do you drive

[Boots]

You ride a bike Cherry - unless it has a sidecar on it, then you drive it...

Hmmm...but if you're in the sidecar, you're riding in it.

[dibnah]

you can go for a ride in a car

do you drive a boat, when it has no sail ?

happy new year all

[Tay]

I passed my driving test 1st time when I was 17 but have never owned a car. I drove my mum's car when necessary but then had a period travelling then living in London when I never drove. Tried to get back into it but I gave that up as a bad job because I was just terrified trying to drive in London.

I haven't driven for about 16 years now and the thought of driving scares me silly. I don't even particularly like being a passenger in a car, and have no idea of road rules/marking etc any more.

Yup everyone thinks I'm wierd/strange/crazy for (1) not driving and (2) being scared to drive.

I do however have a chauffeur ; it is necessary here in the countryside. He drives too fast though.

MMM, I'm in exactly the same position as you. I passed my test at 17, but couldn't afford to run a car. My mother let me drive hers, but I had difficulty with it - it was a Morris Minor, so rarely used it. Then I went to uni, so couldn't afford one, and then worked in Canterbury where traffic and parking were horrendous. It was much cheaper, faster and more practical to walk and use the train. With the exception of three of four times, I haven't driven for 10 years.

We've been in France for 3 years now, and although I have tried driving, I am terrified. The roads are so bendy - I hadn't driven on country lanes much in England, and the drivers are maniacs. The fact that it is a left-hand drive car doesn't help as it feels so unnatural.

My husband is p*ssed off with me because I won't drive, therefore he has to. I don't feel that it is safe for me to drive; I think that my inexperience could have fatal consequences. My husband hates driving, and although he has a lot of experience and is an excellent driver, he had too many near misses back in England which has put him off driving. One time on the M20, a foreign lorry wobbled from it's lane into his, hitting him at 70mph. Fortunately nobody was injured, but had the lorry hit the car in a different place, it could have been nasty.

Most people think that it's odd that I don't drive, but they don't seem to think badly of me because I point out that I hold a full licence; therefore I am capable.

I would have had lessons here to refresh myself, but they are so expensive, and you end up with the next pupil in the car with you too. As it happens, it is likely that we will return to the UK imminently, so I will have a few lessons then. I think that I'll need tranquilisers though - every time I've tried to drive recently, I have had a panic attack; something which I have never suffered from.

[Sarahcook]

I failed my test just before my escape from Norfolk rurality to the joys of Watford, where my University (having campus in 4 different places) had it's own bus service.

I was stood at the bus stop, amazed that there was a bus every HOUR! EVERY HOUR! The lads next to me were on the engineering course, form London, and couldn't believe that I was excited by that.

After that we lived in cities and towns, I used trains or National Express to get to various places, and deliberately once spent a beautiful afternoon taking 6 hours and 5 trains to do a single train 2 hour journey. It was lovely just not being able to do anything except be alive on that one afternoon.

Now that I have the little man it does make me think I should learn to drive, as my boyfriend spends time away with work and so we ended up ambulanced to hospital rather than being able to get ourselves there and back.

We have a tremendous Range Rover Vogue (V8, 3.5l engine) which will be going all the places a 4x4 should, but is perhaps a bit big for a learner!

I have had a lot of jip through the years though, for not driving, especially since I drink only rarely following the birth of my son almost 4 years ago. I am happy not to drink, but then still require the other half to drive me home, a situation he feels unfair!

Maybe I will one day. we're talking about moving back to the south and away from the folks, so being able to drive would be a bonus if I want my lad to see his extended family. And I do.

Sarah

[Tay]

Sarah - we must both have been at the University of Hertfordshire! I didn't know that it had it's own bus service though. I used to give up and walk when studying there as there was never a bus when I needed one.

[Sarahcook]

When were you there? I started at Wall Hall in 94, and the bus service was about a year old I think.

I miss those times. I miss the Morpheus.

Sarah

[Tay]

I started in '97, but only did one year. I was at Hatfield campus, and I definitely don't miss it!

I'm planning to return to the UK with my OH; we both want to go to the University of Newcastle to do GIS degrees. I hope that the campus there is more pleasant than Hatfield (known locally as 'little Beiruit'!).

Did you do Engineering there? I can't remember what the Wall Hall campus specialised in.

What was the Morpheus?

[Sarahcook]

Wall Hall was the teaching campus, but I used to drink at Hatfield because the engineering lads went there and they didn't talk school all the time! Mainly in the Elephant House with Dave Lermit as the barkeep. Great bloke, should have been a faun.

And we WERE the Morpheus Project, (properly known as the RPG Society) and we went where we wanted and did what we wanted. Well we thought so at the time anyway. 97 was the year we got trailed back to Hatfield by the Armed Response team....

Ah, those were the days!

Wall Hall has been sold off now, and Hatfield has had a LOT of money ploughed into it, but the locals still hate us! I keep thinking about going for a visit, but, well, you can never go back, can you!

Sarah

[Tay]

They were ploughing a lot of money into the Hatfield campus when I was there. They built the LRC (Learning Resources Centre); spent millions on it, but within months, it had begun to subside! Maybe they should have used the civil engineering school to build it rather than professionals!

What on earth did you do to get followed by the Armed Response Team???

[Sarahcook]

Oh. Well. Ummmm. One of the lads had bought a present for his father. He showed it to us in town, we agreed it was ace and all headed back to campus. It was a replica pistol. Some old dear saw us and reported it to the coppers. Hatfield being the calm and gentle place it was (HAH!) the coppers decided to investigate, followed us back and it was a whole "Out of the cars move slowly " thing going on in the middle of the first car park.

But as that was the 2nd time for the armed respose we got in deepo trouble from the authorities on campus. They hated us anyway. The SU hated us because we would block vote if we got annoyed. And if something wasn't going well we'd walk out and then call a quoracy count. As there could be up to 30ish of us, that made a difference to the legitimacy of the proceedings several times!

The first Armed Response time was when we were LARPing in Watford, with permission and just coming to the conclusion. We had split into 2 groups through events in the story and all was well. I was out of this part of the action, my character having been sent back to the elysium as she was only a young vampire and fairly useless at times. I got a tap on my shoulder and was asked what was going on. We'd had a few of these so far, so I just explained, without turning round "Well she is the childer of the Ventrue Primogen and has the Sword of Trillus which the Malkavians and the Tremere are after in order to complete the incantation to rehouse the soul of Marcus, the original Primogen of this area. He's going to wolf claw her because he's Gangrel and can, but she'll probably survive that. None of it is real though. It's all latex weponry." Meanwhile the action is carrying on as described, complete with shouts and so on. "Can stop it all though?" "Yeah, it's a game, but why would we?"

I get another tap on my shoulder and "Follow me Miss". Turn round and it's a big copper, complete with helmet and jacket and so on. I follow him around the corner, he points at a van across the road, and explains, very sweetly, that we need to put all the weapons away as a post office in Watford has been done over, they're looking for a fairly large group of youths with replica weaponry, and that the lads in the van are the rest of his team and not as happy about being out late on a Wednesday, and are very good reasons as to why we would put everything away!

I grab the storyteller to call a freeze, everything is put away and the game is allowed to continue, except anyone not playing has to find the others, in the back streets of Watford, before the Armed Response lads do!

Happy days........

And we all got interviewed by CID once, but that was because we were the only people likely to have been about at that time in the morning, as opposed to us being bad. Not that the principal saw it that way, obviously.

We're all respectable members of the community now though. At least the ones I'm still in contact with are.

Well. respectable ish...

Sarah