One Step Forward in Going Nowhere

At long last, I had a theory test that did not get cancelled!

I passed it on Tuesday and was gratified to get a perfect score in the multiple choice portion. After three months of rescheduling, I would have had no excuse for anything less than 100%, but it felt like a delightfully petty victory against... The Man. Or something.

Tuesday was also the day my boyfriend officially became our support bubble as he'd been away in Bristol for a couple of weeks. The test was in Barnstaple, an hour's drive away, which posed a number of logistical difficulties.

• How to get there? My boyfriend gamely did the hour's drive down from Exeter first thing in the morning, but he left his car at the flat and I drove us to Barnstaple under the badge of my newly acquired L plates. (I'd love to know what the neighbours have made of those.)
  
• Would I be back in time to pick up my son from school? My son was having a leaver's fun week at school including a sleepover, Tuesday night. We marched him to school that morning with assorted changes of clothing, a bicycle, sleeping bag and two packed lunches... and thus dumped him for thirty hours.
  
• What would I do with my daughter while taking the test? Under pandemic rules, only candidates are allowed in the test centre. In fact, there was only one seat available in the waiting area, and I had to stand outside for ten minutes before I could go in. I don't know what would have happened if I'd taken the test six weeks ago and shown up with both kids and no responsible adult to watch them; instead my boyfriend was thrust into the intimidating role of babysitter for a nine year old girl. She had her school work with her, so they spent twenty minutes learning about Lord Shaftesbury and the child labour act in the car. After that, they found a cafe by the car park and got cake.
• Face masks required. This wasn't really a hurdle at all, as Mum has already made us two masks each, but I had to wear a mask the entire time I was inside the testing centre. I was only asked to remove it briefly to confirm my identity (and to prove I hadn't somehow concealed a phone or highway code inside it.) Most of the computer booths were taped off too, so I would sit two metres apart from other takers, and although I was assured that everything was wiped down between candidates, disposable wipes were left at each console if anybody wished to use them.

My test was at 11 and by 12, I had rejoined the others in a cafe where they had kindly saved me some cake. We now had an afternoon free of obligation ahead of us, and—no offence to that fair town—we had no desire to spend it in Barnstaple.

Instead, we spent the afternoon exploring Welcombe Mouth on the north end of Devon-Cornwall border. The road down to the car park is an adventure in itself: it gives up on being a road altogether for the last 20 yard stretch, instead becoming a series of rocky steps... but we made it, and considered it well worth the car's suspension!

Exploring rocks and sea

The northernmost bridge between Devon and Cornwall

Marsland Valley flowers

Ronald Duncan's Writing Hut

Scrambling around the waterfall at Welcombe Mouth

Sitting on the stepstones just upstream.

This bore out my decision to go with my boyfriend for our support bubble. Obviously, picking my boyfriend has some personal benefits for me, but I had debated choosing another family instead, so we could all have friends our own age to hang out with. However, with the driving issues, what we most needed was somebody in the car with us, so bubbling with one individual made more sense.

Then again, with my boyfriend in Exeter, I worried that it would be more practical to find somebody in the village. But what a waste of a support bubble to make it somebody who we barely knew! We wanted somebody we could adventure with, somebody we could hug! This day out at a beach was far more valuable than any errand.

Not that we didn't do errands! We returned via Bude, dumping some cardboard at the recycling centre and then doing a drive-by for a house that had just come on the market. With a Stamp Duty (land tax) holiday in effect, I'm now looking at houses in earnest. Of course, so is everybody else... After checking out the area, I contacted the agent to view the house and discovered it had already gone under offer.

That's probably going to be my focus for the next few weeks: watching the property market like a hawk. I've spent much of the weekend preparing a moving plan, making sure I know what needs doing and how much it will cost, so that I don't need to waste time when I find something I want to make an offer on.

That and getting ready to take my practical test. Practical tests won't reopen until next week, with priority given to those who had their tests cancelled at the start of lockdown. I need some more lessons too, and those will also start next week. It might be optimistic, but I'm hoping I can pass by the end of July... I really don't want to waste the entirety of the summer holiday without a car.

It does nothing for my brain either, knowing every day is going to be the same as the last. Tuesday was the last day I really felt alert. Since then, I've found myself lethargic... If I sit down to do anything, I get drowsy and if I do something standing up, I can't focus and end up staring into space. I need concrete goals to work towards: another driving test and a house would be stressful, but they'd also be definite steps forward.