Most of my time is spent helping people achieve their full potential and to overcome many obstacles that life throws in their faces.
I also make sure they know how not to burn their clutch or how not to run over that woman who decided to push the pram out testing if the road is clear...but I am an adventurous soul so in my spare time I do lots of different things, most of which use copious amounts of energy and adrenaline...or compassion
...the brave may not live forever but the cautious don't live at all.
Carpe Diem
Shout out to all the #FreedomBikers in the UK! How about we organise large rideouts to spread the message of freedom to all those who are still sleeping!!! Time to change this shitshow!
— Monica (@LaMon1) February 21, 2022
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Coati
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Lois, Mon, Lisa, Sandra
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Foz do Iguaçu Brazil
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Rio with biker chicks
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Desert Rose Racing 2012
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Goodwood Revival 2011
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August 2011
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For the latest blogs visit; http://1stlondondrivingacademy.blogspot.com/
Live your lives with passion, truth and integrity, you'll be free when you are not afraid of life and living. NOW is all you have.
16th June 2010
The last 3 years have been like a metamorphosis of my life.
I have visited many places and met many people. I don’t seem to be able to... or want to keep pace with those companions. Perhaps I hear a different music and follow the beats of different drum?
Hence I am still seeking to find a place that I belong to and people who follow the same path with the same rhythm. Searching for my team.
I hope someday I will find what I seek. Destiny has found this path for me and is hard at work so I’ll let Her decide.
My Guide told me to follow my instincts, I'll do just that as in the past when I followed the over analysed rational thoughts things did not work out so well.
When The Higher Power is at work best to obey.
17th May 2010
January 2010
This is a tale of how Vauxhall cars (COULD) make you go bankrupt.
I'll never buy another one as long as I live, what you'll do after reading it is up to you.
The following is the last day in the life of my 3 and half year old Vauxhall Corsa. When I have the time I'll post the complete story of continuous breakdowns and the amount of wasted time and energy in order to run my driving school. In the 5 years I have owned Corsas, I have had 13 MAJOR under warranty repairs with loses of over £2700 pounds for car hire as I have never let any of MY CUSTOMERS down unlike the manufacturer and it's dealers have let me. Now the drive chain has snapped despite having a new one at 44k miles so the car is worth near its scrap value.
I value my customers and my customers trust me to be there for them. I bought tools to work with and when they did not fit the WORKING BILL I was left to pick up the bills myself. To Vauxhall Customer Services customers don't matter that much it seems, especially the ones who nurse new drivers to be their potential customers. Why would I ever buy a car from a company that does not give damn about its customers?
28th of January 2010
My day started around 8am with sore tonsils. I don’t like getting up early in the dark and I needed to leave for Gatwick around 10.30.
I had my car booked in for service at 2.30pm. I took a day off because of the Airport run. I’m 35 miles from it. I dropped my passenger off, then drove (or rather attempted to!) drive to Gravesend, Kent (another 40miles but the only courteous Vauxhall service for miles and 17 miles from my house). I discovered them after all the never ending trouble with the same car last year.
On the way back I heard something snap and I lost power, managed to get to hard shoulder on the momentum and then the engine cut out. It was freezing with driving rain. I had long coat, boots, no hat, gloves, but it was not enough to keep me warm on the blooming hard shoulder. I had only about 2 miles to my exit for Gravesend.
Got my RAF waterproof and wind proof jacket out of the boot, jumped behind the barriers then walked to the phone after taking note of my nearest marker. I called RAC on my mobile whilst walking there. 1h wait...lovely hypothermia/ pneumonia or crashed by the roadside...good choices to have. Rang the garage to tell them the car’s broken down. Knowing how fast car fixing is, I rang DIA to see if they had a car for hire...I was in luck. My navy blue RAF coat worked as a tent above my head whilst I crouched on the base remains of a cone trying to keep my toes warm. I have been in the 4k Alps with temperatures around -15-20 and never felt as cold as that. It’s the damp weather in the UK that makes it feel so much colder.
Finally my savior arrived, with a warm truck. He said he put the heating on for me on full blast, bless.
We were in the garage at 2pm, so before the time due. My car still had not been diagnosed by 6pm.
As it was being booked in, I wasted no time and organised the car hire, and was trying to sort out insurance.
So now I need to get home to get my motorcycle to ride to collect the car. I asked for a taxi, it’s that or I won’t make it to Croydon by 5pm.
The 17 miles taxi ride and not even 30min was £35! It’s good to know as a comparison to our lesson prices. Home at last. Croydon’s next.
If anyone knows this area the drive/ ride from SE London to Croydon is an absolute nightmare. Continuous traffic, it can only be done in 1h on the bike . I did not ride my bike since September, but I was charging the battery for a while, so it started first time. Getting all the winter gear on takes time, getting every bit of paperwork needed, finalising the insurance, so it’s printed and ready when I get there, it all takes time. Tyres needed pumping too. I finally left the house at 3.30 the beginning of a rush hour, 22 miles to go. I had moments where the car’s lane disciplines were such that I wanted to use the pavement, but stopped myself. Half way there I had to stop to switch on my electrically heated gloves because my hands started to become very cold (I was born to ride in the sun), and there’s no precision with freezing hands. My chest was cold too, but I did not have time for plastic bags under my leathers and had to bare it. Skiing underwear is not adequate for biking in the winter and no high tech gear works as well as a 5p plastic bag to keep your chest wind proof.
Finally I got there at 4.30, left in a Pug 207 at 5pm.
Things happen for good reason and when one door shuts many others open, with hindsight the above was just a lesson to learn from and follow the other paths set previously. Much better ones.
All troubles are just a helping hand to learn from. Life would be boring without challenges.
May 2010
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Hello Hollywood!
My new pet!
the sorted place...or is it?
Dramatic coastline on Route One
Pacific Sunset
Curvy road in Hilly SF
The Golden Gate
The drive from LA to San Francisco is a long one if you are driving alone. Sometimes being alone is necessary on the path to enlightenment.
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Parking and Skid Pan Training at the Police College Maidstone July 2009
petrol or tyre heads...same thing!
The skid car...most fun when the ABS is OFF! Snow driving would be more fun, but hey in July can't ask for snow untill I design the snow driving circiut...future is as bright as snow in the midday sun.
The idea behind Skid Pan training is to gain better skills at controlling the car on an icy road. I believe we never stop learning and I'm always seeking ways how to improve my techniques and...It’s fun that needs to be shared!
The near future skid and Pass Plus CAR.
Need to show them how it all meant to be done...
The Tutors would like to beat our team...maybe next year...
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Police Shadowing Work 4th of July 2009
Is it a game of cats and mice, good guys versus bad guys...? No it's one day's work of the Kent Traffic Police being observed by me. As members of Kent RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders we have the privilege to join and observe the Traffic Officers in their FAST Estate Volvos and BMW's trying to keep the law and order on the roads of Kent. It has been an awesome day and a tremendous privilege to go behind the scenes, wear a POLICE High Vis and experience what really goes on.
Driving (NOT ME! Although I would love to ;)) at 150m/h in response to emergencies, taking bends at 120m/h with the blues and twos...so many people don't check their mirrors it's scary and shocking.
It began with a search for a stolen Audi. Stolen to order, so chances of finding it were remote, especially that its owners were on holiday and no one knew if the car had a tracker device fitted.
We have fined 2 drivers going over 90m/h by setting up speed traps. ...most others were doing 75-80m/h.
Biker lost control on a roundabout near Farningham
As the afternoon progressed we spotted a car and its occupants who were completely oblivious of our presence behind them. This was yet another driver not checking his mirrors. But this one was not only doing 87-89m/h without seeing a very reflective Police car behind, he also had 11 grams marihuana in his possession. After the drugs were found, he was arrested and I had to sit in the front seat whilst the other Police Officer drove the other car with the friend and a child of the arrested man. I did not feel at all comfortable having cuffed drug dealer/ user behind me. I kept wondering how difficult is it to get out of those hand cuffs and instinctively kept one of my arms near my chin. Just the thought of those cuffs around my neck was enough.
Suspicious package was found near a motorway, which then had to be closed for safety whilst the bomb squad made the device safe.
Another funny situation occurred after we had a call about a woman who was meant to be sun bathing on the hard shoulder. We have found no one but had to scare and slow down all the traffic by doing what I would call a snake on the road. Police car was weaving across all 3 lanes in order to slow all the following cars.
As we were passing those vehicles, one happened to be looking a bit suspicious. It was full of young man and the car was going at 60m/h in the outside lane, to the annoyance of all the following traffic, which then happened to be a Police car in an urgent search of a “motorway beach bum”. Soon after, we had found them again in the same lane doing the very same 60m/h. These 5 boys from London were on their way to the seaside and the driver has never been on a road faster than 50m/h nor did he know what lane discipline really meant. I wonder who taught him to drive!(?)
A lot of things have happened in those 8 hours on the road. There was no time for tea break and no lunch, call came and we had to go. I shared my 3 piece sandwich and oat cakes with my Police crew who had done a great job in showing me one day of their life on the roads of Kent.
I'm grateful for all their dedication and the hard work they put in everyday.
Thank you for an amazing day.
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Crisis Square Mile Run 2009.
Been there, done that and even have a t-shirt to prove it, but will be doing it again next year as I have not been that content with my run. After 2 weeks of chest infections, or flu and a tooth infection which seems to have been the root of it all, running 3.5k, although should have been an easy stroll was the opposite.
A massive thanks to all that sponsored and believed in me! You know I always keep my promises!
The Crisis Square Mile Run takes places on Thursday 4 June at Paternoster Square next to St Paul’s Cathedral. Starting at 7pm this 3½ mile run takes you along the Thames Pathway and the Southbank, past the Tate Modern and finishing in spectacular style over the Millennium Bridge. Running as an individual and joining over 2,000 runners in a race to end homelessness. http://www.justgiving.com/monikadagate
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RoSPA at the Hop Farm in Kent
Over the 3 days of May Day Bank Holiday, members of the Kent RoSPA Advanced drivers and riders, led by the Chairman John Corcoran gathered to promote advanced driving and road safety. We're awaiting news of how many new members have been recruited. As always the weather was such that for the first time ever I appreciated wearing bike leathers not riding the bike...it was freezing!
Want to show off how good your drivng skills really are? Visit http://www.kentrospa.org.uk/index.php join and PROVE IT!
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Blond changes the wheel!
On Sunday the 5th of May 2009, some of my old (with a licence now), present and future students gathered at a Golf Course near Croydon to learn how to change a wheel. It was a wheel change with a difference as we were off road and on a hill.
in those circumstances ordinary car jack won't do, so I'm using,,,
...an AirBag. No jacking points, any terrain, nothing too strenuous, even a blond woman can do it lol.
The bag is being inflated by air compressor connected to the battery with the engine running to prevent the battery from being drained.
The two near side wheels are being supported by metal wedges. As the car lifts up, with the engine running, the only thing that is stopping it from running away down into hole number one is the handbrake, working on the back wheels. If not for the wedges, with one wheel in the air, I would probably have to chase the car down the hole number one too, to the amusement of the very "rushed" Sunday morning golfers. The only consolation for them was the eight women crashing on their grass, because THE car stayed firmly in its place.
Before the wheel is off the ground, the nuts have to be undone a little. Knowing Vauxhalls "quality handbrake" it would not hold the wheel firm.
The spare tyre in an instructors car should always be identical to the other 4, otherwise the examiner will not take the car out on a test, if the tyre had to be changed for whatever reason.
The lesson's almost done, off to the pub for lunch next...
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2008 and beyond...
but it's not a fight
it's a plea for mercy
and my surrender.
That is my last weapon,
and the only weapon I had and wanted to have,
I just didn't know how to use it.
It was a sword encrusted with the rust of anger and hate.
So thick it was hard to see through to the core of shining steel...
but slowly with time the crust has broken away and the only thing left now is pure and true.
Love is the Katana of choice...
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Since April 2008, every Monday of the season (April till mid September) I have been working with a charity helping the Red Fox -The Fox Project. I call it the "poop clean up day". Like any other animals on this planet, all foxes have very individual characters and I just love watching cubs run and play under my feet.
Copied by permission;
"The Fox Project is a charity dedicated to the red fox. We operate in parts of Kent, Surrey, East Sussex, West Sussex and South East London, dealing with sick and injured foxes and abandoned fox cubs and working with a large team of volunteers to provide for their care, treatment and rehabilitation back into the wild."
If you are reading this page, love animals and would like to help to provide for their care and well-being, please visit http://www.foxproject.org.uk/ to donate few spare pounds.
I have discovered why so many foxes die on roads at the end of summer. Fox families have what's called a fox dispersal season. Just like the birds fly from their nests, foxes leave their mothers and fathers at the end of summer (August- September), when they are big enough (humans should adopt many of those basic principles too!). These young Foxes leave to find their own territories and Soul-mates to spend lives with and start own families. Like all youths they're only prepared for what their parents were able to teach them. ROAD SAFETY is not one of those things, hence so many casualties on roads at that time of year. So please take care and use the HORN to scare the foxes off the road. They don't have fully comp insurance, so if you happen to hit and kill a fox, or any other animal for that matter, it will be your insurance paying a lot of money for a new bumper. That's only providing you do have a FULLY coprehensive insurance in the first place. If not...the cheapest bumper is around £400! I would like to see happy foxes and nice unbroken bumpers!
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Eye to eye with the "other side", just another Monday morning.
That April Monday morning was full of sunshine and frosty air. Perhaps not the best conditions to ride a motorcycle, but when sitting in traffic is the only other option, bit of a freezing blast in a blinding sunshine is a welcome change.
I was riding along the M20 in Kent, going east towards Maidstone, approaching junction 2, which I intended to take. I was slowing down as I had some bunching up traffic before me, and my exit was just ahead. Or maybe someone told me to slow down... Just before, silver Audi A4 went past me at about 95m/h. I overtook him earlier, so this was his way of getting me back I guess.
Nothing prepares you for what happened few seconds later. Whilst the Audi overtook, the driver in the Escort in the middle lane swerved left into the wheel of a motorway maintenance truck. The force of the speed and impact started to spin the Escort around and into my path. The bumper flew one way, one of the front wheels was off the other way. There’s no thinking at this point just instincts, survival. I avoided all the debris, the car and was very lucky that no one from behind hit me. It was not my time to go. It seems when the “Brown stuff” hits the fan I go the opposite of panic. How I avoided all and survived I can only put down to experience, practice and my Guardian Angel. I do take risks, very few on motorbikes don’t. I believe speed can be a killer when used in the wrong places but it can save us too when we need to get out of danger fast.
Driver was a bit shaken, car's written off, no injuries anywhere. It was a GOOD day!
The moral of my story to me...live life today, because tomorrow may never come...
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Sometimes, when I'm inspired, I take nice pictures.
and somtimes I just do handbrake turns for practice...
I honestly did not ruin my dad's grass, just needed to check little Panda's ability to do handbrake turns.
You simply can’t get better without a little practice lol. The ML350 was far too boring...and I think all the moles have moved out but it had nowt to do with the ML!
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The MAD MON!
4x4 driving...pure adrenaline at 5m/h
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Sunday, March 16th 2008
Feminism and freedom according to me...
So I swam, ran, played football.
"Stop whistling" my gran would say, "it's not lady like..."
"I don't want to be a lady, I want to be me!” The tomboy inside me was screaming out. Am I a boy girl...was I meant to be a boy...?
NO! I'm a girl who finds the things that girls should like... BORING...
But clichés, stereotypes, all the things that the humans with a blinkered vision say is "normal" tend to put a stop to many things...and make many people unhappy...I'm very lucky!
There is no rule book which really tells us what is right and what is wrong when it comes to us being who we are...
If we try to live by someone else's ideals in the long run we'll be unhappy...
So I run, train Martial Arts, ride a motorcycle, dive, swim, drive like a lunatic at times, ski down any mountain. I will go back to horse riding as well.
Am I a woman...? Hell yes...but I AM who I want to be, forgetting what the clichés and stereotypes are, not really caring what most people will think about me. It's beyond the realms of their understanding, so I won't waste my time trying to explain WHY?
To me that's feminism and freedom...I will be who I want to be and I will not be told that I can't do it because I'm a girl, or I will not be as good as doing it because of it.”
Fortunes can be made and lost in a day but who you are and what you know no one can ever take away from you.
Poor is a man who judges others not by merit but by birth or money's worth.
Some kind of résumé…
I have decided to share some of my life story on line.
The protocols I follow are; truth, integrity and justice.
My Name is Monika Anna D’Agate. (Good initials huh? I try to live up to them) I was born in April of (date removed for security) in Lublin, Poland.
My early years were very privileged. My father was an entrepreneur who said that; “the Americans should have gone few rivers further for him to have gone further”. He was an officer in the Polish Army (after the 2nd WW), but the Russians decided that having a girlfriend born in the US was on a par with treason…demotion and a new life was needed. My mum was beautiful, kind and very hard working, and not his first wife. I guess he had finally found what he was looking for all his life. I’m very grateful to my parents for the kind of life I had.
I grew up having all the things a kid like me could want; loving grandparents, country side, horses, motorbikes, cars. Summer holidays were spent in Bulgaria on The Black Sea. I flew on a plane for the first time when I was 6 years old, in 1974. My Dad made me jump off the pier and swim to the shore, I was never afraid, I never gave up. I started to ski at 4 years of age. Tatra Mountains in Poland are very beautiful any time of year.
I remember sitting on my dad’s lap at the age of 5 steering his FIAT 125.
I would turn dolls pram upside down and use the wheel as a steering wheel. I didn’t like plastic dolls anyway…the real kids are not plastic and I did not play into those kind of reality games.
Driving and riding has been part of my life from the very beginning. My father taught me to drive at the age of 12, I already had a 50cc motorbike. My lesson riding the bike went like this; this is gear 1, this is gear 2, that’s the brake, clutch…this is what you do…GO…Two laps of the car park and I went home on the bike in traffic.
I loved animals of any kind and brought stray dogs home to feed, we also had our own.
On long summer holidays on my granddads’ farm, I used to “borrow” his horse, against his wishes and ride it bare back in the nearby forests.
I was bored at school, with the teachers always saying I could achieve more. Although, I have received one award. It was for reading most books in a school year…I don’t remember how old I was or how many books I read.
At the age of 15 I said to my friends that I’m going to leave Poland and live in England. It was 1983 and the “revolution” was nowhere near. I was crazy girl with crazy ideas and I did not speak a word of English, but I had my way in Russian, the language that was used to communicate in the communist block and very handy when buying US Dollars in Bulgaria.
I attended a Horticultural Collage near the town of Lublin. With my parents having an orchard it was a perhaps a natural thing to try and learn something to help grow the fruits more effectively. Having green fingers though was not good enough for me, not fast enough.
It was the 1980ies and I was a teenager truly into music, who wanted to take pictures and listen. I bought a camera and in 1985 started to go to music concerts taking pictures. Perhaps a young girl with a Russian Zenith camera and some kind of pushing power was enough to allow me to get at the front of the stage.
The first group that I took pictures of was Classix Nouveaux. I travelled across the whole of Poland. Went to Sopot Festival and mingled with the photographers and I just don’t know how I got in, but remember being given funny looks by the other people with cameras…I was 17 years old girl in denim with a Russian Zenith with a big lens (name was taken off the camera with nail varnish!). The pictures were not of the best quality, as my technique was not so good and the labs and film quality was not too good either. But they got better in the following year when we reversed the slide films and printed from them. The best was black and white with Saxon and Accept in 1986.
At the end of the summer of 1985, I realised I had a handicap, I didn’t speak English, so with a small problem I needed to find a solution. I enrolled on an intensive English course. 16 hours a week, 4 times a week, for 4 hours a day after collage and a German Sheppard dog to take care of.
I remember falling asleep on my books.
I was making my own money at school first, by selling off bits, of the German “Bravo” Magazine (never found an equivalent in England and was disappointed…there’s an idea!) Each issue had poster, postcards, stickers and things that young teenagers at collage wanted. I made 5-6 times what I paid for the magazine.
But the best feeling I had was, when I gave something to one of the girls, who simply did not have the money to buy it. The look of happiness on her face was priceless.
Then the other little venture I did was to go back to my friendly photo lab, develop pictures from the concerts I went to, and sell it on the next one…the copy right laws were nonexistent, so no one stopped me.
In 1986 my German Sheppard had some beautiful puppies, I sold them all but the last one, who was the most stunning all black girl GSD. On one sunny Sunday, through roads covered in 2 feet of snow, I drove her in my dad’s green Mercedes van, to a village governor, he thought the dog was free…well not this one. He was not a nice man.
In a spring of 1986 I turned 18, got my ID, and went to get a passport. Passing a window in a travel agent I spotted a week’s trip to London. Hotel was on the corner of Piccadilly Circus. I had the money, so I booked the trip. I had no leftover spending money but I guess I could cope. I sold off all my possessions, the guitar, personal stereo…all the hi-fi separates. One day the travel agent called to say the trip has gone up in price…my dad was at home; “Trip? What trip? London?”. The cat was out of the bag…and it took a while to persuade my parents that their only daughter wants to run away from the communist state and all the good living…but it was as if something was pulling me like a magnet that could not be stopped.
Maybe my camera and I wanted to get into the music business.
Mum and Dad gave me $200.
Unfortunately being 18, I didn’t realise relaying on one source of help in a foreign land and illegally, without a backup plan was not the best of options. When the person turned out to have not very nice intentions, I was left with very little to go on, but a roadie who gave me his address whilst on tour with Saxon. I’m very grateful for the initial help I received.
I went to Redding Rock Festival as “Press” and Saxon in Hammersmith Odeon concert as a guest of Saxon.
In the following months I met a young Italian man and I fell in love. My life as knew it then had ended.
As my student’s visa was coming to its end, I had 2 options; go back to Poland on motorbike or buy a camera and marry handsome Italian, whom I fell in love with.
Working in restaurants doing menial jobs for 15 hours a day, I saved up enough money to buy a camera of my dreams Canon T-90, and I married the Italian.
The next 20 years of my life have been the lessons in life that cannot be replaced. I had a little son. Lost a lot of money in my very first recession and our house was almost repossessed. From then on, I vouched never to allow other people, who I thought had more experience, as I was green and young, run my finances. I learnt how people put each other down and why they do it.
I spent 11 years working in an independent electrical retailing, learning from the bottom up, setting up systems, discovering the value of customer service, that by giving good honest service, you’ll keep your customer for a long time. That integrity in business was the key to its long-term success. That is how I wanted to work.
I kept asking my bosses for the change in their ways, that divide and rule does not work with staff. It took me a long while to figure out that I fought a losing battle, that their short sighted greed in the end will only serve them and nobody else.
I decided that I wanted to be a driving instructor, because if I could teach old ladies to operate a VCR I could teach people to drive. I wanted to run my own business. I even forgot that driving was my passion. Some of my most memorable moments were driving the Kent’s country lanes and discovering the beauty of its countryside, whilst on the way to deliver and install televisions. Listening to Chris Rea’s “Road to Hell” Little did I know at the time that these roads may lead me to heaven.
I also thought that my husband had an amazing talent as a builder and a bathroom fitter, a skill learned in his early years. I have set up his business, and marketed him to everybody I knew. I also knew that with our combined skills we could do amazingly well out of property development. We started the first project in August 2006.
It’s funny how you go through life and don’t realize that you’re not happy. It took 1 year to complete the house.
At the end of July 2007 I was contacted by a prospective pupil to check his driving skills, it was a bit of an unusual request as I didn’t even advertise advanced driving lessons. When we met it was like a bolt of lightning. We seemed to have a lot in common…
The Project House was sold, we made a fantastic profit. I could pay off my mortgage or I knew how to double the money. I was holding the cheque and at this point I knew, this is not what I want. I’m not happy. I realized that making money like that is meaningless and not what I’m about.
My life started to change. I realized I buried all my dreams into the forgotten place of the never, never land that belong to other people. Then I asked myself WHY NOT?