'Let's get 'er done'

All political opinions aside, I can't help but think of Sarah Palin saying that phrase when I have things to do. :-)

There are a few simultaneous plates spinning right now so I haven't been online much. The newest is the UK driver's test. I currently have a Germany license (which I brought along), and my US Pennsylvania license (which I received when the PA one handed in to DE expired-PA issues new licenses every four years.)

In the UK, US citizens are given a one year grace period to drive on their home license before getting a UK one in place.
EU citizens can do an even swap from EU licence to UK once, once they've been here for six months, or they can stay indefinitely on their EU one if they prefer.

Even though I have an EU one, I received my German one though an even trade of my American one, meaning--I didn't take any qualification test to get it. The UK therefore does not recognize this license as a true 'EU' one, but they treat it under the one year rule like the US one, that I can drive on it for a year and then must convert it to a UK one.

Someone suggested to me that the UK would never bother to track down in Germany whether or not I did or didn't take the test there. Probably true. However, the application to get the UK license forces one to state whether or not they received this EU license from a test or not, and from where. As a non-citizen in this country who plans to stay here, I don't want to be found lying on government forms. In addition, company J graciously provides me with a company car and insures it for me, they would not be too keen about this topic if I was found to be skirting the law.

I had an American expat colleague here who was convinced that she wouldn't pass the test here and as she was only here for two years she decided to carry on and not get caught. (Yeah, she got into an accident and got caught prior to the two years being up.)

No time like the present to get things rolling. I've purposely waited at least six months to get the rhythm of driving on the opposite side, and to stop clipping the curbs (done). I had to wait a few more weeks as one must turn in their non-UK passport to get the Provisional license, and I had work travel planned.

Expenditures so far:
-50 GBP to receive the Provisional license
-5 GBP to send off passport/application recorded mail
-5 GBP to pre-pay an envelope for them to return it in the same manner.
-31 GBP to pay for the theoretical computer test (test next week)
-practical test fee, still to pay

-a few hours spent reading the UK Highway code, including Friday night. As I've been driving for almost 20 years I'm doing the reading on the cheap by getting out library books. This should be interesting, however; my local driving center has a 38% pass rate on the practical test...