Our Cars: Charlotte Cobbs
28 November 2011: That's better
The lesson kicked off well, until only a few minutes in when we came to a T-junction, where Vaughan asked me to turn right. I’ve done this particular junction many times before, with loads of different situations arising, so it should’ve been a doddle.
This time, when I approached it, I looked left and right like always. There was a car coming into the junction on my right and further down the road, on my left, there was a van stationary in the road with its right indicator on.
After assessing the situation and seeing that I could go - because the van was far enough away and not moving, I went. A question immediately came from the passenger seat, “What could you have done differently at that junction?” The cogs in my brain started churning: “Er, not stopped?”
“No, because you could go”.
“Er, looked again?”.
“No, because you did look, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know!”
Meanwhile, this was slightly drawing my attention away from driving. It went on for a good while until we reached the next town and Vaughan got me to pull over. We went through the whole situation step by step until it finally clicked - “I should’ve looked at the driver!” OK, that one has got to stick in my brain because at the moment I only look at the cars and their indicators.
Anyway, with that sorted out, I drove around the usual haunts. You knew that was coming, didn’t you? Until Vaughan pulled me over again to give a little bit of advice on the drive I’d just done, which all in all was good, and to do “a turn in the road, please”. Piece of cake! When I was reversing back, I didn’t quite have my bite point so I did slip forward but I used the brakes and stopped. At the end, Vaughan said: “that was good but use the brakes first when that happens”.
Everything’s good, then. “Now, reverse around that corner, please.” Or not!
I pulled up and began the manoeuvre. But, the car wasn’t parked straight to start with so I ended up nearly reversing into the curb. Take two! Vaughan guided me through it before letting me try it twice more on my own. The first time, I went too wide, onto the other side of the road, when coming around the corner. The second time was better but Vaughan asked me to continue reversing straight along the road. I did it, but let’s just say it wasn’t that straight. It took me God knows how long to keep the car in a straight line going forwards, so what did he expect when everything’s in the opposite direction?!
Regardless of this, “even though you didn’t actually drive that much today, what you did do was much better,” was Vaughan’s evaluation of today’s lesson. I know I still need to work on my manoeuvres, but comments like that are what I want to hear, and I’m just glad things are starting to get back on track again.
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