Try again, fail better

[fivemack]

Well, nine rather than sixteen minor faults, but still three major ones.

Previously I'd tended to fail for lack of observations; this time I turned my head constantly, as if a partially-deaf owl seeking an especially succulent but somewhat stealthy shrew, and mostly failed for lack of steering.

(apart from hitting the curb on the parallel park; I don't see why this is an automatic failure, tyres being solid enough that it won't damage the council's curb, and probably only somewhat reduce the life of the tyres)

Fourth time pays for all, that's what they say ...

I've spent £1592 on driving lessons and tests to date. I can't help thinking at the moment that I might rather have a dual-processor PowerMac, or four weeks youth-hostelling in Australia.

Comments

[j4.livejournal.com]

(I don't see why this is an automatic failure, tyres being solid enough that it won't damage the council's curb, and probably only somewhat reduce the life of the tyres)

a) because they're testing that you can put the car exactly where you intend to, and they assume you don't intend to hit the pavement, because:
b) it causes wear on tyres (and you can scrape the hubcaps quite nastily if you hit the kerb, or pop them off altogether, as I have managed to do with sion_a's car since passing my test, oops), and
c) there might be a very very tiny child crawling on the pavement, and you'd endanger it. Apparently. (I suppose, more plausibly, there might be a cat or a dog or something, but they usually have the sense to get out of the way.)

It sucks, though, & I do sympathise. :-/ The only consolation really is that you only have to get it right once and then after that it isn't actually really a terribly bad thing if you do tap the edge of the kerb slightly, as the Great Hand of Deity-of-Your-Choice does not actually smite you with its great smiting powers.

In the meantime ... how much practice are you managing to get in? There's really no substitute for just getting used to driving in traffic, preferably with a friend/relative/accompanying driver who has had ALL their nerves removed so they don't yell "ARGH NO DON'T DO THAT" and panic you. (Or was that just me?)

[jojomojo.livejournal.com]

Not just you, based on what I remember of driving lessons when I was 17. I tend to freeze up when I panic, which is not good behind the wheel.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

I live two hundred miles from my family, with a housemate who shouts at me sufficiently when I leave bits of cabbage on the side in the kitchen, or even suggest the possibility of spilling molten gallium on the living-room table, that I don't want to imagine him responsible for me in a car. Also his is an automatic.

When I'm in Cambridge I tend to drive around with Mum a little each day (usually to Histon to see Grandma), but I've been warier of this ever since I broke the hand-brake when taking the whole family out to the start of a walk in the middle of a set of identikit perfectly-flat fields somewhere around Saffron Walden.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Sorry. :-(

I'd offer to help myself, but I've not been driving long enough to count as an accompanying driver or whatever you call 'em. And while I could come and put eels in the annoying housemate's bed, or poke him with a +2 stick of attitude-readjusting, I doubt if that would really help either.

Are you coming to Cambridge for the picnic on Saturday by any chance? It'd be good to see you.

[fivemack.livejournal.com]

Regrettably, the flat is small enough that the smell of eels would all-pervade. Also it would be a criminal waste of eel.

I'm tempted to go to Cambridge, if only to remind myself in five hours each way on assorted trains and lounging around in Paddington why exactly it is that I'm learning to drive ... hey, I've just been given fourteen thick history books by an emigrating friend and I'll have time to make a start.