Hi readers,
I've been so busy reading, writing, researching, volunteering and watching The Vampire Dairies season 1, Its' felt like I've had no time for anything else! This week I also took a massive step forward in my life. I had my first and second driving lessons. So, I thought I'd write about that as I've not finished the book I wanted to review this week. Also, that means I can make this post a short one!
So, I've been thinking for awhile that I should look at learning to drive. Time and money have always been against me though, so now that I've a good supply of both, I decided to look into starting. My first hurdle was choosing who to go with. There are a lot of driving schools and self-employed driving instructors out there. After doing some research, I picked a local self-employed instructor, but it turned out he'd retired. So, after much more fussing about, I decided to choose the AA. Actually, my boyfriend helped me to make the leap and I phoned the AA to discuss the price of the lessons.
Suddenly though, I found myself booking my first lesson and having it for Monday afternoon. Of course I could have said no, but I thought that if I've got more time to think I'll only talk myself out of it. Problem was I then spent the weekend with my mind on it and my emotions all over the place. Finally though the time arrived and I met my instructor outside my house. He turned out to be really nice and understanding about my needs.
We drove to this industrial estate and then he got me into the driver's seat. I was really panicky. It felt wrong in a way to sit behind the wheel as I didn't have a clue what I was doing. My instructor was calm and started asking some questions to test my knowledge of the car. I was worried I'd get it all wrong, but it turned out I did know a lot more then I thought I did. After that and going through some more information about the controls of the car, I got to turn on the engine.
I then got to practice starting and stopping the car. It was really weird to be doing that and driving a little way. It did turn out to be easier then I thought it was going to be, but its still a difficult thing to do. Afterwards, I booked some more lessons and arranged to have two a week. That's not because I want to speed through learning to drive, its' because due to my short term memory problem, its all going to take awhile to stick. The fastest way of doing that is to keep doing the task and not having a large gap of time between doing so. Hopefully, this well help and I'll be able to remember all the steps.
I had my second lessons yesterday and I did feel like some of it had stuck with me. This time I got to drive the car around in a circle. I learnt how to change gears, though I wasn't very good at it! That's so going to take sometime to stay in my head. However, I did drive around a roundabout and other cars/lorries. I do seem to have a problem with corners too and I so need to get the flow of the road better. I shouldn't be so hard on myself though as I'm progressing. I'm sure that after some more lessons, I'll be better and more confident.
I'm looking forward to doing more driving and then officially become able to drive. It feels like a right of passage in away. Like another part of become an adult, which is an odd way to put it, but still. It'll give me that independence and freedom too, well as long as I get a car afterwards! but that's all far in the future.
I did wonder before how I could tie writing a novel or short story into this post. In a weird way, writing and learning to write is kinda like learning to drive car. You've got to take the leap and start out somewhere. It won't happen if you don't do that. Then you just need to take all the teaching in and put things to practice. Then you've got to stick to it and carry on. Then you just continue like that and keep improving the writing and doing research to make it right. In the final stages, you send it out onto the world and test it and yourself. Then if it gets published, you pass.
I'm really looking forward to my next lesson on Monday, but right now I've got more things to go and write.
Till next time.
Image from: http://dailycars-us.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/new-ford-focus-joins-aa-driving-school.html
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