Our Cars: Charlotte Cobbs
7 November 2011:
Pet hates
I wouldn’t say today’s lesson was my greatest. We drove along residential roads most of the time, which was fine. I’ve worn the rubber of Vaughan’s tyres many times on these roads in my countless lessons.
As usual, I encountered different hill gradients, giving me the chance to practice my hill starts, buses (no, it wasn’t that pet hate that got on my nerves today!), parked cars, plenty of traffic, other leaner drivers and just about everything that a residential town can throw at a learner, or any motorist for that matter.
The difference is that now I have the confidence to deal with all these situations, even misjudging a gap on a roundabout and “flooring it”, as Vaughan likes to put it, to get myself out of trouble without making the car behind me slow down or stop.
After a while, Vaughan got me to do one of my not-so-favourite manoeuvres - the dreaded reverse round a corner. So I parked by the side of the road, did all my observations and started to slowly reverse. But, on the first two attempts, I hit the curb. On the third attempt, I went too wide around the corner. On the fourth time, I just about did it to Vaughan’s satisfaction so he allowed me to drive on afterwards, saving our patience, which was hanging by a thread at this point.
In my defense, I was doing the maneuver on a hill. But, yes, that particular one does need more work, regardless of where I’m doing it. Something else to put on the “To Do” list - as if there wasn’t enough on there already!
We finished our journey with some dual carriageway and country lane driving, which Vaughan didn’t bring up, so I must be doing something right! Then it reappeared. As in my last lesson with Vaughan, a cyclist was in front of me. So, I looked ahead of him. Great, there’s a bend and there’s no point overtaking him after the bend because there’s a T-junction around it at the end of the road. I kept my cool, refusing to let the cyclist send me round the bend. And it paid off as he turned right and I turned left, driving home without any more problems.
« Earlier: Woah, what are you doing?!
Later: Really!? »
Updates
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7 November 2011: Pet hates
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