Week Two - Little bit of gas

Despite a two week holiday in between, my second lesson soon came around. We once again drove to the same estate and swapped seats. Barry sat and watched and as I put the key in the ignition and… nothing. I had completely forgotten how to drive! My mind desperately searched within its memory to locate the right thing to do and the order in which to do it, but still nothing. Barry looked at me expectantly and then quietly said ‘clutch in, first gear,” and I obeyed. He then went through the rest of the list and I stalled the car. 


We tried again and once again I stalled the car. Barry explained that the car needed petrol to move (d’oh!) and that I would need to put my foot down on the ‘gas’ to get it going. I said that I understood this but I was reluctant to put my foot down. I explained that I had been driving on a couple of occasions with my husband and on one particular occasion, I had been driving quite merrily down a country lane and the great stupid pheasant felt the need to jump out in front of me. I panicked and instead of hitting the break, I put my foot down on the accelerator! I screamed, the pheasant disappeared and then my foot thankfully found the break.
  “Did I hit it?” I asked Stephen.
  “There was no thump, so no, you didn’t hit it,” he replied. I insisted we went home after that and I was a bit shaky for a while. 


Barry was understanding and said that I didn’t need to worry about that, he had control of the car at all times through the duel controls and there was little chance I could do any harm to anyone. He explained that starting the car was like starting a push bike. It needed that push to get it started and that came from the accelerator. I gave it another go. And off we went, after a few kangaroo jumps. We went along for about 100 metres and then pulled over.


Barry praised me and soon wanted to set off again, but no matter how I tried, I couldn’t get the order of the steps clear in my mind. I have a terrible memory and even after setting off loads of times with my husband and now a few times with Barry; I just could not remember what I had to do. I could see that I was testing Barry’s patience and I tried to think of a way to get through this. Then it hit me. I have the same problem at work. I often forget the order of the procedures we have to work through in our busy little office. I started making lists of the things I had to do and I found that if I stuck to those lists, it helped me to focus on the task in front of me and helped me to concentrate.  


I explained the lists to Barry and he thought it was a great idea. He produced a pad of paper and handed it to me. We went through the list and I wrote it down. The steps started to become clear. We set off again and I began to feel that I had some control over what was happening because I knew what I had to do next. And for my second lesson, I don’t think that is bad at all.