From what I can imagine, graduating is a funny thing. You leave four years of study behind and replace it with a dramatic cape, a dubiously symbolic hat and a scroll. But not even. You don’t even get to keep the cape and hat. What kind of deal is that? From what I have learned from my graduate friends, you also leave without a clue – a notion – of where in the name of God to … [Read more...] about Confessions of a Provisional Driver
Confessions of a Provisional Driver
Confessions of a Provisional Driver: Practise makes perfect
I recently returned to Galway last week for a night just before starting a work placement in Dublin. Getting off the Park and Ride bus, I inhaled the smell of NUIG like the scent of a long lost lover. As I bid farewell to the driver, whose cheerful greeting to every passenger has never failed to brighten my day in the past year and a half, he asked me a question which cracked a … [Read more...] about Confessions of a Provisional Driver: Practise makes perfect
Confessions of a Provisional Driver: Turf Wars
My provisional licence turned six months old last weekend and panic stations set in. What the hell have I been arsing around at on the roads this entire time? The six month birthday of my little plastic rectangle means that I can now sit a driving test. It means that I should be well able to pass that driving test since, you know, it has been six months. Meanwhile in the … [Read more...] about Confessions of a Provisional Driver: Turf Wars
Confessions of a Provisional Driver
It’s 1:29pm, I’m shovelling some supremely scrambled eggs into me, and reading over my notes on turnabouts and reversing around a corner in the hope that my study will compensate for my lack of practice. Lack of, meaning none. Zilch. It’s a Monday. I know it’s a Monday because my instructor shows me the soles of his black and red striped socks with the word ‘Monday’ stitched … [Read more...] about Confessions of a Provisional Driver
Confessions of a Provisional Driver
“Don’t get too cocky, Aisling. Not every lesson will go well.” My mother’s words were quite prophetic. Days after returning from Sziget festival, lessons five and six were on the horizon. Not to exaggerate in any way, but after the week-long festival I was quite literally dying. I couldn’t breathe deeply, exhale quickly or giggle slightly without exploding into an … [Read more...] about Confessions of a Provisional Driver