Our Cars: Charlotte Cobbs
15 September 2011: The story so far...
That was unexpected.
I’ve watched the X Factor and seen all those wannabes boo-hooing into the camera, telling their sob story, and I really don’t want this to be the same but since birth I’ve had a few issues to overcome. Well, I say a few, it was just a brain hemorrhage and hydrocephalus so some surgeon opened up my head and inserted a tube to alleviate the pressure on my brain, all at just over a month old. Not too much, then.
I’m healthy now and unless I told you of my dealings with the medical profession, which I’m not going to bore you with, you wouldn’t have a clue. My hand-eye co-ordination and spatial awareness have been affected but that's not a bad result considering the less-than optimistic future the doctors saw for me.
Anyway, this driving malarkey. It’s been hanging over my head since I turned 17 and the truth is, I really haven’t had the confidence to tackle it. Two years passed when, all of a sudden, I had a moment of enlightenment - it was time to bite the bullet and book my first driving lesson. What would become evident was that my concerns over any issues I might have had were quickly dispelled once I got behind the wheel - instead it threw up several others.
Vaughan Corless, my instructor, and a man with more patience than Mother Teresa, quickly identified that none of my head injuries would cause me problems with driving - but my eyes would. Not my sight, you understand, but where I was looking. I couldn’t quite get a grasp of steering the car through small gaps. So here I was actually driving - something I never thought possible - and I couldn’t tell if the gap between two cars was big enough for me to squeeze the Ford Fusion through without playing dodgems.
I thought this was all down to my spatial awareness. But my instructor Vaughan, ever the optimist, refused to be drawn down that particular path. For me, at least, I was actually travelling in nearly the right direction. And, as long as I didn’t encounter two cars parked on either side of the road everything was great.
Well, in my surgically enhanced head, it was. Obviously, the whole clutch/biting point thing is a problem for new drivers irrespective of their medical history. And the steering. And keeping to the speed limit. And all the manoeuvres...
So it has been 14 months now since I first kangarooed-off. Am I any nearer to taking my test? Personally, I think I am if I took it in Kenya or Egypt, but Vaughan seems to think differently - he hasn’t said I’m not but then he hasn’t said I am. So, all I can say is bring on the next lesson and let’s see if that gets me any closer.
Later: Buying my first set of wheels »
