Saturday, 19 January 2008

Up's and Down's (and not just driving the hills!)

Have not been able to post for a few days, so apologies about that. Here's a quick summary of the last few days.

Wednesday - Country roads drive. Had my worst days driving since I was 8 and had one of those pedal cars!! Instructor asked me to do some commentary as I drove.

Now I have always bowed to the greater ability women have for multi tasking, but thought this never really held me back in any way. Today I really needed to be wearing a short skirt and have breasts. Seriously struggled with the talking and driving thing, which is never normally an issue!

Driving technique went to pot, along with my commentary.

Ended up randomly meandering around country roads, drooling and talking complete rubbish. A sort of standard day out for me before the driving course but we are supposed to know better now.

The rest of the drives that day got better, but just could not co-ordinate everything together.

Thursday - day started with a bit of a panic, not much sleep the night before, opened side door of the van to find my 3 comrades sitting in a line smiling - could only mean one thing...........I had the first drive. Thanks guys!!

Instructor lept in and opened with one of those truly motivational phrases that people develop with years of practice "Your first drives recently have been shit, let's see if we can do better."

A slight knot in the stomach, made worse by the lack of breakfast and being overtired, we set off.

Thank god for small mercies, the drives went well that day. Phew!

Friday - had a stroke of good luck and bad luck today. Got to the van, again to find 3 people sitting in the back grinning like a row of hyenas waiting for the lion to finish with the poor sod who will end up in the front!

The instructor, who does not have the best morning attitude got in and we were off. Headed for some motorway work, but having done that the day before on the way back from the coast, I got the country road route up to the motorway. That's fine, can do country roads, can drive with good progression (fast), can keep my vision up (use all of the road to ensure you see further than the average Jo), can be safe, can overtake on bends...........as long as I don't have to talk about it whilst doing it.

You can guess the next phrase which trickled of the tongue of the instructor "well then, talk to me about what you are doing and what you see" Aaaaarghhh!!!!!

Actually went really well, drive was great, position was good, progress was up, vision was on, commentary was precise and relevant. A very happy and relieved little Ambulance person got out of that seat 30 Min's later.

The good luck I was mentioning, was because when the next driver got in, the instructor commented on how this was the last day of this part of the course and we had to pass all elements today!!!!

Sooooo glad I did not know that (actually, one of the few times I praised my crap memory for forgetting) when I sat in the seat!!!!

Rest of the day was filled with highs and lows but in the end we all passed!!

A&E driving on blue lights next week - how much am I looking forward to next week........LOTS!

No comments: