I last drove a car in 2012. Before that I think 2008. So most of the last 13 years has been spent not driving. It had reached the point where just thinking about driving made me feel sick with anxiety so, although I have a Belgian driving licence, I did not drive once in Belgium
Recently I've been wanting to get through this because I want to be able to use a car. More specifically next weekend. So I signed up with a car share thing. I figured that if Tom Cruise (just a few days younger than me) can pilot a helicopter in a death spiral in the mountains of New Zealand, I could drive a Hyundai around Ealing.
I'd love to tell you it all went perfectly but trial run number one yesterday failed completely because there was something wrong with the keypad in the car. Trial run number two was this morning. The car was completely frosted, so I spent about fifteen minutes trying to work out the heating and the wipers. Then the car wouldn't start: unsurprising as it was 0 degrees. And then, bingo bongo, I was away.
Having rarely driven a new car, and certainly not one this new, everything felt sharp, and a bit too twitchy. Bear in mind my first car was a 1976 Chrysler Sunbeam, which was like driving a rhino. Out on the road, I was absolutely fine. The only problem was when I went to put petrol in and couldn't get the cap off (I've googled it now), gave up and then found myself locked out of the car, with the swipe card inside. Fortunately, car keys do still work as keys, but I had a bit of a wobble there.
Coming back to the car park, I executed a perfect parallel-park without using the cheating screen. It's just like riding a bike.
Getting through this has been a major thing, so I'm pretty pleased about it.
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