The Heart of Darkness

So, for the last few weeks I have been getting up at 4.00am, two or three times a week, to do 5.00 - 7.00am lessons.
The first fifteen minutes are on rural roads, with no lighting, then we get into Elgin (or 'El-jin' as my satnav pronounces it, as though it is a Spanish gin). Town or country, it really is a different world at that time of night/morning. I always have The Specials 'Ghost Town' going round my head when we get to Elgin.
In many ways, the pupil benefits from lessons at this time because the roads are almost empty so we cover more ground. The main disadvantage is that they don't get the same practice dealing with meeting, crossing and emerging.
Now, it could be the headlights in our mirrors, but it seems that vehicles follow much more closely at this time. And there is much more speeding. OK, with empty roads you expect cars/vans to be going faster than usual, but not that fast.
On the other side of my area darkness causes other problems. Deer are a common hazard on the roads but, some roads, such as the A835 between Inverness & Ullapool, can seem full of deer in places. A few years ago I was giving a lesson at night when I saw the reflection of our headlights in a pair of eyes. I covered the brakes, a good thing too, as the deer sprung out into the road. We both went for the brakes and stopped within 2 metres of the animal.
A couple of weeks ago, someone who passed with me last year wasn't so lucky. She came round a corner near Loch Glascarnoch and hit a deer. She is the complete opposite of a boy (or girl) racer, but just got caught out.
Obviously we practiced many emergency stops in our lessons, without problems, but, in a real situation, those quick reactions become vital. I don't know exactly what happened -maybe she doesn't know herself - but sometimes reactions are delayed due to a split-second denial of what is in front of you.
It affected her confidence initially, but she was forced into repeating the journey when a colleague dislocated a shoulder and she had to drive her 60 miles to hospital.
The horror, the horror! (cine-literary joke).

Lucky dip

A somewhat embarrassing incident the other morning:
I often carry a small, pale blue backpack in my car with me. It contains my laptop, lunch, a few documents and various bits and bobs.
My pupil was asking about changing her address on her driving licence. Because my own driving licence was in my backpack I reached into the back seat to get my backpack. I opened the main compartment and rummaged through, looking for my appointments diary (which contained my licence). It didn't seem to be in the main compartment, which was worrying, so I looked in the smaller front compartment. Not there either so, getting quite anxious at the thought that I had mislaid my licence and my diary, I rummaged through the main compartment again. It must have been 20 seconds before I realised that I was looking in my pupil's pale blue backpack - not mine! I hastily zipped up her bag and spluttered an apology. She didn't really say much, but she certainly didn't seem bothered.
I still shudder at the thought of her wondering why I was looking through the contents of her bag. Hopefully not a mistake I'll make twice.

Open all hours

One of the bonuses of being self-employed is that I decide what hours I work. Having said that, I try to be flexible and do my best to fit in with what my pupils/customers want. A few years ago a pupil, who had her test the next morning, called me to ask if she could fit in another lesson that night. I tried to reassure her that her driving was easily good enough to pass, but she really wanted an extra lesson. As a result, I fitted her in at 9.30pm, so I didn't get home until nearly 11.00pm.
Then, last year, another pupil, with an 8.40am test, wanted a two hour lesson before his test, so I set off to work at 6.15am that day.
A couple of weeks ago, a new pupil had her first lesson and we were trying to arrange the next few lessons. 
I remember trying to arrange a lesson with someone who asked me for a morning lesson. I offered her 11.30am (it was the only slot I had left). "No, that's too early for me. Have you got anything later?" she asked. Not really my definition of 'morning'.
So when she asked me "Do you do mornings?" I wondered exactly what time she had in mind.
"What time would you like?" I asked.
"Five O'clock?"
"A.M?"
"Yes. Can we do 5.00 - 7.00am two our three times a week?"
Slightly shocked, I agreed.
The first morning I was cursing myself for agreeing to such an early start (especially as my alarm was set for a mere five hours after flying back from Birmingham). But, now, I quite like these early lessons. Elgin is almost completely empty at this time, so we get so much done in those two hours. And it is quite nice getting two hours work under my belt, then going home for breakfast to set me up for a full day's work.
I might change my mind again next week when her colleague starts lessons with me, meaning three 5.00am starts and two 6.00am starts in one week.