Pupils!

I knew it was coming. My area spans the west end of the Moray Firth, which is framed by distant mountains. It is a beautiful morning now, but, for the first time since April, overnight rain fell as snow on Ben Wyvis and some of the other mountains. Picturesque it certainly is, but it is too mild to last at the moment, even at 3,000+ feet. It won't be long though before the mountains are capped with snow all the way through to next summer.
I am now warmed by mild schadenfreude this lunchtime. I am sitting on a bench, with an all-day breakfast sandwich and a coffee, overlooking the beautiful sandy beach at Lossiemouth and enjoying the bright autumn sun. I got back in the car to hear the radio DJ moaning that he is suffering from SAD because the weather in London is miserable.

It's nice to have a bit of a breather, especially after last night.
We were nearing the end of my last lesson of the day. We had been working on roundabouts for the last hour, practicing on minor roundabouts before moving on to the big boys. I had planned a route which looped from 4 roundabouts on the A96, up to the Fluke roundabout, left to Inshes roundabout, then up towards Culloden before dipping back down to the A96. A few nasty roundabouts on that route, but my pupil was dealing with them with increasing confidence.
Raigmore interchange is a big, fast roundabout that links the A9 dual-carriageway to the A96. The route had been taking us straight ahead on the A96, going under the A9, but this time I wanted my pupil to turn right, up on to the A9. The approach was fine, mirrors, signals, position, speed and gears were all good. He came up to the roundabout, looked right, then turned RIGHT (to go the wrong way round the roundabout)! At least, he tried to. I grabbed the steering wheel and wrenched it round to the left just in time to get back in the correct lane.
"You told me to turn right." He protested.
"But it's a ROUNDABOUT!"
"Oh...oh, yeah."
By now we were heading up the slip road for the A9, bringing the speed up towards the national speed limit and I was left without anywhere to pull him over and make sure he understood the situation. I'm sure he did understand, he just had 'a blip'. But a blip I could have done without.

Less exciting, but less comfortable was a situation this morning. My pupil was heading home and we were approaching a side road to turn right. She left her braking a little late and ended up having to stop the car because of an oncoming car. The car passed and she didn't move. Meanwhile, two cars are behind us and there is also a car in the side road waiting to turn right.
"Put your foot on the accelerator and bring the clutch up slowly."
Nothing.
"Put your foot on the accelerator and bring the clutch up slowly." I calmly repeated.
Nothing.
"Put your foot on the accelerator." I repeated a little more forcefully.
"Wait. Just let me think about it." She replied.
"No. We have people waiting. We need to clear the junction. Put your foot on the accelerator." (I had my foot on the dual-clutch to stop her from stalling). Finally she did so and I gestured to apologise to the other cars waiting patiently.
She asked me to drive the last couple of miles home, which I was happy to do, and I finished the lesson by suggesting that we would concentrate on right turns and crossing traffic in the next lesson. She seemed happy with that and I confirmed the time of our next lesson.
I have just learned that she has since called the office and cancelled her next lessons because she didn't enjoy this morning. Normally, I would call her and encourage her on her progress so far, then suggest that we find some quiet roads to practice those right turns on (this is a pupil who had moved beyond right turns to dealing with crossroads and roundabouts). However, she is moving away from the area on Monday so I will just wish her well with her future lessons.

I think that I'm as patient as anyone, but, when we are driving on roads shared by other people, I have to make sure my pupils give them consideration (no matter how obvious the 'L' plate). It may be a little scary dealing with pupils who try to turn the wrong way on a 60mph roundabout, but I would rather do that than have to apologise unnecessarily to other drivers because my pupil wanted to 'stop and think about things' in the middle of a junction.