Hello everyone,
I see i have some more followers, and over 1200 page views. Thanks to all of you :)
Well i just recently bought a car. £600 little red K.A. I love it! However, after driving for three years in New Zealand in a simple automatic and then having to learn manual i named my car the Devil as it was quite a challenge to drive!
I have now finally mastered the art of driving manual and finding my way on English roads. Don't get me wrong, I'm not cocky and i will admit i still have my moments of putting the car in the wrong gear and stalling..but then who doesn't? I have had a lot of practise recently and today i finally got on the M6 motorway by myself and travelled 20 miles to university this morning. 20 miles may not seem a lot to you, but i was very nervous before i left the house this morning and then arrived safely at University, got out of the car and said to myself..."OhMyGod, I am alive!". It was one of my proudest moments i have to say!
Having a car is so much easier! It takes me just over half an Hour to get to University in the car...if i was travelling by train and bus it would take me just under 2 hours. Public transport is a monstrosity if i do say so myself, let me tell you why....
If i was required to be at University at 9am (which i do on a Thursday and Friday) I would have to be at the train station for 6.30am, (Due to the buses not running in time with my train). I would then sit on a 20 minute train ride to my destination. Then walk 20 minutes to the bus stop, to endure yet another 20 minute bus journey, with traffic and when the bus driver takes a wrong turn like he did last time it can take up to 30mins. That's around about 2 hours of travelling because public transport just makes no sense. All together this would cost me £10.60 for a train ticket, then another £3.80 bus ticket...every day. That's £72 a week i was spending just to get me to Uni!!
Now, to take less time getting uni, i decided i would trial getting a taxi from the train station. This meant i could leave an hour later. The taxi cost me £9 to get me from the train station to the Uni, which is about a ten-fifteen minute journey. This meaning the price of getting me to uni would increase to £143 a week!! And the government still think public transport is the best way...no i don't think so!
(Plus taxi drivers terrify me. My last taxi driver told me how he was in trouble with the police for finding someones belongings in his taxi and putting it in his boot. Then pointing out where certain murder spots were, or where someone suspected for murder lived. I honestly thought that was the end! I have never got out of a car so fast in my life!)
Now i have a car, i can fill her up with petrol for £40 and that will last me all week and it only takes me 30-40 minutes to get to where i need to be. I don't need to stay in the cold and walk around in the rain, its quicker and cheaper. However, as I'm a young driver and i am a student. I have to pay my car insurance monthly. For starters the insurance was quoted at £1250..but as i need to pay it monthly, the car insurance (whom was the cheapest) then went on to charge me another £500 on top of that for not paying in full. I think winning the lottery just to get me to my university is needed!
I really do believe the Government are making it as hard as they can for younger adults to have independence and a future. It is near enough impossible to get insurance cheaper than £1700 if you are a under the age of 25. University require you to pay £9000 a year to study with them, and if you live in halls a whole lot more. Public transport is far too expensive, so is insurance and university. Where are young people such as myself supposed to find these amounts of money just so we can be independent and have a good education??
Anyone know??
Chloe Hannah Beaumont xxxx
