Good Morning!
I hope you are having a lovely day!

If you have been a reader of my blog for a while, you would have read my post back in May when I passed my driving test! I honestly cannot believe it has been five months since I passed my driving test, it feels like it's gone fairly slow to be honest, even though the year has gone very quick! I have been driving since April 2015 when I started driving with a driving instructor, and then I started driving my own car in May 2015 with my mum sitting next to me. After having three driving instructors in total, I stopped driving lessons completely with an instructor by the end of August 2015 as my instructor at the time said I no longer needed lessons. I really just needed to grow my confidence as a driver as this was the one issue I really had. Every time I sat in my car, I wanted to cry from nerves and it really wasn't ideal.

I carried on driving in my own car from September 2015 to May 2016 when I finally passed my test using my own car. I wish I did this to start with as I feel like I had more experience driving my car as I was driving every day, unlike when I was driving with an instructor for one hour every week. I knew my car inside & out and I knew how to drive it sensibly and properly with no issues.

I thought it would be a nice idea to share with you everything I love about driving and everything I hate about driving, as I have been driving for a year and a half now.

So let's get too it;

5 things I love about driving;
Independence
When learning to drive, I didn't have the independence which I wanted. For a year I had to have someone sit next to me if I ever wanted to go somewhere and I was still unable to drive to University which was frustrating, unless my mum spent hours in town while I was in Uni, which wasn't ideal. However, I now have the independence which I always wanted. I can drive where ever I want to without having to ask my mum to come with me. I can go to a doctors appointment first thing without my mum having to wake up ridiculously early to come too, just to take me or to even sit next to me while I drove. It's a lovely experience and I'm glad I now have the independence that I do.

The rain
As a learner I absolutely dreaded driving in the rain, I thought I'd end up crashing because I wouldn't be able to see. Yes, I over reacted! However, I now love driving in the rain! As I love the sound of the rain and I love driving now, it makes the experience of driving so much nicer!

Driving in cold weather, instead of walking & getting the train
For 3 years I had to walk for ten minutes, get on a train for twenty minutes, wait around for ten minutes for a bus, then sit on a bus for 5 minutes and then walk another ten minutes. I also had to wait around for my trains to turn up and where I live, you have no idea if your train is going to be cancelled or not! So I was spending an hour to an hour and a half waiting around just to travel to and from college and University and in the rain, snow, and wind; I really hated this! I was cold, wet and miserable and I weren't able to go straight home. I can now sit comfortably in my car, for half an hour to an hour with a warm heater on my toes! It sounds like bliss.

Seeing my boyfriend whenever
Unfortunately when I was a learner, my boyfriend had to drive to come and get me and then drive to take me home again which wasn't ideal for him. He was using his petrol to see me and I weren't in a job throughout college to give him the money back for fuel and I did feel really bad! I can now drive to my boyfriend's whenever I want too, even unannounced and he can't do anything about it which I love! However, it does mean I need to pay for parking, which sucks.

My car hasn't let me down
I bought my car for £350 which is nothing, although it did have a few issues which the seller didn't tell me, my dad being a mechanic was able to sort these out in a few hours. I wasn't expecting my car to last nearly two years to be honest but it has and it hasn't let me down! However, I'm currently writing this on the 27th September, and it has an MOT in three days which I am absolutely dreading! It definitely will not pass.

5 things I hate about driving;
Paying for parking
The most annoying thing about driving is paying for parking, especially when I go to see my boyfriend! He doesn't have dedicated parking spaces for his house, meaning you have to park in the car park with everyone else and pay at a meter! I do not carry round cash and I quite often forget to put a ticket in my car and then I remember half an hour later and have to rush out to my car! Why it can't be free I don't know.

Slow drivers
I hate slow drivers, there's no doubt about it. There is absolutely no reason why someone should drive under the speed limit. Just drive the speed limit and it will make everyone's life so much happier and easier! I could scream at so many drivers and it irritates me how beeping your horn is classed as road rage and you can actually get done for it. Get rid of this law so I can beep at people to make them go faster please.

Learners
Although I was once a learner, I cannot stand learners. But the one reason I cannot stand learners is not the fact that the person driving the car is a learner, they're not the issue, it's the driving instructors! I'm sorry, but if you have passed your test recently you'll know that driving instructors make you do everything so slowly because that's what you have to do on your test. No, this is completely wrong. Drive like a normal person and you can pass your test. There is no reason why learners should be taught to do everything ridiculously slow or stop at every single round-a-bout even when there isn't a car coming, and you can see that there isn't. Why stop?!

Black box
When I passed my test, I had recently come out of a job therefore I didn't know how long it would be until I got another job, so I stupidly got a black box. What a bad idea this was! I hate my black box. It is completely stupid! I can't drive past 11pm without my score going down into the minus'. I can't drive my car more than seven times in a day without having my score go down. So this means if I go to the doctors in the morning, come home; that's two times I've drove. I then drive to University. That's three times. I finish University and drive to the shopping centre and park; that's four times. Oops I've decided I'm going to go and see my boyfriend, that's five times. We go out somewhere, and then go back to his which makes it seven times I've driven my car, which also means I then need to drive home which is an eighth journey in one day. Why put this rule into having a black box when fairly often I will be doing this? It's ridiculous. I also have a low score when I drive for less than 10 minutes. My boyfriend and my job are both 3 minutes away from my house, but take 30-40 minutes to walk. Obviously, i'm going to drive.

Insurance
Last but not least before I have a rage! Insurance. Not only is my black box ridiculous, but so is my whole insurance company. They're just plain idiots and I cannot wait to renew in May 2017 with someone else! Cya Later Carrot Insurance!