Driving

Better Half has written about the use of gears in a recent post, but, and not surprisingly as he is one, he’s only given the guy’s point of view on all this.

It was rather unusual that I be in the driver’s seat anyway. You’ve all seen it: gal drives around the country all week for work perfectly well and safely, but at the weekend guy just walks to driver’s side and climbs in. The only time the gal is driving is if the guy’s been drinking, or in this case working hard all day in Oxford and I thought it would be a treat for him to be driven. Actually, I think it is a treat for my man, and I’m quite happy to be driven by him at the weekend, particularly as I find Cheltenham a horrible place to drive in. In another post I’ll tell you about its frightening capacity to keep you in Cheltenham when you’re trying to leave. But back to the story!

Anyway, we’ve driven home (Oxford-Cheltenham) in the tail end of the rush hour, (I reckon Oxford actually goes out of its way to make its traffic bad to stop us all driving there) and we’re about five minutes from home talking about work and stuff. Then suddenly, in mid-sentence, The Man says ‘you could go into 3rd’ … a few seconds whilst my brain engages with this mid-sentence … and I smoothly glide into 4th and then 3rd. I was taught to go up and down the gears, like practising scales on the piano. As you will see on The Man’s post, it was too late because he wanted me to tear by a lorry in a short stretch with Megan (my Renault Megane) grumbling about what I was asking of her.

Again, this may be the gal thing, I change gears according to the sound the car is making. Doesn’t everyone? When I first learnt to drive I couldn’t have the radio on because of that, and I remember one frightful experience of trying to drive my parents home in the dark and rain, with the radio on and the de-steamer thing because we got all fogged up – couldn’t hear when to change gears at all! Back in this story though, was I going to tear by the lorry in 3rd, no way, I wouldn’t have gone from a healthy fifth to 3rd, because the car makes a dreadful racket which sounds like you’re in the wrong gear! Not that I’m averse to overtaking by the way, I’d have got that lorry later if we’d been a bit further from home, probably in 4th!

So what am I saying, well, I can see how it amuses The Man, but I thought I’d just take the opportunity to  have a bit of a laugh myself.

Vrrroooom vrroom!

PS I love to drive.

~ by harrietdg on July 16, 2008.