Driving continued

I had another driving lesson last Friday and after a nervous start I managed to get through the lesson without big problems. My driving instructor wanted me to get used to traffic lights and how to wait (hand brake on, relax feet and count to 12), how get ready (make sure the car is in first gear) and how turn right at crossings with or without a filter. She also explained the yellow box in the middle of crossings. Occasionally I still get into the wrong gear but steering has become much easier, I just have to remember not to use clutch when turning left or right. My driving instructor still worries that I am a bit too close to the cars on the left – I am more worried about the oncoming traffic and that I could end up too close to right side. But she told me that I shouldn’t worry about it as the oncoming traffic can see if I have obstacles on my side. That may be true but there are unfortunately a lot of selfish drivers out there who don’t really care. I am mostly worried about parking so in the next lesson I will learn how to parallel park. I feel I am slowly making progress – who knows one day I will be able to take our Fiesta out for a ride on my own. It will be an adventure as since we bought the car we had a lot of problems and hubby believes that we were sold a lemon – well for starters when we finally, after sorting out tax, attempted to take it for a ride – we discovered a big nail stuck in one of the tyres. The tyre was flat as a pancake – then we discovered that because this car has alloy tyres we needed a key to get the tyres off. But the car dealer didn’t tell where the key was and we couldn’t find it everywhere. The car dealer had forgotten to give us the key. The next thing that went was the spark plugs, which were so rusty that it is now wonder we had problems starting the car. The next thing that failed was the clutch failed. And now the car is working – but the gears are a pain in the arse – especially the reverse. When it’s really cold and damp it takes ages for the car to start. My hubby misses his old Escort  -I don’t, the seats were extremely uncomfortable, the boot stank of oil and the car lost a lot of oil. At least the car we’ve got now doesn’t lose oil; smells ok and the seats are more comfortable. Why we don’t have a bigger car? Because we don’t need a bigger one and because the size of our garage determines the size of the car we can fit in. Which brings me to the next issue: our garage door – it’s now so knackered that it is takes twice as long to get the car in and out. We have to turn the key from the outside, go through the house into the garage by the side door and open it carefully from the inside, then get the car out and close it from outside. I have no idea what garage doors cost – but they can’t be cheap. God only knows how long we will keep using this door until it completely falls apart.