Richard's birthday
Oct. 12th, 2004 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
baratron[Bad username or site: wuzzie>... not that he ever reads LJ, but you never know. @ livejournal.com]
As you know, Richard & I live in London. This means we don't need a car, and as we're both pretty opposed to cars for environmental reasons, neither of us have ever learned to drive (we've both held provisional licenses from the age of 17 without ever getting round to taking lessons). Since Richard started doing serious paintballing, about once a month he needs to get to some field in the middle of nowhere (usually a different field each month). This is not necessarily easy on public transport - added to which he needs to transport a large amount of stuff with him (often 3 or 4 people's guns that have been given to him for mending as well as all his own stuff). This means he really needs to be able to drive.
His current plan is to learn to drive and then rent a car at the weekends he needs one - this is one hell of a lot cheaper than buying one, and doesn't offend our environmental principles (plus, someone else gets to clean all the mud out of the car afterwards). However, he's been talking about this for 6 months without getting round to organising or paying for driving lessons. I have decided to make an executive decision and BUY him a course of driving lessons for his birthday present. As courses of driving lessons cost ~£300, I would really like it if other people who were going to buy him a present anyway give me money towards the lessons.
I can't do the entire thing as a fait accompli because he is the only person who can write to the DVLA to find out what his driver reference was and get a new provisional license, but we can get most of the way (I think the big driving schools will issue a gift certificate for the learner to redeem at their leisure). So I am planning not to tell him about it before his birthday unless (and this is pretty unlikely) he actually starts doing something about arranging lessons himself.
For reference, Richard's birthday is 9th November (apparently a Tuesday this year).
If you do want to go in on this, comment in the thread here and let me know how much you're giving (not necessarily in a public comment), and I'll email you my bank details for automagical transfer porpoises.
As you know, Richard & I live in London. This means we don't need a car, and as we're both pretty opposed to cars for environmental reasons, neither of us have ever learned to drive (we've both held provisional licenses from the age of 17 without ever getting round to taking lessons). Since Richard started doing serious paintballing, about once a month he needs to get to some field in the middle of nowhere (usually a different field each month). This is not necessarily easy on public transport - added to which he needs to transport a large amount of stuff with him (often 3 or 4 people's guns that have been given to him for mending as well as all his own stuff). This means he really needs to be able to drive.
His current plan is to learn to drive and then rent a car at the weekends he needs one - this is one hell of a lot cheaper than buying one, and doesn't offend our environmental principles (plus, someone else gets to clean all the mud out of the car afterwards). However, he's been talking about this for 6 months without getting round to organising or paying for driving lessons. I have decided to make an executive decision and BUY him a course of driving lessons for his birthday present. As courses of driving lessons cost ~£300, I would really like it if other people who were going to buy him a present anyway give me money towards the lessons.
I can't do the entire thing as a fait accompli because he is the only person who can write to the DVLA to find out what his driver reference was and get a new provisional license, but we can get most of the way (I think the big driving schools will issue a gift certificate for the learner to redeem at their leisure). So I am planning not to tell him about it before his birthday unless (and this is pretty unlikely) he actually starts doing something about arranging lessons himself.
For reference, Richard's birthday is 9th November (apparently a Tuesday this year).
If you do want to go in on this, comment in the thread here and let me know how much you're giving (not necessarily in a public comment), and I'll email you my bank details for automagical transfer porpoises.
