The beaver is a proud and noble animal

Please don’t put your toothbrush up your nose.

I was up until 4:30 am this morning reading a new book. I am no longer 18. This was stupid.

Current Mood: Tired

So far, I’ve had 3 driving lessons. The first one was only on a closed course to try get to grips with the basics of clutch control and low-speed manoeuvring. The other 2 were mostly throw-you-in-the-deep-end on the road. I have been both thrilled and terrified and I’m a bit wrung out.

I’m at a quandary here. It seems like I have a triple-whammy going against me. I’ve never driven before, so I’m a total newb for roadcraft. This would explain why I cut across oncoming traffic while doing a right-hand turn and almost got run over twice on roundabouts (having said that, Joe told me that every new driver does stupid shit like that). My eyesight – being its normal self – makes it difficult for me to read the instrument gauges easily (the speedo mostly is a git – it’s in KPH and has a small inner dial in MPH, but it’s painted brown on black and I can’t make it out unless I lean in, which is not a good thing to do when you’re doing 50 MPH). So that means that I have difficulty maintaining the correct speed for the road I’m on, and that’s dangerous. Both of those combined as well make it difficult for me to anticipate things well enough in advance for me to react appropriately, like judging the correct speed to take a bend or timing gaps to enter the flow of traffic. The final whammy is confidence. I’ve told myself all my life that I can’t drive, and now I’m trying to prove myself wrong. All of that taken together at once is proving… difficult, dangerous, scary.

I had a good long chat with the instructors at CamRider. I can’t commend them enough. They’re being really professional and genuine about the whole process. What it boils down to is that they don’t want to just write me off, they don’t want me to just write me off and they don’t want to just keep taking my money if this is something that won’t be safe in the long run. The head instructor, who I was with on the 3rd lesson, tells me that if he thought I was untrainable or unsafe, he’d stop things then and there. He says that no single problem in itself is a no-go. He’s trained people with worse eyesight than me. He’s trained complete newbies before. We just need to address things a little bit at a time and find a solution that works for me.

The thing is that on a closed circuit or a cul-de-sac, I can handle the bike correctly. My clutch control has already gotten a lot better in those 3 sessions and I can do the Module 1 manoeuvres. The real problem is that when I go out in the real world, all of that control and confidence goes out the window. I get flustered and I start doing stupid – and potentially dangerous – things.

Again though, the instructors tell me that this isn’t anything they haven’t seen before. I’m probably just over-thinking things and making my demons bigger than they are.

There have been fun moments though. The rat race in the Villages and the straight road to Sawston were really cool. On the other hand, having my first real road ride while it’s pissing it down with rain and having both the inside and outside of my helmet visor (as well as my glasses) sopping wet while on a national speed limit road was… not a fun moment. I was a bit wired that night.

So. Where we’re at now is that I have a one-on-one lesson tomorrow morning where it’s just going to be me and an instructor and we’ll assess the situation after that. If they think I can’t, then so be it. I’ll have at least tried. If they think I can, we can work on a plan so that I can think I can.

Current Mood: Confused

It’s been a loooooong weekend. Katy’s been working 12-14 hour night-sit shifts since Friday night so she’s knackered, and she seems to be coming down with a bug, which isn’t helping her energy levels. It’s still a transitional process, but I’m finding it a bit rough to not see her these days. It seems that we’ve only had three night in the past month when she hasn’t been working, and two of those were in Leicester. She leaves shortly after I get in from work, so we have maybe 15-20 minutes to chat a bit before she has to get ready. I generally put beastie to bed and then spend the evening cooking and watching TV. When she’s not working night-sits, she comes home between 10:30 and 11:30, so we might have another 15-20 minutes to chat, but by then we’re both tired so we just go to bed. I’m sure we’ll both get into the routine of things.

The beastie is just being a beastie and is into everything, biting everything, throwing everything, climbing everything and scratching everything that shouldn’t be scratched. I discovered that he can climb into his high-chair by himself during one of those “it’s too quiet” moments. He was sitting happily next to the fridge eating my fridge magnets. Oy, vey.

I had my first motorcycle lesson this weekend, the Compulsory Bike Training (CBT) course. It gives very high-level pointers on maintenance, controls, maneuvers, road safety and the like. I’m doing the course with Joe and he said it best when he said that it feels like it’s too much to take in at once and the best way to get everything to become automatic (like it is for him to drive a car) is to get out on the road and do it. That’s actually a bit intimidating, but I’m looking forward for more.

The day started out with a bit of stress because I had to pass a field eye exam. Now I know that this sounds dodgy, but I knew where they kept the fixed-distance license plate they use and I already knew what was written on it, but all of that went out the window when the guy said “just read the plate on either of the cars at the end of the parking”. I took a deep breath and said what I saw. The dude squinted a bit and said “yeah, that’ll do”. HAPPY DANCE!!!

Joe and I didn’t go on the road on Saturday, even though a road ride is normally part of the CBT. That’s because we’re doing the direct access course that will allow us to ride bikes bigger than 125cc. We’re going to be doing the rest of our lessons on 500cc bikes that require a things be done a bit differently than with the smaller, lighter bikes. The other guy who was on the course with us, a loudmouth Ozzie who will someday wrap himself and the 1100cc crotch rocket he wants to get around a tree, was only doing the CBT and went on a ride. I find it a bit mind-boggling that, in most cases, people are let loose on the road for unaccompanied riding after only 6 hours of training on a bike that can do 70 mph with very little difficulty – without even needing a theory test. Still, that’s how things work here apparently and who am I to question a system that will actually let me drive :D

It is a lot to process, the things you need to unconsciously think about to be able to drive safely. The good news is that they seem very competent teachers and they’re very safety oriented. Still, I’m a bit humbled to say that I expected it to be easier. Anyway, I have a feeling that if all goes well, I’m going to be very proud of myself for accomplishing a goal that I’ve always thought impossible to achieve. Go me.

Current Mood: Tired

We were in Leicester last weekend, when the British summer heatwave came upon us.

We bought a little paddling pool for the beastie, which he quite enjoyed. We found out that he likes being attacked with a hose as well. As he loves fresh garden peas (we stopped counting after he ate a dozen pods). It was really nice in the evenings, because we could sit outside and watch Mel trying to burn down the garden with his chiminea while downing a pitcher of rather boozy Margaritas.

The weekend was actually really nice, until the drive back home when the beastwich had a heat-induced meltdown in the car (we still haven’t been able to make time to get the AC fixed). That put a bit of a downer on the weekend, but otherwise, lovely.

  
 

All pictures here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/leicester_jul_2010/

Current Mood: Calm

So far today the bean has had his first taste of tea (which went down quite well), some sausage butty (which was inhaled) and some Starbucks smoothie. He is so our son…

I am very anxious at the moment. We’ve just had the boiler replaced, and we had to do unexpected repairs to the car in the past couple of months (two tires and a catalytic converter). Now it would seem that the car’s AC has packed it in. I don’t know how much that’s going to cost, but I do know we don’t have that money.

Beastie is pushing all of my buttons by being a tired git these days. The only time I seem to be happy to have him around is when he’s sleeping. Otherwise, I’m very quite happy to be at work and away from the tantrums. This will get worse before it gets better.

Current Mood: Crappy

Katy and I suck at being frugal. To whit: in this month, we bought a new boiler, a new patio door, two new tires for the car and now, it would seem, part of the muffler needs replacing (of course, the part that wasn’t repaired less than a year ago and now under warranty). Fun times ahead!

I’m beginning to freak out a bit about our monetary situation. Over the course of a year, it’s not too bad but it just seems to be piling on all of a sudden and we still have a trip to Canada to somehow shoehorn into our finances, and since I now finally have my license, I’d like to be able to actually drive. MORE MONEY, YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!

*fret!*

Current Mood: Gloomy

I don’t know what I did to myself this weekend, but ow. I must’ve pulled something in my shoulder because it hurts like a mofo. I had trouble sleeping because of where it is and how I normally sleep. Joy.

Weekend was meh. On the upside though, we went to the farmer’s market at Debden Antiques and we got some nice venison sausages that everybody (even the beastie) enjoyed from the BBQ. We also bought a really evil mushroom pate that is killer with jacket potatoes and even better in fajitas.

Feeling rather bleh at the moment. Probably a mix of shoulder, screaming beastie residue and overall anxiety/frustration. Meh.

Current Mood: Crappy

Katy and I were having a chat recently. Between having the patio door replaced, getting a new boiler fitted and going to Canada, it’s going to be a spensive year.

Oy.

Current Mood: Gloomy