IT'S good to be back. After a recent Christmas related enforced hiatus, when I almost forgot what a gear stick looked like; I've managed to ease my way back into the saddle.
It has admittedly took a little help from one of my friends (first and last song reference, honest!).
One of my friends has rather kindly (and rather bravely) agreed to let me drive her car while she supervises (or rather cowers) from the passenge
r seat.
This has led to a slightly more confident outlook from your correspondent when it comes to junctions at any rate.
Maybe it's the added responsibility of not having an instructor with dual controls beside me to rescue me or the fact that it's my friend's car, but it has absolutely helped.
Driving a car that is bigger, more powerful (and what appears to be about two feet longer) has been rather less daunting than it seemed at first.
Although being used to Lloyd's nimble Corsa it was slightly strange to drive a vehicle with a turning circle that spans an entire road.
There was barely a kerb left unmounted at Lomond Heights on Thursday night as I grappled with trying to three point turn a car that actually is the width of the actual road. It was really good fun and I spent more time laughing than steering (which isn't such a good thing I guess), but the main thing it gave me was a feeling that I can drive.
Hear me out on this, but it took taking me out of my comfort zone, with a very experienced and qualified instructor sitting beside me with an all important brake at their feet, to make me focus and get on with the task in hand.
It's probably best not to read too much into this as some heavy footed breaking going down hills and a bit of headless chicken turning in the Asda car park, (well, have you ever tried to drive around it?
I'd rather try to pilot a 30 year old Datsun with no tyres through a minefield than park there again) proved that there is still an awful lot of work to be done.
So I found myself looking at an incredibly cheerful (for 9am on a Saturday morning) Lloyd for my first lesson of the new year. Things started slowly as they generally do when one has woken up at 8:54am.
However as time went on, I started to get into the groove so to speak.
Things did start to come together quite quickly and driving around town was pretty smooth, although the old hesitancy at junctions did somehow manage to creep in.
It's become quite irritating, the only way I can describe it is as an irrational fear of crashing. I keep thinking that I'm going to end up colliding with another car if I don't stop and wait until the road is clear.
As the lesson went on I became a little more adventurous and pulled out with a bit more confidence, but it's definitely something that I need to address with a lot more practice.
A lot more practice needed is something that could describe my manoeuvres as well. Anybody whose read this column before will probably be sick of hearing about my sloppy technique and easily mislaid focus but it is starting to improve, honest!
It is a matter now of preparing for the test (hopefully within the next two months) by ironing out these problems by getting in as much practice between now and then as humanly possible.
A few months ago I could have never imagined having been at this stage, but now I believe that I'm starting to think like a driver, even becoming one.
Ok, so it's nothing out of the ordinary, I mean millions of people drive everyday, but for someone who has avoided it for so long, the change over the last year has been nothing short of miraculous.
It's time now to take a big leap and become competent all the time rather than perfect one minute and terrible the next. Not to mention revising for the written test……
Patrick is learning with Lloyd's School of Motoring Tel: 07711933727.
