Bob Monkhouse: "I want to pass away peacefully in my sleep like my father. Not screaming in the back of the bus like his passengers."



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

True confession time: I'm afraid of driving.

Don't get me wrong - I do it virtually every day and have done for the past 25 years. I've also been told by numerous different people down the years that I'm "one of the best drivers they've ever travelled with". That doesn't change the fact though that I'll do almost anything (usually involving trains) to avoid travelling outside of my own "comfort zone", ie places within a 50 mile radius that I drive to on a regular basis. If I really can't avoid a longish journey to a place I don't know, I'll be quite literally s****ing myself beforehand with a nasty case of what can only be described as stagefright I suppose. Once I'm actually on my way I'm fine - I've driven 600+ mile trips without any problem at all many times before now - it's the thought of it which cripples me. It's not a fear of having an accident, it's not a fear of breaking down, it's not a fear of being lost - or maybe it's elements of all those? I simply don't know.

Obviously taking medication before driving wouldn't be the best idea in the world, but I've never really talked it over with anyone before and just wondered if you lot had any knowledge advice or experience to offer? Am I alone in this? Think I might need hypnosis or therapy or something? Should I even let it bother me? I don't know!

Ptols, think we should analyse this, come and lie down on this couch.......

Ptols - I'm the same with telephones, the only way I've found to get around it is to just do it, which isn't terribly useful advice, but the best I can do. It hasn't helped me much, it still scares me, but at least I use it occasionally now.



PSD

==========

This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I'm fine with telephones, but I must admit I do have a problem with answering machines. I can cope with most of them now without sounding like an idiot, but there are two sorts of message that leave me absolutely floundering. One is the kind that sounds so friendly and natural that you are momentarily fooled into thinking the person has actually answered the phone in person, and the other is the opposite extreme - the very impersonal one. I once had occasion to ring a city councillor who had a very boring voice at the best of times, and I got his answering machine. The message actually started, "This is an answering machine..."

Aaargh!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

KT - the onion - laughed so much I scared the cat!

Remind me never to accept a lift from you.

I'm not a driver, I did learn and I passed my test,and I have driven, but so long ago I've forgotten how. It didn't help that I was suffering from PTSD at the time and was jumpy as hell.

Which cat? You don't have a cat!

Do you know, the first time I read that, I thought for a moment that you said you were suffering from PSD...



..........................................................................................

That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Neighbourhood cat, I think he belongs to the people who are renting the first floor at no 26. He comes along the little decorative stonework shelf and in at the window.

I learnt to drive in 6th form, as did several of my friends there. Just outside of Wymondham, where our collage was, there was an S-bend with a humpbacked bridge between the corners. Debbie was nipping along this country lane with her driving instructor. As they approached this bit of road, her instructor told her that this was a second-gear bridge.

"Right," says Debbie, changing down into third for the corner and continuing on over the bridge.

"I said it was a second-gear bridge !" her instructor exclaims. "You stayed in third gear."

"Oh, I thought you were talking about its architecture, or something," Debbie answers.

Um. 16 years ago I was overtaking a lorry on a dual carriageway on the outside of a curve when there hove into view what looked like somebody's reara brake drum ( i.e. about 10 inches wide and four inches deep) right in my path with nowhere to go. I was doing 80 (what was that officer?) I twitched the steering wheel to miss it with the front wheels and hoped for the rear. The rear drivers side wheel bought it badly.

So I'm doing 80 overtaking a lorry on the outside of a curve with three wheels and a lump of scrap.

Funny thing was the car swerved viciously at 80, 60, 40 and 20 mph but nothing inbetween. I made it to the next layby, changed the tyre, and soldiered on. But at that stage in life I didn't care whether I lived or died anyway.

I was driving my then girlfriend to meet my parents from Sheffield to Breedon (50 miles southwards) when in going through Derby the mini did a 540 degree turn without any obvious reason just before the railway station. Nothing ever showed up as a fault, I'm still baffled. Girlfriend felt it would be a good idea to take it as an omen and take the train home. I calmed her down, went on to Breedon, and we got married that year. Gah. You know the rest (the gutter do at least).

Next time your car speaks toyou through a 540 degree turn, DaveR, Listen To It!

Note to self: never get into car with Dave R.

Being driven across the Peak District by Dave R many, many years ago I noticed the window had the registration number etched on it. It was not the registration number of his car. I didn't dare ask just how many cars had given parts to ensure that his particular lump of scrap would soldier on, but we made it to Bradford and back.

MissP, that is not the least bit reassuring.

what a coincidence, I once drove a mini that inexplicably did a 360ish degree roll. Although it might have had something to do with the speed I was going on a wet winding road.

To be fair to Dave R, he has had two new lumps of scrap since!



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

Skiffle _
"Chuckle" at the story. If your collage was in Wymondham then where was your college? :-)

Memo to self: Never get into a car that's being driven by Dave R or Holly Daze.

(Stray thought: Doesn't the name 'Holly Daze' look as though it should belong to a "Bond girl"? :-)

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"God rot Botchkamos Istochnik!"

Simon - if the white bikini fits I'll wear it.

Aren't you just asking for it with me on this thread, Holly?

In 20 years of driving I had never caused an accident until this year. I reversed into another car in a car park while trying to get out of the way of a third car whose driver seemed to want an accident at the time. Result - About two square inches of paint loss to the other driver, no dents, not even the undercoat was broken. Cars stolen three (one twice), hit by other drivers lots, injuries sustained nil, safe in a car with me? Twenty years and no injury to anyone, even when a tyre blows out at 80. Think about that one the other way round. His tyre blew out at 80 - on a bend - and he got out of it safe?

Yes, I should have listened to my car ---

Regards of the car MissPrint was driven in, that was a wear and tear replacement, back in the days when old cars broke down and second hand cars (and parts) were expensive. I had resprayed that one with my brother in law.



Post Edited (08-15-03 14:58)