Saturday, June 23, 2012

Driving in the UK!

I have been schlepping my cart filled with heaps to unload; trying to find my way through this maze where I was confronted with the likes of  'deficit', 'inflation' and 'crisis' at alternate roundabouts! For this very reason I have failed to rustle up a single decent meal, leave alone writing something sensible for the blog. I am about to drop dead , someone please help!

Amidst this madness, I took up driving lessons in Edinburgh! Driving in UK is insane as there is a bucket load of rules to follow. The notion that I was good at driving (in India) was soon washed-up to reveal the harsh truth: "YOU CANNOT DRIVE (in the UK)!!!"

I signed up for lessons with RED driving school and my instructor was quite a gentleman named Jim. I have been taking lessons ever since, each lesson lasting 2 hours. The best thing about it is that I get to have a 2 hour break from the several other worries in life, and concentrate on driving which if went wrong would be perilous to two lives, my instructor's and mine! It's still fun with the occasional funny rhetorics coming from Jim about his other students and his children. To acknowledge, that is the only two hour decent conversation I have with a human otherwise it's purely virtual (over Skype) with my beloved family!

I commit inadvertent mistakes while driving which does not mean I'm not paying attention. There are so many things to concentrate on at the same time that I fail to multitask (again something I thought I was good at!) I'm particularly bad at the roundabouts where one is supposed to give way to the oncoming traffic from the right, follow lane discipline, signal to the rest of the traffic and maintain speed. It's a hell of a complex task, and I must say I buckle under pressure. I have managed a flawless roundabout manoeuvre only once. Besides , one should drive on the left hand side of the road in the UK unlike in India, so I did have some teething issues initially, but the markings on the road make it quite easy to understand.

Theory test was a cakewalk, but I know I'm not ready for practicals yet! I might have a practical test next month. So long!

P.S. I will write about my practical test experience very soon, not if I fail :(

No comments:

Post a Comment