A Cringely article on IT Consultants, oh dear – more than a grain of truth.

Pass my IAM Car test today – woohoo! Those in the know will know that technically I have been recommended for membership of the Institute of Advanced Motorists, but I think you all know what I mean.

Thanks to Colin Lawrence-Waterhouse of Edinburgh IAM for being my Observer, and thanks to J McBirnie for spending some of his day off sitting in my car watching my driving.

I had a good drive and I am chuffed.

Route was:

• Out of the services to the small roundabout and turn right onto the B6145 towards the roundabout.
• Turn left off the roundabout onto the slip road for the A1 and join the A1.
• Follow A1 and leave at the next junction.
• Turn right onto Salters Road (A6094).
• Follow Salters Road straight across roundabout into Whitecraig Road (A6094).
• Continue through Whitecraig (A6094).
• Leave Whitecraig on A6094 towards Dalkeith.
• Turn Right at roundabout onto Musselburgh Road.
• Follow Musselburgh Road round to Dalkeith High Street.
• Continue on Dalkeith High Street straight on to Eskbank Road (A6094).
• Follow Eskbank Road to Eskbank Roundabout.
• Take 5th Exit from Eskbank Roundabout on to B6392 Melville Road.
• Follow B6392 Melville Road on to B6392 Gilmerton Road.
• At Roundabout take first exit on to B6392 Gilmerton Road.
• At Gilmerton Road Roundabout take 3rd Exit right on to A7.
• Follow A7 to Sheriffhall Roundabout and take first exit onto A720 City of Edinburgh Bypass.
• Stay on A720 and leave at Straiton junction on to A701 Straiton Road.
• Keep right on A701 Straiton Road passing under the A720 City of Edinburgh Bypass and take the first exit at the roundabout on to the A701 Burdiehouse Road.
• Follow A701 north to junction with B701 Frogston Road.
• Turn right into B701 Captains Road.
• Follow B701 Captains Road across junction with Lasswade Road on to B701 Gilmerton Dykes Street.
• Follow B701 Gilmerton Dykes Street on to B701 Newtoft Street.
• Follow B701 Newtoft Street to junction with A772 Gilmerton Road, going straight ahead on to B701 Ferniehill Drive.
• Follow B701 Ferniehill Drive to junction with A7 Old Dalkeith Road and turn right.
• Follow A7 Old Dalkeith Road to junction with The Wisp, turning left into The Wisp.
• Follow The Wisp to the junction with the A6106 Millerhill Road and turn left along Cloverfoot cottages.
• Follow A6106 Cloverfoot Cottages on to A6106 The Wisp.
• Follow A6106 The Wisp to junction with A6095 Newcraighall Road and go straight ahead into A6106 Duddingston Park South.
• Follow A6106 Duddingston Park South to roundabout and take first exit, onto A6106 Duddingston Park.
• Follow A6106 Duddingston Park through junction with A1 Duddingston Crescent on to A6106 Duddingston Park.
• Follow A6106 Duddingston Park to junction with Southfield Place and turn Right into Southfield Place.
• Follow Southfield Place on to Brighton Place.
• Follow Brighton Place to B6415 Portobello High Street and turn right into High Street.
• Follow B6415 Portobello High Street to B6415 Joppa Road and turn right into Morton Street.
• Follow Morton Street and turn left into Coillesdene Avenue.
• Three point turn and reverse round corner.
• Follow Coillesdene Avenue to junction with B6415 Eastfield and turn right.
• Follow B6415 Musselburgh road onto A199 Edinburgh road.
• Follow A199 into Musselburgh and A199 North High Street.
• Follow A199 North High Street on to A199 Bridge Street.
• Turn right on to Mall Avenue.
• Continue on Mall Avenue on to Olive Bank Road.
• Continue on Olive Bank Road to junction with B6415 Eskview Terrace and turn left into Eskview Terrace.
• Follow B6415 Eskview Terrace on to B6415 Monktonhall Terrace.
• Continue on B6415 Monktonhall Terrace across roundabout.
• Turn left at roundabout onto B6415.
• Turn right in to Musselburgh Services.

The IAM examiner that has my test called back and I have some provisional dates to pick from in March.

Superb – I’m looking forward to giving the IAM car test a good go!

I’ve had an Orange SPV M600 for a while now, and I think it is excellent. I even have TomTom installed and with my bluetooth GPS it works a treat in telling me where to go.

One thing that this phone didn’t do too well was pick up my personalisation stuff for Orange World. Orange World is a set of mobile type pages with stuff like ringtones and other rubbish stuff, but really usefull stuff like live train times. The one or two times I’ve been to South Queensferry to drop the bike off, the train times planner has been really useful. What I missed is what my previous SPV phones did, which was remember who I was and suggest favourite stations and journeys that I’d used before. I don’t travel by train that often, but being able to pick the same two or three stations is quite handy.

So with 20 minutes free time I did a bit of googling around, and found instructions on how to sort the settings to allow orange to detect my phone properly and know it was me. There is a thread on modaco that tells you what to do – Orange World Site on SPV M600. And my old favourites and cinema settings etc came back – I haven’t seen them for over a year since my old SPV. And new stuff like my account page, which tells me my minutes and megabytes left. Superb.

Martin (Sunpig) headed over to Holland last year, and since then his blog has been a bit quiet. Mrs Sunpig’s blog gave hints of the shock to their system, so it was good to see Sunpig surface with a review of the year.

It was Sunpig that got me into blogging, but was always more prolific than me. For me posts are a barometer of the life of AlistairL, when the conditions come together I blog. I was going to say it is when I’m confident and feeling more extrovert, but I don’t think it is as simple as that.

For the time being, enjoy hearing from Sunpig – he’s a bit like one of those huge submarines that stay submerged for months, rising for the occaisional burst of traffic once in a while.

Shingle Ping 😉

Missed the call from the IAM Car Examiner on Tuesday evening, and he hasn’t called back yet. Said he would, but didn’t leave a number and withheld the number he called from.

I hope he calls soon.

You’ll know from reading previous blog entries that I’ve been working away at achieving Car Membership of the Institute of Advanced Motorists. After a successful mock test last year my test application went in and I had a letter from the IAM on 23rd November saying my details had been passed on to an Examiner.

My Observer warned me that there was quite a backlog of applications, so my test was unlikely to come through to the new year, but as is my wont I started chasing it last week. I spoke to a nice lady at IAM House in chiswick this morning and they are going to get in touch with the examiner on my behalf.

Hopefully all my hard work will pay off and I’ll get another recommendation for membership after a successful test. I’ll post up when I get a date through.

I’ve lost track of how many Observed Drives I’ve had with Colin from Edinburgh IAM, I think it is up to double figures now. I’m still waiting to hear the results of my chase-up email to IAM House in Chiswick.

Yesterday was a fun drive, we went out into the country for some twisties, and actually encountered a National Speed Limit which was a pleasant change from the motorways and blanket 50mph limits around my area.

Points to work on – don’t cross 12 O’clock with my hand to get a big chunk when steering – I should really slow down instead, remember to choose a couple of simpler hazards to illustrate my knowledge of the system (as in car control – from Roadcraft) in my commentary. Remember to cover the top of the gearstick when changing back to first after a moving brake test, and mention the warning lights during startup drill.

There was another point or two, but I can’t remember off the top of my head – things are going pretty well, and my practice is bearing fruit.