Driving and Whirring, Whirring and Driving

Today was the first day that I went out driving in a car that didn’t have dual controls.

Andrea, who is very, very brave and very, very calm, put me on her insurance and came over this afternoon so that I could have my first practice.

I was terrified. Not just a bit.  Totally and utterly terrified.

For some reason this translated into very traumatic dreams last night about breaking my Nigella Lawson measuring jug just as I decided to make some Yorkshire pudding batter in it, and then having hysterics because the dinner party would be ruined.

Then it mostly showed itself in stomach ache, nerves, headache, misery and shouting a lot all morning.  Jason was very kind.  He gave me a hug at lunch time and said that he was very proud of me and he knew how hard it all was for me. This totally finished me off and I just blubbed like a baby for about ten minutes.  It is lovely when someone is lovely, but there are times, times when you have a very tentative grip on your emotional state, when it would be better to say it afterwards.

I thought I was saved when I lost the L plates I had bought for the car. Then unfortunately I found them sandwiched between a lot of family photos.  Everything is sandwiched between a lot of family photos at the moment. I had tons to choose from and the fact that I picked up the right pile indicated that fate wanted me to go out and sweat like a pig whilst controlling a couple of tons of perambulating metal.  Lucky old me.

Anyway. We were going to go to Belgrave cemetery in Leicester, which promises to be chock full of dead relatives I’m trying to track down.  It turns out that this cemetery is on a major ring road by an enormous multi lane roundabout.

We decided to go somewhere else.

She picked me up at about half two and we set off into the wilds.  We got back at about half five. We stopped for refreshments. We stopped at her parents farm so I could visit the cows and borrow her camera.  It was alright.

It wasn’t brilliant, but it was alright. I didn’t stall.  I did lose the plot two or three times, but not badly and not putting us in any life threatening situations and I managed to park at the garden centre and not run over any of the cows at the farm.

I can’t say it was my most funnest afternoon, but it was way better than doing 45 minutes of bay parking in Tesco car park, and there were refreshments.  Refreshments definitely help.  I like refreshments.

It still made me want to cry. But not a lot.  Which is better than the twice in the week where not only did I want to cry. I did. All over the place.

Progress of a sort.

And Andrea says she will take me out again. So that’s good.

On the pooh front, my new camera is broken.

I know.

I have only taken about thirty photos with it. 

I’ve taken it out of the house once.

In its box.

I picked it up yesterday to take some photos of Tilly in her Brownie uniform when I noticed it was making a strange whirring noise.

This is apparently a problem with the auto focus.  It isn’t auto focussing.  It is mainly whirring.

Whirring does not make for great photos.

I am a little disappointed to say the least.

Luckily I bought it from Amazon who have an amazingly sympathetic returns policy.  They pick it up from my house and they will send me a replacement.

Unfortunately my camera is not in stock.  They will send one when it is.  It may take a while.

I am prepared to wait. 

I actually like the camera. It is easy to use and it takes nice pictures. I seem to be the only person in the history of Canon who has had such a problem as everyone I’ve spoken to about it says things like: ‘Oh yeah! I’ve had a Canon for 97 years and haven’t even had to change the battery.’  I will persevere and in the meantime I will have to resort to the phone.

Jason will be pleased.

Advertisement