My daughter passed her driving test in November of last year, but due to the fact she was still 17 and would turn 18 on 22nd Dec...and...all our car insurances were due for renewal in January it was prudent to wait until January before she got her car and was insured as she can't afford the insurance on her part time waitress job wage and she can't work full time as she is still taking her A'levels at Sixth Form College.
Husband (and me!) brought her a little red Ford Ka, 1.3 petrol, which we have called Rosie - although this morning I called her Ruby Roo, so we will have to see which name sticks. So Rosie has been in my husbands garage (his new business premises) for the last couple of months and she had a bit of work done on her as well as new tyres, MOT and yesterday she got her tax.
Now, daughter has never driven at night, never driven a car that wasn't an instructors car so never driven a car without dual control. Hubby was nominated to take her out for her first 'qualified driver' lesson and last night they headed out.
It was after 6pm. It was dark. My son and I moved all the cars around the drive, we have a few due to my son and my husband having a bad habit of collecting them and even though I have a constant moan and nag about 'my garden' being full of metal sculptures with wheels they still seem to multiply... we moved the 4 cars to one corner of the drive, leaving Rosie the length of the drive to the gate and beyond onto the lane.
Ben (my son) and I then waited in the kitchen.
Firstly, daughter came back in, she had forgotten the current tax disc, a legal requirement. Then she came back in, she needed a cushion to sit on. Now daughter is 5ft and tiny hence the Ford Ka, hubby thought that was a nice little car. Daughter is still too small.
When they came back it turns out that daughter also forgot to put her seat belt on until they had done 2 miles...another legal requirement! She is blonde.
They were gone for about 45 mins.
Daughter came in first, in tears, hubby followed clutching a bottle of Gin. Unopened but that was soon remedied!
Turns out that daughter has better road placement than me, apparently according to my husband the 'professional driver', but she has no clutch control. My grass around the drive is now churned up which isn't really helped by the heavy rain fall. On reversing into the drive daughter hit the hedge, gatepost, drove over the grass, all backwards without any forward straightening up of the vehicle, and clipped my lilac bush.
Husband told her that she isn't to go out on her own in the car until she has clutch control.
She burst into tears.
Ben and I were high fiving each other at this point and squabbling over who owed who the ten quid as we both predicted this outcome.
Husband is not a very good passenger. Daughter is a new driver. It has to be said that I will drive anything, if its got wheels I drive it, never had a problem, I love speed and I love cars - I do hold a Mechanic Certificate that I got when I was 17 and know my way around an engine, however, I got married and rarely put fuel in the car...why have a husband and do that yourself :P But, even husband and I will have a heated debate on how I drive, my favourite tale to recall is when we hadn't been together long and had a bright yellow Allegro with an orange bonnet, I called her Beryl and I loved her, we were a bit poor back then. I was driving and was in the centre of 5 way traffic lights and husband - then boyfriend - was trying to tell me what I was 'doing wrong'. I do have a short temper and after telling him what to do with his advice I got out of the driver's seat, shut the door and calmly walked away, leaving him sat in the middle of the traffic in the passenger seat.
He now goes to sleep if I am driving, it has saved our marriage.
Both husband and son have driven the Ford Ka and so last night both were telling daughter that her driving needs practise, she did find the funny side of churning up the drive and not remembering her seat belt..needing the cushion..and her father stopping off to buy Gin. I hadn't at that point driven little Rosie. I like big cars so driving Rosie wasn't something I dashed out to do, that and these days I rarely go anywhere to warrant driving. So this morning once again the rain is relentless so I took girlie to college in Rosie. I would have liked her to drive Rosie to the other side of the gate, every bit of practise helps, right? but daughter was adamant that wasn't going to happen and after trying to cajole her into it for 20 mins I gave up and she walked down to the end of the drive in the rain and opened the gate.
First impressions of Rosie were that she is smaller than I am used to and I was quite shocked to see that I didn't move the seat much from where my daughter had had it last night, but I did remove the cushion! I selected all the gears, repositioned the mirrors, turned the key and that rumble of a petrol engine in a little car that really wants to be bigger fired into life. By the time I got to the gate I had figured out my daughters issues.
My husband is a lorry driver and my son drives tractors and massive farm machinery so both are big and strong, when they drove Rosie they didn't feel the very heavy clutch. You do have to rev Rosie and as daughter has only ever driven the driving instructors brand new car, Rosie is a few years old, that too is different, plus the biting point is really high. Then there was the steering. Powered steering my arse! You need to two hands to pull Rosie round and you definitely cant change gear and steer around a tight corner at the same time - I did try. Husband did put bigger alloys on Rosie and I think they may be the problem with the steering. All these points I have told husband when I got back home and he has taken Rosie to the garage to see what he can do, but on the way back from dropping off my daughter...
Wow! I love Rosie. My daughter will get her confidence back up and get used to a different car then she will love Rosie. Rosie goes like the clappers, she is small so fits in all the nippy spots that is needed for city traffic and down the country lanes she is zippy...I did slow down to go past the dog walker near the massive puddle...I might not go out much but I am certainly going to be going out a bit more for the time being, everything I have ever said about Ford Ka's I take back. They are huge fun and the 1.3 goes well!! All I need now is a bit of road and a full tank of petrol :P
Catch you later I really must get husband to bring Rosie back I need to go out!
