Clearly I’ve not updated my blog since February.
Today I am in bed ill so am using the opportunity to update my blog.
Work
I worked hard to prepare for my diploma exam in May. It went ok, I wasn’t as well prepared as I would have liked to have been but I gave it my best shot on the day and hopefully I did enough to pass it. I should get the results sometime in July so fingers crossed. Apparently the format for the Diploma in Driving Instruction Exams is changing from next year. It was mentioned that the exams will be more web-based which may be easier. I was too focussed on the task at hand to find out any more details that day so will have to make some enquiries about it. For some reason, information about the Diploma never seems that readily available.
I’m reading Roadcraft at the moment, which is the police driver’s handbook. It’s really well written, full of excellent driving information and is a good read for any driver looking to improve their driving skills. I have been recommending it to my students who have been doing Pass Plus lately. I’m really pleased that quite a few of my new drivers have been taking the opportunity to do the pass plus scheme. It’s a huge incentive that Kent County Council will pay £60 towards the cost of the scheme for new drivers, but unfortunately only for those aged 17 to 19. It’s a shame that age bracket isn’t a bit wider.
Horsey Stuff
The youngest horse that I look after is growing up fast and is absolutely beautiful. She is 2 years old now and in need of a bit more work and handling, she has a good brain in there and needs to put it to a bit of work. Chief and I are slowly overcoming our fears together. We are sticking to walk and trot for the time being, I’m not quite ready to try cantering again yet, as that is usually when he throws in a buck and pulls his head down. There have been a couple of bucks lately anyway which have done me good, as I have sat well and kept my hands up and therefore, Chief’s head up too. We work with our instructor Tim usually once a week and have been doing some lovely work, over poles and some dressage moves like leg yielding and shoulder in. Last week we were also working on encouraging him to stand nice and square. We discovered that when Chief comes to halt, he leaves his offside hind leg back so with a bit of right leg I was beginning to get him to bring it up in line with his left hind leg. Bless him, he loves to learn new things and is really pleased with himself when he achieves something new, but his little face when you ask him to do something different, you can almost hear him saying, “but I don’t understand what you want me to do”! We had a lovely hack out last week too, he was a very brave boy, not really spooking at anything, he was accompanied by his younger brother Maverick, and I think he likes to try to be braver as he’s the eldest, but Maverick is rarely scared of anything anyway!
Family
Lauren has just done her end of year 8 exams and I’m sure she has done very well in them. The school gave them an excellent timetable with plenty of revision time. Zoe also helped Lauren revise at home too. We are awaiting the decision of the Appeals Panel as to whether Zoe will be able to join her sister at the Grammar school in September. Places are very limited and unfortunately Zoe did not do well enough on her 11+ exams to gain a place. We have presented evidence to show that Zoe is more than capable of achieving good results from a Grammar school education and can only wait and see if they are able to put her in. If not Zoe has a good school to go to in September and will do well there.
Mike has sold his car and now used a motorbike for work. He loves his bike! It’s saving us a lot of money financially and with a bit more practice under his belt he will be able to start thinking about taking his bike test for a full bike licence.
And we will also soon be moving house! We have lived in our house for nearly 19 year and it has served us well. It’s a 2 bed terraced and was our first home, so it will be sad to leave it, but in our new home the girls can finally have a bedroom each and we will be away from the main road in a nice quiet location, nearer to the girls schools for September, with a drive and garage instead of the on road residents parking that we currently have. Bliss!
