23rd August 2006 23rd Driving lesson

Quite good lesson today well after last week anything would be an improvement. It was raining to start with tho stopped soon after getting in the car. I did 2 new roundabouts both quite big, one had traffic lights on and I could only go straight on as left and right was onto the motorway. The other was one where you had to change lanes to go right, it was first time I have ever had to change lane and seemed to go quite well tho my instructor told me when to do it. I'm not keen on roundabouts as I look right to see if its clear too long and end up stopping too close to middle of road and on right turns I hate having 2 mirrors to check and blind spot. I still keep braking too hard mostly when I don't slow down enough at junctions or roundabouts and sometimes put clutch down bit early when stopping at junctions.

I did 3 of my best turn in the road yet no mistakes at all and did some straight reversing which still needs more practice, but now I am getting used to keeping the car slow I should get better at it hopefully. I forgot to mirror and signal once when I was pulling up at side of roadand sometimes signal too early. I am getting used to changing gears tho sometimes forget what gear I'm in or change down too late. My instructor said I will be going to 5th gear soon as I'm getting used to the speed, she said this just after having to tell me to not go over 40mph even tho the road was clear so I plan to keep getting up to 40mph when I get chance to show I'm ready for 5th gear. I check my mirrors more now tho still don't like them cos don't see point checking them as often as you should.

I ended up stalling at the very end of the 2 hour lesson cos of a stupid bus, I wanted to turn right at cross roads a bus came up the road I wanted to turn right into so my instructor told me to stop and let the bus turn, when the bus had gone I try to rush to get going again think I did clutch too fast and stalled. My instructor was telling me not to worry and explained why she got me to stop think she thought I'd blame her, but I'm that used to stalling now I'm like oh well get ready again done it so many times I could do it with my eyes shut. That was the only time I stalled today.