Our Cars: Charlotte Cobbs
26 December 2011: Back on track
Don’t worry, you are reading a blog about learning to drive! But after last week’s two lessons and Saturday morning’s practice of reversing and creeping forward, I was little doubtful today.
But, let me take you back to Saturday morning. Having highlighted the problem in both Monday’s and Friday’s lessons with Vaughan, I knew I needed some more practice reversing and creeping forward in a straight line.
So, on a cold Saturday morning, Dad very kindly took me out driving. We drove to a quiet road where I pulled over to do my observations and start reversing back. As is the pattern with this exercise, I did veer too close to the left-hand side, which was luckily grass - not a curb.
Thankfully, it didn’t take me long to get the hang of reversing back in a straight line because, after having done this for two mornings in a row, my patience was beginning to ware very thin with this exercise.
Going forward still needed some work, but with half the exercise cracked, I decided it was time to move on and find a residential road to practice using a curb. Doing this not only meant I was practicing properly with a curb, but it also avoided my brain going into auto-pilot.
In the residential road my reversing technique hadn’t been affected, and the “windscreen marker” tip even worked in my car (I don’t why it didn’t work in Vaughan’s car on Friday).
Once we were both reasonably happy with the result of this lesson, plus the fact my left leg was aching like mad from all the clutch control, not to mention my patience was hanging by a thread, we decided to call it a day.
And so to today’s lesson with Vaughan. I had a good feeling about it, amid a few niggling doubts that never go away.
To start with, I had a bit of trouble not wanting to go through gaps even though I could fit through them, as well as wanting to drive closer to the centre line than the curb. So, at the first opportunity, Vaughan pulled me over to talk about it and I realized I hadn’t hit the curb for a long time so there was nothing to worry about.
I continued on, encountering cyclists, pedestrians walking out in front of me, small gaps to squeeze through whist another car was coming towards me and a red light, at what felt like every single set of traffic lights!
After an hour and a half’s drive, it was time to end all the excitement, once I’d dealt with one last obstacle of the lesson - stopping to allow a dustbin truck to squeeze past.
As with all my lessons, there were still some small bumps in the road, like going into a meeting situation despite knowing I couldn’t get through the gap, and obviously my road positioning (at least I was still on my side of the road, unlike my initial few months behind the wheel).
But, at the end of the lesson when Vaughan asked me: “How was that?” and I replied: “Slightly better, but it still wasn’t right”, he gave me a lovely surprise to end the year on: “It was actually much better. You dealt with situations much quicker than I thought you would - just watch your road positioning.”
So, Dad’s still got a job as an unprofessional driving instructor for the foreseeable future, but I’m just glad I “didn’t go down that road again” and everything seems back on track again.
« Earlier: Kerb-o-phobia Later: Up to speed »
