Our First Driving Episode

So last weekend, we rented a cargo van in order to go and get the piano that I bought off of ebay. I bought this Clavinova from someone in North Wales - pick up only, no delivery. Since the van had no windows, we quickly discarded the idea of combining the trip with some North Wales sight-seeing and decided instead to leave me and the kids at Damian's house while Bill and Damian went the rest of the way to get the piano.

So we started off with me driving - so that I could get some practice in. I didn't do too badly at all with the stick shift on the left and was reasonably smooth starting out. The whole being on the right of the vehicle on the left of the road actually wasn't that bad. The things that threw me at first were the round-abouts. I had to decide which lane to be in, hoping I was getting the correct one for where I was supposed to exit, and then figure out where I supposed to exit on the round-about. My road sign vision is not the greatest, so I was depending on Bill to tell me where to go at first. Also, the whole not having a clue where I was going thing made it a little harder. We finally made it onto the M1, then the M6 - major motorways. Of course, by then it was pouring rain, to make things a little more difficult.

Not long after getting on the motorway, the kids had to use the toilet, so we pulled off into a Service Plaza - although that's not what it's called here - can't remember what it is - where we resisted the urge to buy Starbucks. I'm not sure why we felt the need to resist, maybe we were trying to be frugal. Then it was on our way again.

Arriving at Damian's, we settled in after introductions. Ruth Ann and I had tea and chatted while the kids attacked the toys with great enthusiasm. Damian and Bill took off for Mold, Flintshire. Dakota is Damian's 3-year old son, so he and Philip had a great old time beating up on each other and fighting over toys (just kidding - they actually played nice some of the time). Damian Jr helped Joseph with the Wii some of the time and we did get a brief respite from the noise when Dakota and Philip napped. The guys meanwhile were off partying, in the guise of picking up the piano, but it took them so long to do that, that we know they were up to something....

When they returned, we scarfed down huge quantities of fish and chips, then the adults geared up for a game of Carcossone, the Castle. Damian won this game, but at the advantage of actually knowing how to play and perhaps cheating!!!!!!!!!!! OK, not true, but I can still say it. We are awaiting a rematch at our next get-together. See, gamers everywhere you go in the world!! Then it was back home to unload the piano.

Sunday, we were able to drive to church, and went over to Pastor Pavitt's house for dinner after morning church. We were able to get to know them and vice versa, and Bill had an opportunity to go through our pastor's questionnaire with him to get a good view on his stands.

Monday, Philip and I decided to take the van driving for some more practice, since we had it until that evening. We went randomly driving around our area, practicing reading the signs through the round-abouts, which I got pretty good at after a while. I have figured out that it is easiest just to read the signs on the round-abouts instead of following directions. (GPS or map) We toured through Kettering and then some random quaint thatched villages and back roads and then returned home for school pick-up time. I even got so good that I snapped some photos on my iphone of quaint thatched cottages and tree-canopied roads while driving, but I haven't gotten around to down-loading these onto the computer yet.