I last took the driving exam in 2007 - I failed miserably after I nearly knocked over a speeding motorcyclist while changing lanes

After that I had a girlfriend who drove and then when that ended I went on the road for the past 18 months, basically.

So I never really needed or had to chance to take the test again until recently.

I've been practicing quite a bit, and getting a lot better, but I took the test again on Friday and still failed.

I actually got all the hard stuff right - nailed my reverse parallel park, did the driveaway turnarounds correctly and so on.

Basically the guy failed me for being too timid/not driving with enough conviction, he said I should be able to pass soon no problems but I was just not quite confident enough and a little bit too careful.

Turns out I am a nit at driving!

The next day I took my revenge on the STAT (mature age university entrance) test, and I think I did pretty well.

It was a two part test, first part comprehension second part written.

Back in High School I would have done ok in the comprehension and really good in the essays, but ten years of poker and the internet have sharpened my comprehension skills/dulled my writing skills considerably, so I was mostly worried about the written part.

I got lucky though and the two questions I wound up getting to write about were as follows:

a) The knowledge of ones self is the most important type of knowledge there is.

b) The internet, mobile phones and email have given shy people a chance to build relationships that would have previously been impossible.

Obviously, I pretty much hit the jackpot in terms of topics as I think about those things all the time, whereas it could have easily been something about say, politics or the environment, and I would have had a lot less to say.

Other than that, I got my freedom chair and it rules, so comfortable...

Got a new record player too and some really nice speakers.

Poker wise I haven't been playing much because of the tests, but I have been studying and playing a bit of Omaha Hi-Lo (I'm getting absolutely destroyed so far!)

I fell asleep with the new CeroZ video on loop earlier so for a few hours I had all this hi-lo terminology filtering in and out of my dreams, maybe that will help!

I'm pretty determined to beat up to 30/60 even if it takes ages, then I'm going to move on to the other games.

All in all things are good at the moment, staying in the one place and only playing donkaments once a week at most has been great.

I'm taking the driving test again in two weeks, other than that I'm just basically doing whatever I feel like day to day.