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.