Driving Miss Tiffany

I had my first driving lesson yesterday. The instructor was an older gentleman named Peter, who was retired from the Royal Air Force. He was very patient and calm, and he didn’t seem panicked or phased, no matter how clueless I was on the road.

He took me out for an hour and a half, and our route went through the neighboring towns of Workington and Whitehaven. Peter had me practice driving on dual carriageways, through busy town centers, and over countless roundabouts. Roundabouts are really the last obstacle for me… They still confuse me, which causes me to want to avoid them at all cost. Peter actually told me a story about a woman he knows who has lived in the area for ten years, and still refuses to drive in the roundabouts. She drives twenty miles out of her way every day just to avoid them. I think she and I would get along.

We practiced tiny roundabouts and multi-lane roundabouts. Every time I drove up to one, I got a tiny knot of tension in my stomach. For the most part, I did alright. At the biggest of the multi-lane roundabouts, though, I messed up and got in the wrong lane. It was a big enough screw-up that Peter actually grabbed the wheel from me and steered us to the right position. I can understand why he did that, but it made me feel nervous… Like I had really screwed up. It made me so nervous, in fact, that I made the exact same mistake on the same big roundabout coming back home. (And, yes. He had to take the wheel again.)

Despite the mistakes I made, it was a great experience. Peter was a good instructor, and I learned a lot. I actually feel pretty confident driving in the villages and towns now. It might be a while until I shake the roundabout phobia, though. I’m just going to have to practice, practice, practice.

Speaking of which, I tested out my new automotive skills today by driving to the grocery store for the first time. Yay me! It was great to be able to browse through all of the shelves as slowly as I wanted, with no four-year-old or husband to bore
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It was such a success that later in the afternoon I got brave again. I drove to downtown Maryport to check out a little thrift store called the "Age Concern" on the main drag. It was a teeny-tiny store, and they didn't have much. Still, it was really fun to browse around. I even came away with a few little treasures.

A 1960's set of canisters, unused.

An awful (and therefore wonderful) pastel drawing of an owl, circa 1970.

A trashy paperbook book about the scandals of Hollywood in the 50's called "The Bad and the Beautiful." The back jacket calls it a "compendium of sleaze and gossip," so that pretty much guarantees that it's right up my alley.

It was fun to get out and about. I’m going to have to make little outings like these more often. Maybe Whitehaven on Friday?




 
Random side note: As I walked around downtown Maryport, over half of the businesses were closed for the day. Apparently, most stores in the town center aren’t open on Sundays *or* Wednesdays. How weird is that?