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SUToday’s guest post? Well, what can I say about the author that hasn’t been said a million times before, usually by herself? Han’s writing today to you wonderful people, so you are in for a treat. She’s focussing on my driving lessons.
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Seeing as Rhys is learning to drive (and I assume he still is when this is posted – otherwise congratulations!) I thought I’d share with the audience some stories of my own time learning to drive.
Unfortunately I don’t have any ‘exciting’ stories until a number of lessons in. I started learning on a simulator before I turned seventeen – which as it turns out was pretty handy, I got my moneys worth in my first lesson; two hours driving round the same route.
The first mishap occurs the first time I had to do a right turn. I have a bit of trouble telling my right from my left – its a basic concept I know but still, I struggle with it. As a result of this every time I turn a corner I have to say ‘left hand side left hand side’ to remind myself which side of the road I should end up on. As you can probably tell I didn’t end up on the left hand side of the road.
The second involves more stupidity on my behalf. I don’t think I’m doing too well on bigging up my intelligence in this post. The first time I left the safety of my town to head into more dangerous territory (Staines!) I was forced to stop at traffic lights. At this point I thought it’d be a great idea to adjust my seat. I have short legs and was straining to reach the clutch. Thing is although I had the hand brake on I didn’t take the car out of gear and my foot was still on the clutch when I released the chair and went flying backwards! My instructor wasn’t pleased! (neither were the people behind me as the light had just turned green)
Still at least a day after my test I didn’t reverse into a brand new BMW 5 series. My friend nearly wrote it off! What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever done on the roads while behind the wheel of a car?
Rhys Wynne, the author of this blog, is a 20 something web designer from Colwyn Bay.
I was once in a LandCruiser traytop ute (very large utility vehicle) which was my dad’s farm work ute, and was specced for off-road use. Once of the specs was a massive bullbar hanging off the front.
I was trying to do a U-turn, it was pouring with rain, visibility was low, and when I thought it was clear, I started to pull out. I heard a screech so I hit the brakes, but I the front of the LandCruiser was already halfway across the lane with the bullbar sticking out.
Because it was wet, the small hatch back locked up and had no control. If it had been dry, the other driver probably would have been able to miss me… near miss mind you.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the vehicle sliding towards me, with no time to do anything but watch, I cringed as there was the sickening crunch as the back of the hatchback smashed into the bullbar and literally bounced off and spun off the other side of the road… the back of the hatchback almost completely gone.
I completed the U-turn and parked on the side of the road, got out and ran back towards the hatchback. The driver had his family in the car, and appeared as though he was about to pummel me, until he saw the horror on my face as I ran over asking frantically if everyone is okay.
Crashing sucks.
I refuse to go into actual detailed details… But…
I crashed and wrote off two instructors cars while learning, within 4 months of one another. I was 17. I’m now 31 and still don’t fancy getting behind the wheel of a car.
I was also banned by the driving school for using them to learn
Learning to drive is potential for great stories. I have a friend you had a mishap too many and decided that she just never wanted to drive again.
This is why I won’t get behind the wheel of a car, it’s made of danger haha
The worst I did was hit a van with the wing mirror of my instructors car, resulting in the loss of the wing mirror. Unfortunately for me, it was during my test!
I think screaming ‘which right’ at an unamused driving instructor last week is the highlight of my learning experience, there were 2 rights I could have turned onto, tho one was a oneway bus lane going the opposite direction that I was.
My observation skills suck, not good when driving.
I was a driving instructor for 6 years, I could write a book on the funny / scary things that have happened during this time, I look back and laugh and remain thankful to be alive!
One day a young woman I was teaching arrived for her lesson, and, during the normal “hi, had a good week” stuff at the beginning, she told me she had had a new piercing since her last lesson. She already had them in her ears, nose, eyebrow, lip etc, so when she asked if I would like to see her latest piercing I politely said “OK”. I wasn’t expecting her to lift up her top to reveal her breasts, nipple pierced!!!!
What can you say to that? I managed “wouldn’t fancy going through airport security with you”!
Still makes me laugh!
We got slightly drunk and borrowed my friend’s family car to go on a little joyride. We were still 16 and obviously did not have a licence. That was just stupid.
The other day actually, I was making a U-Turn in my neighbourhood, cut the wheel too late, and ended up driving a tire up into a neighbours yard. I had to put myself into reverse to straighten myself out. I drove away like nothing happened.
I’ve also backed into the tree at the end of our driveway multiple times, cut a few people off (being a smart ass), etc.
Have I mentioned that I’m a horrible driver?
Added: How could I forget to add the fender bender that I got into last August, because I was too busy fiddling with my ipod, instead of watching in front of me. I was coming off an exit ramp, looked over my shoulder real quick to check for oncoming traffic, glanced down at my ipod, and accelerated, failing to see the car in front of me.