Silly season (part 2)

In my temporary absence from here, I have had more pupils passing their test. A bit irrelevant to go into all the details now, but congratulations to Emma, Nicola, Kelly, Jasmine, Jim and Sarah on passing their driving tests during the last few weeks.

In my last post I referred to the 'silly season'. But lack of braincells doesn't just apply to people enjoying themselves on holiday. The other day I was teaching a pupil who needed a bit of improvement on their clutch control. Usually, I start off with full, step-by-step instruction on how to do something. Then, as they improve, we move on to prompted instruction - "At the end of the road, turn right..... What's the first thing you need to do? What speed and gear will you want?, etc." If that goes well, we can progress to independent driving, where I shut up and just watch to make sure they are doing everything they need to be doing.

I have a few pupils whose English isn't perfect. That's ok, because my Dutch, Polish, Slovakian and Bangladeshi isn't great either. So, sometimes in these cases, I skip the prompted instruction. I give them lots of fully-guided instruction then, when I think they are beginning to do things before I ask them, I back off and leave them to it (hopefully).

Anyway, my pupil was struggling with clutch control, so I had planned a route which included some hills leading up to give-way junctions. He found it difficult. There is one particular give-way which is at the top of a steep slope and is a blind junction - you cannot see what is coming until you have already started creeping out into the new road - your clutch control has to be very precise. Quite scary for any driver, let alone a learner. Gradually, with lots of repeated attempts, with full instruction, he was beginning to 'get it'. We were nearing the end of the lesson and I wanted a couple of attempts with no instruction. I wanted him to do it by himself.

As we approached the junction, we overtook a parked driving school car (with just the instructor in the car). I was watching my pupil check his mirrors, indicate, brake progressively........ so far so good..... when I noticed in my mirror the other instructor move off and accelerate towards the back of our car (and the junction). 

I have to say, most other drivers had been very good throughout the lesson and, appreciating the difficulty of the junction, had kept back from us when we were negotiating the manoeuvre. You expect the odd car to approach too quickly, or too closely, but not a driving instructor. I had my feet poised over the dual controls. If my pupil brought the clutch up too much, or too quickly, we risked shooting forward into a road we could see (or stalling). If he didn't bring the clutch up enough, or too slowly, the car would come to a stop and possibly roll back into the car behind us. 

So it was a combination of pride, relief and annoyance that I experienced when my pupil judged the speed and clutch control perfectly and safely emerged from the junction.

I know that the other instructor reads this blog, so I have a question for you: What were you thinking?

Silly season

I know. I'm sorry. I've been busy. What can I say?
Almost a month since my last post. Must try harder.
Often, I'll be driving along, and I'll think of something that I want to write about. Then I'll get busy with lessons or something and I'll forget what it was that was. Other times, I will start typing, save it, then, when I return to finish the post, I'll think 'No, I don't think I'll bother with that.'
So, my May resolution is to get here a bit more regularly. "Little and often" as one of my (pub) customers used to be fond of saying.

As we approach the end of April, I hope I am safe in saying that we were lucky with the weather this winter. We had some snow, but nothing like the previous two years. In fact, there has been fresh snow this week, but, a month ago, we had temperatures up to 23 - 24C. There has been many a day when, in one lesson, we'll have the car windows down and shades on, but in the next, the heater will be on with the windscreen wipers pinging backwards and forwards.
But, whatever the weather, silly season is approaching... sorry, I meant 'tourist season'.

We have these things by the side of the road called 'pavements' (or 'sidewalks' if you prefer). They are usually quite flat and ideal for walking on (unless you live in Xi'an in Northern China  - see video). Then we have these other things, called 'roads', which lie inbetween the pavements, and are useful for driving or cycling on. Sometimes people get confused. Sometimes people cycle on the pavements, sometimes I have the occasional pupil who seems to want to drive on the pavement, and often, pedestrians walk on the roads.

The 2012 tourist season has only just started, but I have already lost count of the number of times we have had to slow down, or stop, because pedestrians are walking in the road (despite there being a perfectly good pavement just a few inches away). Not only that, but it seems that many people are now using cameras without a zoom. Let's take the Fowler Memorial Clock in Ullapool as an example. It is situated on the (nice, safe) pavement, at the Argyle Street/Quay Street crossroads. It is a very nice clock. So nice, that people like take photographs of it. But rather than stand anywhere on the pavement (or even on the other side of the road and use the zoom on their camera), people do seem to like standing in THE MIDDLE OF THE CROSSROADS to take the picture.
Last summer, during a lesson, my pupil was driving along Shore Street, towards the ferry. Ahead, we could see a group of 5-6 people, standing in the middle of a crossroads having a chat. We checked our rear mirror and gradually slowed, waiting for them to step a couple of metres to the side. Nothing. We had now slowed to 2 or 3mph, but trying to keep moving to make our intentions clear. Eventually we had to stop. They had looked at us and resumed their conversation. "What planet are you from?!"  I wanted to yell at them. But we politely smiled and waved as we slowly passed them, once they had finally stepped aside. Ok, Ullapool does not have the same traffic density as say London, Bangkok or even Little Piddleton-in-the-sticks, but motorists (and cyclists) do like to use the roads to get from A to B, and they prefer not to be delayed by photographers or chinwaggers.
Last week, one of my pupils (who hasn't got the best grasp of the English language) was having a lesson. We were approaching a group of three men who, for some reason know only to them, were walking in the middle of the road, when there was an empty pavement next to them. Again, I instructed my pupil to slow down, hold back, and give them time to realise that we were there and step out of the road. They didn't seem to be in any rush to move, so I was just about to suggest that he looked for a safe opportunity to drive around them when BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!! He had given them a long blast on the horn before I could stop him! I have just had my logo put on my car (see photos), so there was absolutely no mistaking who we were. The three men gave us very dirty looks as we drove past and I gave them a very embarrassed wave of apology. I asked my pupil to pull over and tried to explain that, yes, the horn can be used to warn others of our presence, but sometimes we just need to be a little more patient.