Lessons 5 & 6 Crossroads & Emergancy Stop

25th January 2009

Lessons 5 & 6 Crossroads & Emergancy Stop

Today's lesson started off unusually on this sunny Sunday morning, by which I mean to say nothing went wrong on my end. Once Simon and I had reached the car I was immediately instructed to step into the driving seat, this was the second and final of the unusual events that were to take place that morning, was Simon starting to show some faith in my driving abilities?
I was fairly confident that Simon could not come up with anything that would drastically challenge my recently acquired driving capabilities, but as usual I was wrong. What was also unsuspected however, was the fact that the hurdle I would fall at would be something I had apparently mastered the lesson before, junctions. It very rapidly became abundantly clear to me that junctions were a completely different kettle of fish when there were other cars on the road with me.
I must admit when I stepped in the car that morning I was a little sleep deprived, being a Sunday morning, and it may have affected my mood as I was becoming increasingly aggravated, and repeating the same junction in that short period of time did not seem to be helping. Simon seemed to notice this deterioration in my mood and we started to move away from the junction and started navigating T-junctions, roundabouts and traffic lights and unsurprisingly my mood started to improve exponentially, but what was surprising however, was the fact that my driving did too.
After having travelled what felt like along way we finally pulled over and discussed what we had just been over and went about smoothing out the creases in my performance. We then started to talk about the process of an emergency stop. In that moment I had felt the happiest I had since stepping in the car three weeks ago, this was plain and simply to do with the fact that all I had to do was slam on the brakes, not even I could do that wrong, or could I? We headed off and on my first attempt I stopped and I had even managed to prevent the car from stalling. After we had done a number of other practice emergency stops I was instructed to head home. I got home relatively safely, apart from someone who obviously enjoys tooting at learners for no reason sounding their horn at me, and parked the car. After a debriefing from Simon we parted ways and I was feeling confident and excited for the next lesson I would have.

Driving lessons 3 & 4 - Juuctions & Hill Startsn- Park Driving School Cheltenham

15th January 2009

Lessons 3 & 4 Junctions Turning Left & Right and Hill Starts

After the success of last week and the sense of achievement I now harboured, as you can imagine, I was eager to step back into the driving seat for this week’s lesson. Unlike last week I was prepared for Simon, he wouldn’t catch me in bed today! As he had requested, I had brought with me the paper part of my driving licence, which I had forgotten in the rush of the week before, and was confident that nothing could go wrong this week. However, as I took a seat in the car Simon pointed out that I had forgotten my folder containing my progress reports, my illusion of preparation was starting to fade.

After I had eventually sorted everything out we headed off and before long I was behind the wheel again. Simon and I had a quick recap on the events last week, mainly junction protocol, and after arranging myself into a safe and comfortable driving position I proceeded to drive round the streets of Cheltenham. I felt very secure and comfortable as Simon instructed me as I approached junctions and various hazards. All was going very well, I had even managed to keep my cool in the presence of other traffic on the road that was until a fellow driver tried to do a rather poorly executed three point turn, which even had Simon amazed as to how this person had past her test. In a strange way this persons poor driving, and Simon’s reaction, filled me with new confidence, as it made it quite clear you don’t have to know how to drive to pass your test!

After manoeuvring onto a main road, navigating a couple of traffic lights and a mini-roundabout I was elated at my progress. Then as Simon asked me to pull over I became aware of, what looked like at the time, the largest hill I had ever seen. I thought perhaps it was the end of the lesson and that Simon didn’t have in mind what I thought he did, but I was wrong. In fact, it was far worse than I had first surmised, not only did he want me to drive up this ‘mountain’ but he also wanted me to park half way up it ! The only thing that in any way made me do what he was asking was the fact that I felt safe in the knowledge that throughout the process I would never be completely out of the control of my driving instructor, and a good thing that was too, as I soon started to move backwards down the hill.

After our eventful lesson Simon took me home and went over what we had covered. He double checked that I felt ok about everything and asked if there was anything I felt particularly unhappy about, apart from almost taking him backwards down a hill into a main road. As I left the car and returned to the safe environment of my house I was extremely pleased with what I had accomplished in the lesson and also aware of what I needed to practice.

Driving lessons 1 & 2 - Controls & Moving off and Stoping- Park Driving School Cheltenham

9th January 2009

Lesson 1 & 2 Controls, Moving off and Stopping:

I was woken up very abruptly this morning by a determined knock on the door, that knock belonged to Simon Phipps, my new driving instructor. Not exactly the start that I had envisaged but confusion in driving lesson times, on my part I might add, resulted in me stepping into the competent hands of Simon completely unwashed and relatively smelly. But in a very professional manner he unflinchingly invited me and my odour into the passenger seat of the car and after a short drive we arrived at the starting point in my driving career.

Slightly nervous and concerned for Simons safety I sat in the driving seat, either through immense bravery or ignorance of my lack of experience he calmly started to explain to me the basics of the car. After going over the fundamental controls, seating positions, mirrors and cockpit drills we were ready to go. I cautiously began the process of starting off and to my astonishment I was driving, but as I started to get excited over this development in my driving career it became abundantly clear to me that I would at some point have to stop, then came the curb. I was terrified that I had in someway, or was about to damage his car, but looking over to Simon I found him very calmly sitting there as he gave me much needed direction and reassurance.

Later on in the lesson after the first few precarious steps, I was getting on at a pace that I was very happy with, I felt comfortable and like I was in safe hands, or should I say feet? (It was quite a relief when I first discovered that Simon had dual control, wise move!) By the time it was the end of the lesson I couldn’t believe that firstly, we were still both alive and secondly, that the two hour lesson had passed so quickly. He drove me home and sorted out all the paper work and I left the car oozing a new found confidence in my driving abilities however, still very aware that I was still at the beginning of what was going to be a long and interesting journey.