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.