Friends, countrymen and if there are any Romans reading, I suspect you might be lost, but I appreciate the readership nonetheless, therefore lend me your ears. This is a declaration of War.
My little brother Paul, actually 6 foot 5 but two years younger than me, is also learning to drive, albeit in Chester. The birthday card I received from Paul this year had a touching verse about looking up to your big sister, he had crossed out 'up' and replaced it with 'down'! He signed off the card by stating 'The race is on' well Paul, challenge accepted.
So far I'm in pole position. I have had more lessons than my brother, but he has more natural co-ordination and visual spatial awareness.
With this in mind I am determined not to waste any more lessons making rookie mistakes.
As regular readers will know, my track record with lessons on a Thursday and Friday has been spotty at best. For whatever reason I seem to 'lose it' slightly on these days and my driving suffers.
But not this week! Due to the commotion surrounding the Thornaby test centre, John decided it would benefit me to learn to drive in other areas. Thursday's route was through Hartlepool.
Driving around Hartlepool is an interesting experience, as cars tend to park on both sides of the road leaving a narrow gangway, which must be shared by all road uses regardless of the direction they are travelling.
It required me to remember the dimensions of the car, and brake to give way to on coming traffic, both of which I actually did.
As for manoeuvres, according to John my emergency stop, after some practice, would have passed any test, while my 3-point turn and reversing down a side street are both coming along nicely.
I still have to master hill starts and learn to parallel park, but I now feel I'm on track.
I have booked my theory test for the end of the month, and intend to maximise my chance of passing with some serious revision, or last minute cramming, the benefit of which should never be underestimated.
Furthermore I'm going to take the advice of a blast from the past, whom I ran into last night and adopt his confident certainty that good things will happen, simply because you expect them to.
Sibling rivalry provides natural and healthy competition, so bring it on Paul, I'm ready!
First published on http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/gazette-communities/ts5-acklam-and-linthorpe/ on 7/7/07
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