Driving Diaries: Practice Buddy (May 2016)

Driving Practice Log 1

Wed: May 18

Goal for the month accomplished! 

Got my DL card today!

I now have another year to practice a bit while saving to buy my own car (unless my husband would totally lend me his car). 

5/20 - 1 hour, turning around, after lunch class

H. Almost freaked out when he let me pull out from a busy parking lot. He had no idea I was totally clueless on reversing. I managed to do so anyway. I did a round and reverse at the end. 

5/26 - 2 hrs. reversing, parking, after lunch class 

Went with Pilip to practice and got a bit more on reversing this time. H was even was pushing me to go out of the parking lot. 

*more theoretical videos, pen outline, notes about bay parking and parallel

5/27 - H also had me drive on my way to work today when I mentioned it on the spur of the moment. It was the shorter route but I chickened out on the last minute. I gotta feel more confident on my reverse (I'm getting anal on that, idkwhy) as well as getting out of the bigger and busier streets. 

5/29 Sun, 2 hours (5:45 - 7:15)

Drove from our apt. complex parking lot to the Children's lib, then to the Green Tower. My hubs definitely helped a lot as extra eyes, prodding on and to speed up. I had three cars behind me at the overpass, and even the taxi honked loudly at me. No dirty looks that I've noticed.

I've been practicing more turning at a good speed without braking as much as possible but I still have a long way to go. My hubs still tells me that I seem to almost stop at turns. I must admit that I'm not confident at turning without breaks yet and that's even without hitting the accelerator. I just have to take it slowly to build my confidence. Luckily, we found a good place nearby with a decent road turns and less traffic on certain hours. There's a dirt patch for parking, a half-empty parking lot with crazy bay parking angles, and a brand new parking lot that looks a bit similar to the driving school course minus the steep part. That last parking lot was really the perfect place to practice my turning and parking. 

Speaking of parking, I managed to do two successful bay parking at 45 degrees angle today after watching that trick on youtube today. I've been hoping to do that the last time but it just didn't work in the other parking lot. The trick I did today was to stop at the third line from the space I am aiming for when it reaches my shoulder view. Then, do a full turn to whichever side I was going to park in. It ended up right into the slot. It worked! I would play around with it for now, but gotta keep in mind that if I want to try my Dad's pick up truck later, I would have to check out other ways to butt park. 

More videos to watch to take notes of and fuel to burn...this is starting to get more fun every day. :) Just have to pray more every time we head out coz the risk gets higher with each level.