one as well if it wasn’t for the fact I skipped over to the official .ie site a few weeks before Christmas and saw the announcements. I know it doesn’t make me sound like a big fan not knowing all this, but for most of that 24 years of being broken up the last thing I expected was a reunion, and the only site I was aware of – the .com one – didn’t change one bit to reflect any of the subsequent developments.

But I have everything Horslips ever did – all the imports, and a few other bits & bobs. They were the first band I ever saw live (Birmingham Hippodrome, 1978), and I never thought I’d see them again. So this was something I was really looking forward to.

It’s impossible to describe the feeling when they came on stage – after 33 years (for me)!

I’d arrived in Glasgow at around 6:30, and the doors opened at 7:00, so I got right up to the stage (ironically, when I saw them in Birmingham all those years ago, I’d somehow got front row tickets for that, too). As usual, a lot of people didn’t turn up to see the support act – a female duo called Lumiere, who were rather good – so getting a good place was easy.

By the time Horslips were due on the place was packed.

The set was brilliant: they played a fair few songs from The Táin and The Book Of Invasions, but picked classics from most of the rest. It all still seemed so fresh, and Charles O’Connor’s fiddle along with Jim Lockhart’s flute were just perfect. The sound was great, and the guys seemed to be enjoying themselves.

The Glasgow Concert Halls site says:

While popular demand has prompted a few more appearances, the band have said they’re by way of a brief last hurrah, not a protracted comeback, so relive the moment while you can.

Horslips seemed truly taken aback by the strength of support last night. In fact, like all the best bands, they vastly underestimate their own popularity. I’m certain they could fill bigger venues than this if they tried.

In fact – and I was thinking this on the long drive to and from Glasgow last night (it was over 600 miles/11 hours on the road as a round trip) – you can’t help wonder at what might have been if whatever it was that caused the split back in 1980 hadn’t taken place and Horslips had gone on to crack America.

Still, I got some nice keep-sake photos and short videos which I’ll treasure forever (I just wish the lighting had been a bit better in the corner where Jim Lockhart was sitting!) Easily the best gig for a long, long time – and one which can never be beaten for a whole range of personal reasons.

Having A Laugh + Coaching

16/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Training

UPDATE: The DSA has now embarked on its implementation of coaching, so read this article posted in November 2012.

I was on a lesson with a pupil on Saturday, and we had just done a parallel park and were looking for another car to try it on. My pupil asked:

Why don’t we do them on that [the right hand] side of the road?

We pulled over, and the conversation then progressed like this:

Me: Well, there’s no real reason why you can’t sometimes do them on that side. Why do you ask?

She: I just wondered how you would do it.

Me: Well, it’s almost exactly the same as doing it on the left side except you steer the opposite way and look for traffic in the right places. How do you think you’d decide when you’re close enough to the kerb to bring the car in?

She: Errr… the [points to offside] mirror?

Me: That’s right. Or you could just look over your shoulder – you’re right by the kerb that side, aren’t you? What I’ll do next time we practice it on the left is find a quiet road so you can get out and see how far away from the kerb the car is, then you’ll know what to look for if you ever need to do it. We might even try it if we get time.

She: Would I have to do it on the test?

Me: No. But once you’ve passed you might.

At this point, I remembered a recent topic where someone had moaned about a non-driving forum where the members were having a go at a female-only driving school, with such comments as these (and I mentioned them to my pupil):

The first lesson involves the importance of arranging fluffy pink things on the parcel shelf, and attaching dangly things to your key-ring…

…second lesson is all about driving at 29mph in a 40mph zone hogging the white line in the centre of the road…

…one of the hours is spent sitting in your car fiddling around(after you’ve spent ages filling up and half and hour in the shop) while there’s a queue building up behind you at the petrol station…

There’s many a true word said in jest, and whether you like it or not the reason these sorts of comments come about is because they have an element of truth about them (just like with older drivers, people in 4x4s on the school run, Audi drivers, and so on).

So I joked:

Me: You know how it will be. You’ll be out shopping, see a parking space across the road, and decide to go for it. Then you’ll need to park on the other side. It’s a woman-thing.

She: [Laughs] Yeah, my mum does that all the time.

Me: And you’ll be able to do it safely. But can you see the point I’m making? Different people drive for different reasons – I drive because it’s my job. Why would you decide to drive somewhere?

She: Well, to go shopping, or to see my nan or my auntie. Or to go to work.

Me: What about other people? Why do they drive?

She: The same reasons?

Me: Well, perhaps. But what other things? Taking the dog somewhere for a walk? Taking their kids to or from school? What about rushing to the A&E at the hospital? What would you do if you were late for work and caught in traffic?

She: I’d take my time and drive safely.

Me: That’s good, but your concentration might be affected whether you like it or not because you know your boss is going to yell at you. What about those other people, though? If they’re in a hurry, will they drive safely?

She: Not all of them… well, no, in the morning none of them are driving safely when I go to work. They’re speeding, and they keep overtaking and cutting in.

Me: So you can see how it isn’t just what you do that makes you safe?

She: Yes. We even get it on our lessons, don’t we, with people trying to get past.

Me: Exactly! And going back to the parallel park, when you’re on the other side of the road you’re usually facing oncoming traffic which might be in a hurry and not expect you to be there.

She: So I shouldn’t do it?

Me: Well, it’s up to you. If the road is empty, why not? If you’re going to cause a hold-up, then that’s a different matter. But you could always find somewhere else or turn around and come in from the opposite side and do it the usual way.

She: I don’t think I will. It sounds dangerous.

Me: Well, there is one place where you’d have to do it – and it’d be quite safe – if you wanted to park and the parking spaces were only available on the right. Can you think where?

She: [Gives a few suggestions]
Me: Well, possibly, but those are not really what I’m thinking of. What kind of road definitely has no cars coming the opposite way?

She: Oh. A one-way street. There’s one of those near the shops and you can only park that side.

It can’t be bad, can it? Sexism, a driving lesson, and even “the higher levels of the GDE Matrix” in one seven minute session.

Nothing Ever Goes Smoothly…

14/01/2011

DOAADI

Computers & Tech, General

My pupil who passed her test this week said that it had been the best week of her life – and she cited a few things that had happened or were going to happen, like getting a pay rise and doing well in an exam she’d just taken.

I said that I knew what she meant, but the only problem with weeks like that is that you can’t keep getting them one after the other. It stands to reason that good things and not so good things average out in the end.

My last week has been a right pain. The one that’s been bugging me most is that I’ve had a few problems recently trying to get a domain name transferred to me! It’s a long story, but although I always controlled it I didn’t actually own it. There was no ill-will or deliberate obfuscation on the part of the previous registrant. It was just messy getting ownership changed.

I’ve had similar problems in the past with other domains that I controlled but didn’t actually own, and then needed to transfer them to the people who owned them. It was never straightforward. Why can’t it be simpler?

Anyway, I finally got control and ownership, so all’s well.

Incidentally, I’ve had quite a few people asking how to set up blogs and incorporate GoogleAds of late. I might do a tutorial at some stage if there’s enough interest. GoogleAds can generate significant income if you get enough hits on your websites.

The Driving Test Marking Sheet

14/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests

This is a VERY old article and should not be taken as guidance now.

UPDATE: The DSA has now embarked on its implementation of coaching, so read this article posted in November 2012.

The marking sheet they use for your driving test is called a DL25. When you take your test, pass or fail you will get a copy of it and an attached sheet which explains what is/was expected of you under all the headings. I wrote about this a little while ago. See this topic to download a copy.

On one of the forums, someone who goes through the DL25 with their pupils at some point prior to their test has asked if this might be seen as just teaching people to pass the test, instead of teaching them to drive.

I suspect that what he meant was that he goes through the DL25 including the explanations sheet that comes with it. Even if he doesn’t, if he explains exactly what is involved under each section then it amounts to the same thing.

The simple and obvious answer is that if you explain what the examiner is looking for in all those possible cases, and especially when something that the examiner wouldn’t be happy with occurs on a lesson, then you are not just teaching them to pass the test. You are giving them a complete picture of what is acceptable and what isn’t.

A prime example is the turn in the road (TIR), or three-point turn as some people still call it. At some stage the pupil will bump the kerb or not look around enough. Certainly if they touch the kerb, most of them will say “you fail if you touch the kerb, don’t you?” This is where the DL25 comes in and provides an ideal teaching opportunity.

I get them to read the part about the TIR, and show them how they are being marked for control and observation/safety:

Turn in the road

Keep a look out for traffic and pedestrians whenever you are turning your vehicle and be prepared to give way to them. Control your vehicle smoothly. Do not let the vehicle mount the pavement. Try not to touch the kerbs as this could damage your vehicle and endanger other road users and pedestrians.

Then the conversation goes something like this:

Me: See that part about mounting the kerb? Is that the same as just touching it?

Them: No.

Me: So what do you think the examiner would do if you just touched it gently as you were stopping?

Them: Well, if I don’t go on the pavement… it says TRY not to touch the kerb.

Me: Exactly! But what if you didn’t even try and stop and bumped the pavement hard?

Them: That’s different, though.

Me: Yes, it is. Because if you’re trying to stop you obviously know where the kerb is. But if you don’t, what does that say about your control?

Them: It’s bad.

Me: Yes. So you can see how the examiner might not look at it the same way you do.

And what about taking more than three moves to get it round? It isn’t called a “three point turn”, so you can take as many tries as you want in theory. But what if you could get it round in three but end up taking five or seven moves? Are you in control?

Them: Ummm. Well, no.

Me: Arguably, no, I agree. So it’s best to get it absolutely right. But it doesn’t say you MUST do it in three goes, and you can never be sure how the examiner sees it. If the rest of your drive is good then it might be viewed differently. One thing you must never do is assess yourself as you’re going along and assume you have failed. Focus on what is coming up and drive the way you can normally drive.

And what about your observations – that’s where they mark under “safely” – what does it say about those?

Them: Just that I’ve got to look for other people.

Me: And…?

Them: Oh, and give way to them.

Me: What does “give way” mean?

And so it continues as necessary, depending on the situation. You can use the DL25 to turn a potentially bland lesson into a turbo-charged one, complete with a bit of “coaching” (hack, spit). The whole thing only takes a few minutes, it dispels any myths they’ve heard, and it makes them think and work the answers out for themselves. It brings them out of their shells, and gets them involved.

We also shouldn’t forget that – like it or not – there IS an element of having to do things in a certain way in order to pass the test, even if under normal circumstances there wouldn’t be a problem with doing them slightly differently.

People who steer clear of the DL25 are missing a trick or two – but I’m sure they’re still Grade 1 Lifeskills Coaches in their own living rooms.

BSM To Go Bust?

13/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI

This is an old, old, OLD story. BSM is now owned by the same company which owns the AA. This has been the case since early 2011.

I am beginning to get hits on this search term, or something similar. I’ve also heard rumours.

If it’s BSM franchisees searching, I don’t think you have much to worry about. BSM is not going to disappear just like that – even if the current owners are in a poor financial state, a business that size, in this industry, with that name is not just going to vanish!

I would be surprised if many companies are in absolutely buoyant financial bliss at the moment, so the fact that rumours are circulating is not really a big deal. If it went bellyup, somone would buy it in an instant.

BSMs problems now are the same problems it has always had. It’s just that in a recession, where people are cutting costs and perhaps seeing a bit of a downturn in business, a company like BSM – which relies on the fairly hefty franchise fees it charges – it has nowhere to else to go. It can’t put franchise fees up any more without losing a lot of people, and like most businesses it has been typically greedy and gobbled up any profit it made on overheads. I guess that’s why offices have been shut down progressively.

I fully expect a big change in their structure soon, but like I say it won’t mean that much for ADIs. PDIs, though, might not fare so well…

Of course, there is every possibility that some of those searching are simply voyeurs trying to see if there’s any truth to these rumours. Time will tell.

Cancellation Of ID Cards

12/01/2011

DOAADI

ADI, Driving Tests, DSA

An email alert from the DSA:

Cancellation of identity cards: changes to ID requirements

The government has passed legislation cancelling identity cards for British citizens. From 21 January 2011, those identity cards that have already been issued will no longer be legal forms of identification.

This means you’ll no longer be able to use the identity card as a valid document to prove your identity for a practical driving test or for Driver CPC periodic training.

If you don’t have a photo card licence and counterpart to prove your identity but have an old-style paper one, you must bring this and a valid passport.

For more information about the cancellation of identity cards visit direct.gov.uk/identity.

This Mickey Mouse government has got a few people angry at its petty cancellation of the ID card scheme (i.e. just because it was a Labour idea). People paid money for the things, and they aren’t happy that they are not to be compensated for the loss of the privileges the ID card brought them.

First Pass Of 2011

12/01/2011

DOAADI

Driving Tests

Well done to Mary E, who passed with just 4 driver faults this morning.

She also equals the record amongst my pupils for learning in the shortest time, from not ever having driven at all to passing first time – 23 hours.

I guess that this means I can boast a 100% pass rate… for 2011 (must keep that last bit in the small print).

I should point out that I am not in favour of people passing quickly (i.e. from start date to finish date), because experience is something that only comes with time and cannot be rushed. For that reason, I don’t like intensive courses. Mary has her own car and has done plenty of structured private practice between lessons with me. She is comfortable and competent when driving, and this pass was not one of those that could have gone either way: I would have put money on her passing.