Who can blog when there's driving to be done?

Yes, that's right... I am now officially legal to drive forever in the UK!!!!! Well, I'm not sure about the forever part of it, but I did manage to pass my driving test the first time. Now, all of you Americans will think that's no major feat, but let me tell you the driving test here is rediculously stringent and the fail rate is like 60% in most places. Simon failed his first test, so I was nervous. But after hundreds of pounds worth of driving lessons, it paid off and I passes straight away. I totally could have been failed, but the guy was really nice and turned a blind eye to a few things and scored them as minor faults instad of major faults which mean you fail.
We haven't really been able to take full advantage of my new driving situation because I was sick two weeks ago and this past weekend we had a nursery fiasco.... The fiasco was that it was closed on Friday for staff training. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been a problem, but neither Simon nor I knew about it, so he went to drop Marius off - right before he was due at the train station to take a trian up to St. Andrews where his friend would pick him up and drive another hour and a half up into the woods to conduct a weekend field trip. Ugh, Simon called me and I had no clue why the nursery had its light off and doors locked. After many frantic calls to my nursery and their corporate office, I was finally informed of this training... I guess they had fliers up on the walls, but they also have about 10,000 other pieces of paper and crap all over the walls, so how was I supposed to know which ones I should read? Anyhow, they credited me with a day, so I saved about $100. But the end result was that I had to drive Simon up to this woodsy lodge after work on Friday. So we took a 2.5 hour drive in the dark and rain. If the motorways here were as well lit as in the US, it wouldn't have been any trouble, but it's really hard to see at night on the roads here so by the time we go up to the lodge, I didn't want to do any more driving. But, of course there were no extra rooms, so I shared a twin room with Simon, our friend Mike who works at St. Andrew's University, and Marius. It was a closet of a room, so needless to say it was quite cramped. Then I drove back home Sat and had the rest of the weekend to myself as Simon was still up in the woods. Oh well, perhaps this weekend we'll get out and take a hike somewhere. I'm dying to start roaming in the countryside again. Although the days are getting really short now and it's totally cold, but better that than staying inside for the rest of my life I suppose.
That's about all. There is no resolution on the roof... I think I will have to pay 50% of the cost with my downstairs neighbor, and he thinks the whole building will have to share the cost... How to resolve that, I'm not sure, but I've been ingnoring the issue. I need to invite him up here with his wife so we can site down with a glass of wine and look at the deeds to see what's what. But, the house is a mess so I've put it off. The house is always a mess though... so I should just go down and have a chat anyhow. Oh well, I'm tired of thinking about it. I just wish I could get it done myself and not organize some sort of communal payment. What a pain in the backside!