2007 — 15 December: cold, dull, Saturday
Cold? Yes. Dull, indisputably. Nonetheless, today is a red-letter day:
Two months to the day...
On 15th October I accompanied Christa, in the ambulance, and from our house for the last time ever as a couple. When I returned by taxi I decided that if I didn't get into the new car then sitting unused on the drive there and then I might simply never do so.
And then?
Well, 2,500 miles later it seems I have reached the standard deemed necessary for me to remove what Geoff dubbed my training wheels. Now, indeed, I wish I hadn't stuck the "L" plates on with duct tape — but you cannot win them all, can you? My son is pleased and proud of me, and I'm sure Christa is too. Friends and neighbours are all pleased as Punch. The champagne will be cracked at an appropriate moment in the near future. Did I say it was "dull"? Well, it seems a lot brighter all of a sudden.
My heart-felt thanks to my instructor Dennis, my various co-pilots (only one of whom [Peter1] ever yelled at me [and that was a microsecond before I hit the Carphone Warehouse bollard]) and (always) to Christa for giving me this extraordinary birthday present and smiling so happily at me.
This afternoon, my first bit of motorway! (Only as far as Winchester, but you have to start somewhere.) But first, off we (Junior and I) trot to Halfords where a little baby Garmin (nüvi 200) is twinkling its screen at me and saying "Buy me, David." How can I resist? And the lady inside it correctly told me the way home, too. What more could a new driver want?