Driving Number 2

Second lesson. Feeling less nervous this week and more excited - let me on that open road!!

Today we looked mainly at changing gear and creeping. It felt great to just fly along the road (making it to 25miles an hour!) and there wasn't much other traffic to deal with so it was stress free! I managed to pull over and stop the car a couple of times, only driving on the verge once!

Changing gear was entertaining. My intructor asked me to change into second and my mind malfunctioned and I went into third - oops! So she asked me to try going back into second and I ended up in forth! Lol! Following this we sat parked and practiced moving the gear stick - he he - you don't have to move it as wildly as I thought! I had no more problems after that, obviously I just needed to get used to the feeling of it.

I enjoyed creeping after making jokes about whether it meant following pedestrians along the path (which I'm not sure my instructor got). It made the whole 'biting point' on the clutch make sense, and gave me quite a good feeling of control of the car (what big beasts they are compared to bikes!).

After travelling along at my slow speed, I do find it weird then being driven home by the instructor a lot faster! Ah well, week two done!

Driving Number 1

Today I had my first driving lesson! Only 9 years since I turned 17, but better late than never! I thought it would be good to blog my experience, a) to see for myself how far I've come, b) to share my journey, and c) to entertain myself in years to come!

So, I was picked up near home by a lovely lady in a blue Toyota Yaris. We drove to Stockton Lane in York and sat and chatted for a fair while about the car and driving, adjusting my seat and all that business. Apparently this area is where the tests are taken, so good to practice there I guess!

Then before I knew it, I'd put the car in gear, checked my mirrors, signalled and set off. 'I'm driving!!!' I exclaimed to my instructor somewhat shocked by the way it happened so quickly. What a strange feeling. (I was also pretty impressed with home much you can see in the mirrors having only used them to check what I looked like or catch the driver's eye before).

We tootled along at about 9miles an hour and then came to a stop. Success! On my second little jaunt,, after making it to about 14miles an hour, we unfortunately had to stop on a hill at temporary traffic lights for road works!!! I successfully managed a hill start without stalling! Whoo. Although I suspect that my instructor had more control over the clutch than I realised. I also never realised how much thought has to go into starting and stopping a car!!

So that's it, lesson one done! Roll on next week, I'm looking forward to it!!