(Hours 23 & 24)

The driving is falling slowly into place but as time goes on, there's more to remember and the event becomes more serious. I finished studying the Highway Code last week and I've moved onto the Theory Test questions now which is making life a lot harder as there is a lot of information that needs to be absorbed. As I put the text into practice, the driving develops a stage and I find myself thinking before proceeding which results in missing out the essential elements such as braking.

Although I understand the importance for not braking, it has definitely brought me some laughter! I parked at the side of the road today as my lesson came to an end. I forgot to push the clutch down and broke... (ouch!) ...All I heard was a loud 'clunk'... the sound made me laugh immediately and a huge smile appeared on my face instantly. The car had stopped, but it wasn't very professional! As I always say, it must have looked funny on the outside!

(Hours 21 & 22)

After doing so many hours on some quiet roads, I made another drive today on a main road. This was after I was introduced to a Reverse park which appeared to be 'the most difficult parking technique'.. or that was what I heard. I gave it my best shot and squeezed into the humongous gap between 2 parked cars. I found this idea of parking quite interesting for some strange reason and I asked if I could have another go just to familiarise myself to the new park.

Slowly I made it onto the busy roads and drove to a better standard compared to the first time driving home. I definitely felt that the confidence was there and driving with other drivers was not as daunting. Occasionally I'll still find myself panicking if I see a trail of cars behind me and I'm approaching a roundabout. Hopefully I'll be able to come to a stage soon where I can stop this from happening as I know that faults on a main road will cause delay for other drivers.

(Hours 19 & 20)

Turning the car in a road was introduced to me today. I managed to steer the car in time within the 3 turns and successfully drive on the opposite lane... it was a 3 lane road otherwise I wouldn't have managed it that easily! We'll see how my next turn goes on a 2 lane road...

I've finally picked up my courage in the last few lessons to press on the gas pedal and pick up some speed down the 60 mile lanes... I didn't realise how fast I was going today on a 30 road until my instructor gave me a prompt.. I was over the speed limit and I was officially 'speeding'! There's just so much to driving and a lot to look out for.. I'll remember to look at my speedometer in future to avoid getting points on my licence before i've even passed!



The bay parkings are coming along nicely too... the pictures above show my neat parking haha ;)

(Hours 17 & 18)

Not much happened today,.. just been practising right turns and roundabouts. Had a safe drive overall as everybody on the road was respectul and nobody decided to jump out at me. I'm beginning to take control over the car now as I'm sitting higher up which has allowed me to see from a different viewpoint. The viewpoint enables me to see more of the road giving me a better judgement for all my actions.

Driving through wet weather is harder than it looks... the road is quite slippy and the wing mirrors are difficult to see through the water droplets. However it's nice to experience being on the road in a different condition as the weather won't always be nice!

Been hooked up on Stu for weeks now. A handsome, funny and easy going chap, this guy deserves the all to win. After watching him perform the cycling task on the live show yesterday, I definitely hope he's going to be noticed for his consistent support towards other housemates in the house.

Stu continued to take over housemates cycling if they were feeling tired which made him lose sleep for the whole night as the task lasts for 30 hours. He's willing to sacrifice himself for others, and for this I hope he will be crowned the winner of Big Brother 2008.

(Hours 15 & 16)

The fear of crashing almost commenced today as a car pulled out in front of me as I was following a road round a curve. Luckily this did not happen as I spotted him from afar and noticed he wasn't slowing down so I made an immediate brake. Not even did he not slow down, he also continued to come out onto the road as he seen me heading towards him... he must have assumed I was turning left even though I didn't have any indicators on stating this.

I'm starting to get into the swing of things now and grasping the idea of driving a diesel car. Stalling the car doesn't seem to be so much of a problem any more and I'm beginning to be able to make a left reverse with confidence. Hopefully in my next few lessons I will gradually manage not to stall the car at all. At the moment it's still happening the odd once or twice as I'm releasing the clutch to high up.

(Hours 13 & 14)


So this is it,... the 'Beast of Horror' that I will be driving for the rest of my lessons and even do my test with! It's very hard to manoeuvre as I just got used to the old petrol car and this is a diesel which doesn't cope quite so well with the slow speeds... it's a matter of changing to a lower gear that is not required from petrol operated cars as they are capable of moving slowly in 2nd gear... Other than that I'm happy with it 'cos it's silver! :)

I used the new car and practiced many left reverses which I seem to have finally cracked! A little more on them and they'll be mastered completely!

(Hours 11 & 12)


A very tough lesson today as my brain was overloaded with the introduction of the elements inside the car bonnet including their function and location.

Attached a pic of the car I learn with as it's the last lesson I'm going to use it. It's a temporary learning car covering for a damaged one that will be back on the road on Thursday. This one's been very durable and has survived all my rocky journeys.. but I look forward to driving the 'original'..

(Hours 9 & 10)


Today was the big day... last lesson I was left off with a thought that I was going to drive home after my lesson. This was it,...

After a few days of soaking up the news I calmed my nerves and prepared myself. At the beginning of today's lesson I mastered up my steering skills before setting out onto the big road by practising my left and right turns which I had been doing in my previous lesson.

Time past quickly and it was time for me to drive home.. I followed all the instructions I was given and didn't rush as we had allocated plenty of time. I tried very hard to function while I was driving but there were lots of things to focus on. Driving round the roundabouts were quite difficult as I had to complete the steering correctly, check the mirrors, indicate and turn into my chosen lane within a few seconds. Everything had to be done fast.. I tried my best and noticed a few faults, like checking the mirror on a new road..

I had been pretty lucky throughout the journey considering the zebra crossings were free and I didn't need to come to a stop. The hardest was yet to come.... Apple Orchard.. famous for it's number of swerves! As well as that, the road isn't flat which makes it even harder. Each bend either dips or rises which makes you think whether to brake or accelerate. I managed to complete the Apple Orchard under supervision and was on the way to approaching home.

I made it home in one piece, only stalling the car once! Once is still too much but I'm happy to have not stopped in the middle of Apple Orchard!

Cbox up and running with new clock..!

Sorry guys, lost my cbox, I'll try get it up and running as soon as poss but it keeps coming up with error messages now.. Hopefully it can be resolved soon :(