Friday 18 April 2008

Two More Lessons, 10 Minutes Better!

Driving Update:

I have now had 2 more driving lessons in the last week, and my driving instructor's comment is that I am still a danger on the road, but I improved in the last 10 minutes of the second lesson.

Hey, some improvement is better than no improvement!

Apparently there is a big difficulty in the fact that I mix up the accelerator and the brake. That is a problem. Also in that I need to look at the floor to figure out the answer to "Is your foot on the brake?"

Also there is a problem in that I am not 100% sure which is my left hand. I have tried to explain that there is so much more to concentrate on than really piddling things like left hand, right hand, I mean, gosh! There's things like traffic and road signs and mirrors and stuff - pick 1 thing for me to concentrate on man!

My driving instructor also repeatedly asks me "Why do you not brake when we get to a T-intersection! I don't understand! We will go over the edge!"

I can't explain it's because I know he has the emergency brake, because he doesn't react nicely to that.

In lesson 1, we drove around, I made lots of mistakes, but I didn't die.

"You know what the problem is? You are too tense! you grip the wheel too hard and you are too worried about everything!" he said.

So in the next lesson, I was determined to not be tense. I relaxed completely. Serene. I settled back.

I refused to worry. Even when the car was speeding down the hill and we almost crashed into the back of the car and my driving instructor asked "Why didn't you brake? I had to brake for you?" I sat, laid back, with a satisfied, serene smile on my face. Nothing would break my mood! Nothing would make me tense today!

We drove in the middle of the road and swrved to the side and almost road up the kerb. But nothing would make me nervous today! Not even rocketeering down a hill or being yelled at for speeding over a speed hump!

Next lesson: 11 days' time

6 comments:

JahTeh said...

You sped over a speed hump? Nice going since they're supposed to stop that kind of thing.

Maria said...

Well, I guess it is a confusing name - is it a speed hump because it's supposed to stop speed or because you're supposed to speed, I mean you're supposed to stop at a stop sign, you're not supposed to stop stopping, but you are supposed to stop speeding at a speed hump.

Hum, it's all so cinfusing when I'm still unsure of left and right.

JahTeh said...

Yes, left and right are still confusing to me and to every taxi driver I direct.

BwcaBrownie said...

The instructor is
not earning his fee if he fails to overcome the LH, RH issue.

He should have suggested that
you wear every ring you own on
the lefthand fingers, and he should call it RingSide until you are relaxed about driving.
He should be saying to you
"Window Foot" when he wants you to brake.
It's HIS issue, not yours.
Good Luck.

Mr Mean said...

Free driving lessons to cut road toll
THE federal government will fund 200,000 free driving lessons for learner drivers in a bid to reduce the road toll.


Hmmm, so how does one go about signing up?

Mr Mean said...

You may relate to this:
http://www.smh.com.au/news/richard-glover/terror-of-learner-drivers/2008/05/09/1210131245980.html?page=fullpage