Driving Fun

I know I still don't have to blog every day, but I still found myself at different points during the day thinking about what I would blog about. I then reminded myself that I didn't actually have to blog because BEDA has finished and I'm not going to turn it in to BEDM because it doesn't have the same ring to it, and I'm not going to change it because that would be silly! 

As you probably know, I am learning to drive. Well, it is my brother's birthday tomorrow and sometime this week he wanted to go and see my dad because we haven't seen him in a while and at the moment my Dad doesn't have a car because of some idiots! Anyway, my mum asked my brother if he would like to go on her insurance for the week, as a little extra for his birthday? He obviously said yes and mum rang up the insurance company and it turned out that it would cheaper if I was also on the insurance... weird! You'd think it would be the other way around, especially as I am still a learner! 

So from today, until next Sunday, I am insured on my mum's car! This afternoon we went out to Tesco garage and bought some L-plates and then we pulled up in the car park and swapped places and mum put the L-plates on! Exciting stuff driving a car... with sole responsibility of the pedals!

After taking a few minutes to get used to the car, we were on our way... yay! However, once we got onto a 60mph road I saw the front L-plate fly back over the windscreen and over the back of the car... oh dear! We were near Sainsbury's at that point so we went in the garage there but they don't sell them! Back to Tesco we go... 

On the way there I looked out for the L-plate (mum was driving at that point) but there was no sign of it! After getting another L-plate, I jumped back in the driving seat! My mum is a pretty good instructor... very calm but she has always found decision making difficult in many circumstances, so it was quite funny when I asked her where she wanted me to go at the round about, because she said 'ooh, errr, I don't know!' 

A while ago, with my instructor, he asked me to do the emergency stop and I had mental block and put the clutch pedal down first and immediately knew it was wrong - so annoying! We did a mock test the other day and I had to do the emergency stop. In my mind I was saying 'break first, break first, break first' but I think I may have slipped when doing the break pedal, meaning that I hit the clutch first. But I was quick to put my break on so we still stopped very quickly! It was either that, or I put them both at the same time, but the clutch slightly before! I knew as soon as I did it and said 'AH CRAP' and my instructor said 'don't worry about it, just concentrate on the last bit'... so I did but I was SO annoyed with myself!

I was trying so hard to get it right and I didn't! Honestly, I can't tell you how annoyed I was and it did affect the rest of the drive, even though I know I shouldn't have let it! 

I told my mum before we went out driving that before the emergency stop she has to look around and check it's all clear but I said I wasn't being rude but I didn't want to do an emergency stop! But we were driving along a road and my mum said 'go on Steph, do an emergency stop' and I said 'err no' and she said 'go on, just do it, it's fine!'... so I did! And I got it right and it was fine... yay! So it wasn't as bad as I thought!

It was amusing and I really enjoyed it! Thank you Mum! Hopefully we will go out again sometime again this week! Maybe I'll persuade her to take me tomorrow for an hour or so or something! It also means that once I have passed my test that I could go on my mum's insurance occasionally if I need/want to and it wouldn't cost too much!