A link to my Facebook account

Well, you can see I don't maintain my blog anymore - but I have kept pace with Facebook fairly regularly.  It may work - an experiment to see if you can read my many posts - hope you can :)

https://www.facebook.com/owen.langdale

Seven months later...

Well, home about an hour from taking my second driving exam and I this time passed.  The whole process will have taken seven months. I will still have to wait for another week, but I will then have my very own permission to drive here.

I have already driven here for four months, but last August 6 was the last time I could legally drive here as my 185 days since registering to live here were expired.

I began in July finding a driving school and a good instructor.  I had two attempts at passing the theory (very difficult indeed) then applied for the formal driving test.  I failed the first one, even though I have driven for 42 years without an accident, but passed the second one this afternoon.

Here you cannot drive as a learner with a registered driver beside you - you can only practice with a driving instructor (at 45 euro an hour).  Once my Australian licence was no longer valid, I needed instruction for learning road rules etc, especially dealing with bikes and narrow roads, so I had five lessons before the first exam then another couple before the next one; then there was the cost of the on line time and resource book for learning the theory (examined in a room full of tables, computers and young people) plus after today I have to go again to a local government office with a passport photo and euro 45.50 then wait five working days for the driver's licence to be available for picking up.

                                                           (euro)

Theory book and 15 hours online tuition       70

9 hours @ 45/hr                                      405

Theory exam (x2)                                    120

Practical test (x2)                                    369

Licence issued                                          45

Total cost                                             1009       (That's  A$1296)  

Rene and I are going out tonight to celebrate with a delicious dinner.  I have four more days of midterm vacation to go, so I intend enjoying them since this test was hanging over my head like a dagger all week and was spoiling my days off.