Remember yesterday when I casually mentioned that the grass was brown because it hadn’t rained in a while? Well I couldn’t have spoken soon enough. It has been raining since last night. I’ve uploaded 2 pictures taken in the area, as you can see the grass is starting to turn green again. Not that the rain is a bad thing. But earlier today, before my driving lesson I considered the possibility that my instructor might cancel the session due to slippery roads and the fact that I’m a new student. But no, that did not happen and I actually drove in the rain today! So here I was driving with droplets and wipers on the windshield.
It really reminded me of the Daytona USA games at the arcade where you actually have to sit in a realistic chair that also vibrates. Level 1 would be great weather and the later stages presents you with bad rainy weather and slippery roads. I was really starting to have the need for speed.
I drove from Stad Linite at Roche Caiman to the international airport at Pointe Larue. Today I stopped at the petrol station situated opposite of the airport and headed back to the stadium. By the way, Stad Linite is generally where most of this year’s Indian Ocean Island Games 2011 events will be held.
But going back to day #4 of my driving lessons…I got scolded yet again. This time it was because I changed gears too fast and I heard a ‘gerjank’ sounding noise. I thought ‘sh*t’ and a split second after that my frustrated instructor said “Bino, you have to release the clutch slowly!” Oh yeah, I have a new nickname called “Bino”. I like it.
I had a lot more freedom with the steering wheel today, yesterday my instructor wouldn’t just let me tackle the turns on my own. But today I was given that chance to. I’m starting to think that turning is not as difficult as it seems, you just have to get the timing right. I’m sure this will be a lot more difficult when I have to finally drive alone, without an instructor. But hopefully by then I’ll understand the mechanics of the car a lot more so everything will make more sense to me.
Today, while I was driving on the highway and keeping the speed lower than it was yesterday (around 55Kmph except for that one time I accidentally almost reached 70Kmph), my mind started drifting into other things like hanging out with friends and driving to the clubs. It’s a good thing, because I’m starting to be very relaxed while driving. Also, when I turned at the Cascade-Providence roudabout, I did it so smoothly that the words ‘very good, Bino’ came out of my instructor’s mouth.
We might be renting a car this weekend so I might be able to practice a bit, maybe I’ll do the Stad Linite route. I don’t really want to go on the road just yet, that would be very irresponsible because there are lots of cars and people there so I’ll just play it a little safe.
Anyway, before I handed over the car back to my instructor he asked me what I thought of day #2 on the road and I replied “hmm…I’m not so sure…I think it was okay, I just really need to practice the clutch thing…what do you think about my driving, what are the areas I can improve on?”
He said that he doesn’t think I have any major problems and that I drive well, but I go way too fast but the clutch thing will come with practice if I feel I have a problem with it. He also reminded me that this is just the beginning and that there are a lot more things to learn. Tomorrow we’ll be doing the same route to the airport according to him. I don’t really want to do the same route again the third time, mainly because I don’t get to learn something new. But on the other hand I’m okay with it because practice makes perfect and if it makes me practice the clutch thing again then that can’t be so bad.
Tomorrow will be lesson #5, and it is also the last lesson that I paid for (yipes). I want to keep it to a daily thing, but it’s affecting my schedule in a way. But the only way I learned how to touch type was to do it every single day until I made a habit out of it, so if daily driving lessons might be more effective for me then so be it.
Oh, and I braked properly today! Yay me!
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WYSIWYG! I'm a simple person trying to live the simplest life possible - it seems to be the most difficult thing to achieve! I'm an internet enthusiast and I've been a webmaster since early 2007. I like: blogging, developing sites using open source software, social media, computer games, '80s music, comedy & horror, animals, crunching on M&Ms peanut and Smarties!
