The Big 'L'
I have an announcement to make. As you may have worked out from the picture above, I'm learning to drive.
OK so it's taken me longer to get round to it than most people - i.e. I'm no longer 17 - but there you go. Living in London means you don't need to learn to drive unless you're a bit crazy and like shouting at people who bump into you from behind every five minutes... it's much easier to just get the tube and be squashed up against hundreds of people you've never seen before in your life and will (hopefully) never see again. As well as that, for reasons I don't want to go into, I was too scared to learn to drive until a couple of months ago.
So I don't live in London now and have spent the last few years enjoying the kindness of other people as they've driven me around Because You Need A Car In This Part Of The World. Let's just say I started to feel guilty and decided to learn how to return the favour, amongst other things.
Yes, I know it is weird for some people to think of me being let loose on the roads. It's weird for me too. Best not to think about it for too long eh!
But driving actually isn't that weird or scary or exciting as I first thought... I kept it a secret for a while because I don't really like talking about it... what is there to say, anyway?!
Luckily, S, my driving instructor is great. She turned up for our second lesson with a wee book of sign language! We didn't use it - we made up our own stuff - but that isn't the point. I also like the fact that she's refreshingly honest; "Well, it is easier to teach hearing people, but you drive better than lots of the hearing people I've taught." She also doesn't get my humour:
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*During the first five minutes of a lesson, I drive around a corner in the wrong lane*
S: You'd fail your driving test for doing that, you know.
Me: Oh we'd better stop now then, not worth carrying on, eh?
S: Oh, no, no... let's just carry on for the experience...
*I look at her, like "duh." S realises, then covers her face..!*
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Well I am making progress - I no longer scream when I'm steering round a bend and changing gear at the same time - and I haven't done anything scary, unless you count almost driving into the garage door because I forgot to take the car out of first gear when I parked, or having a panic attack when going round a huge roundabout (S did the pedals, worry not, and it wasn't that hard in the end). So not exciting!
Plus my driving lessons are at 8am each Wednesday, so I have excellent clutch control. Apparently.
And that's all I have to say on the matter.