Travelling On

Cheery_Daff

Wow, you're making great progress there! 😃 Good news that the fence can go up once those trees are out, and good that the driving lessons are going well too! Reversing into a parking space can be tricky (although after all these years I find I now much prefer reversing in than reversing out! And I do still follow my Grandma's advice to try and find a space i can drive straight through in the supermarket car park 😂).

That list is going to get proper ticked off by Christmas, well done!

badmemory

Cheery is right about reversing in & not reversing out.  We were always taught that as it is much safer.  But I was a little pleased this morning to drive into a supermarket space & then be able to drive straight through.  The police now are saying that you may protect your exhaust (catalytic converter) by driving in & having it exposed to view rather than reversing in & having it hidden.  But I suspect that may be more the case if you have a newer vehicle. 

If you had your own car would you have somewhere you could practice reversing & other precision driving.  My garage is only quite small.  I cheat & have an old duvet hanging on the side opposite where I get out.  Then I really cheat & have cushions down the side of the garage where my door opens to protect the door.  Not had a garage scrape since the one in 1991 with a new car.  The air was just a little blue.

Karmacat

I love your duvet trick, badmemory!  How clever!   I don't have a garage, but 90% of my front "garden" is paved over, which is why I call it a front yard, so that's where I'll put the car.  I have two problems with this - my awful neighbours are used to parking in front of my house (5 cars and vans!) and it will take them all a while to learn that I have a car now.  Plus the slope up is quite considerable.  That will still be fairly easy with an automatic, and I used to be a dab hand with the gears in any case.  We'll see.

I know I need to get to grips with reversing in, and I will, it's just that its really, really hard **sobs loudly and waits for sympathy** 🤣🤣🤣

Managed to book my driving lesson next week, the day before my covid jab, and also checked on WhatsApp with my colleague whether he wanted any of the paperwork I'm about to shred, since I retired before him.  No, he doesn't 🤣 my word, he's calmer than he used to be 🤣  so a nice big chunk readied for the shredder - basically means staples, photos and stationery junk taken out.  I'm so pleased!

beanielou

That’s some list. 

beanielou

Oh & I can reverse into a space no bother but cannot parallel park 😢

Baileys_Babe

beanielou said:

Oh & I can reverse into a space no bother but cannot parallel park 😢

My first car (1991-97) was big and old without power steering, I could easily parallel park it. My second car was small and modern and an absolute pig to parallel park. Ever since that 2nd car I've had difficulty with parallel parking.

Likewise no problem with reversing into a space.

LadyWithAPlan

I think one learns what one needs car wise. I am a briliiant parallel parker now after years of huge cars (Range Rovers) and parking in tiny spaces - eg Soho in London A few weeks of stopping all traffic and getting yelled at by  cabbies soon sorted me out
Though I once accidentally rented a huge convertible Mustang in the States - drove like a boat! I looked like a wanna be gangsta rapper - 

Cheery_Daff

Ha, I agree you end up learning particular skills depending on situation. I learned to drive in a transit van, and everything I've driven since has seemed extremely easy to manoeuvre 😂 One of our cars is a little 3 door Yaris, and I take great delight in squeezing into on-street parking spaces I've just watched someone in a bigger car fail to park in 😂 But it took me a LOT of messing around in a van to get the hang of it - and now the visibility in a small car seems like a superpower! (I do often forget to use rear view mirrors though 😂)

These days, after several years of very rural driving, I'm pretty adept at reversing down single track roads out of the way of oncoming farm vehicles 😂

Karmacat

Wow!  Thank you all for chipping in, folks - I confess I didn't know what parallel parking was, or rather I hadn't tied up the phrase to one of the most common experiences in a driver's life.  Oh dear!  I haven't even tried that yet - I better had, hadn't I!  I've just brought up the BSM guide to it, so we'll see.

Toyota Yaris, Cheery!  I have 3 on my Autotrader list, though they're all 5 doors, no 3 doors available.  My brother has a prejudice against them - he says that what doors they *do* have are longer, so they're more difficult to open in tight parking spaces.  Which seems logical, but I'm pretty sure I'd never park in a space that was that tight anyway 🙄  So good to hear that you have a Yaris!  I thought the best car for me on there might be a Honda Jazz, but they're all imports, and as a complete newcomer, I'm not going to go that route.

Definitely agree that you learn what you need to learn - I learned in London, and I never did all the popping in and out of parked cars to let oncoming traffic go by - here in Dormitory Little Town, it's the primary skill 🤣

I wanted to do lots of gardening this weekend, to fill the green bin, but its a difficult one, there's a *lot* of rain round here.  I'll try my best.  In the house, some choccy brownies with crushed walnuts are calling me, as soon as I can make them 😊  Some learning-driving tasks, maybe.  Ooh, gap in the rain right now, I'd better get the existing "waste" greenery in the bin while I can  

badmemory

Re car doors.  I bought a 5 door (never use the back seats) simply because the front doors are shorter so open wider in a narrower space.  The difference is more than you might think.  They don't just open wider but also nearer where your feet have to come out.  Try explaining that one to a car salesman, geometry is not their specialist subject.