The time has come to remedy the situation
Buster is currently teaching me to drive. Oh, I can drive a car with an automatic transmission, but I've never learnt to drive a manual transmission. I realise that this sounds a bit mad, but there it is. Every car I've ever owned has been automatic so driving a manual has never been necessary.
But the Golf is a manual and after ten months of being chauffeured around, I decided it was time to learn. I mean, it was getting ridiculous - I'm an adult and it can't be that hard. So we had a few turns of driving around the block, then we graduated to driving to the local shops and today I drove home from visiting my mum. It's not going too badly actually. I haven't crashed or driven into the lake so I think Buster is counting his blessings.
However it is a huge pain. I mean, no sooner than you start moving in 1st, you've got to change up to 2nd. Then you can't stay in 2nd, you've got to go up to 3rd and then 4th. Oh, and then you approach a round-about so it's down all the way to 1st because some idiot on the round-about doesn't indicate where he's going. So then it's 1st, then 2nd, then 3rd etc ad nauseum. And the worst thing is that I can't eat or put my make up on anymore while driving because I am constantly having to change gear.
The hardest thing, don't laugh, is getting the damn car in the garage. For starters I worry that I'll be going too fast and I'll hit the wall at the end of the garage. Or I'll scrape the car on the side of the garage door. So I end up going too slow and stalling either half up the curb or half in the garage - or, like this afternoon, stalling it both half up the curb and then again when I was half in the garage.
While the Golf has a fairly forgiving nature, I think Buster is a bit traumatised by my gear grinding.
But the Golf is a manual and after ten months of being chauffeured around, I decided it was time to learn. I mean, it was getting ridiculous - I'm an adult and it can't be that hard. So we had a few turns of driving around the block, then we graduated to driving to the local shops and today I drove home from visiting my mum. It's not going too badly actually. I haven't crashed or driven into the lake so I think Buster is counting his blessings.
However it is a huge pain. I mean, no sooner than you start moving in 1st, you've got to change up to 2nd. Then you can't stay in 2nd, you've got to go up to 3rd and then 4th. Oh, and then you approach a round-about so it's down all the way to 1st because some idiot on the round-about doesn't indicate where he's going. So then it's 1st, then 2nd, then 3rd etc ad nauseum. And the worst thing is that I can't eat or put my make up on anymore while driving because I am constantly having to change gear.
The hardest thing, don't laugh, is getting the damn car in the garage. For starters I worry that I'll be going too fast and I'll hit the wall at the end of the garage. Or I'll scrape the car on the side of the garage door. So I end up going too slow and stalling either half up the curb or half in the garage - or, like this afternoon, stalling it both half up the curb and then again when I was half in the garage.
While the Golf has a fairly forgiving nature, I think Buster is a bit traumatised by my gear grinding.
posted by Laziest Girl at 9:10 pm
1 Comments:
It's so easy to get an automatic now and many of them are no less efficient than the manuals, that it's easy to see how one could not know how to drive manual. I didn't know how for the first 4 or 5 years I was driving. Now it's been another 6 since I drove a manual and I'm not so sure I'd remember how.
I am glad that it is only that you are used to an automatic. If you were at this point in your life and were just learning to drive at all, I'd be forced to mock you, and I don't want to do that.
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