Mental Meanderings

A Car for 6 weeks.

I have a car for 6 weeks. One that I obviously cannot crash and that I'd prefer DIDN'T break down while I'm driving it. lol I swear, I have the worst of luck with cars. I'm an anxious driver at the best of times.

When I was sixteen I had vowed never to get my license. I just don't like cars. But I went for a job a few months after I was old enough to get my licence and was turned down on the grounds that I didn't have reliable transport. It was incentive at the time to get my license, even if I never used it.

I learnt that I needed glasses when I took the preliminary test for my learners permit. If I'd know that years earlier I would have saved myself a lot of school angst and headaches. My grandmother, a former driving instructor, taught me to drive and I passed on my first try. *beems with pride* I have to tell you, I thought I wouldn't during the test because I had a hill start in a manual into four lanes of traffic that caused me issues. I kept forgetting to take the handbreak off and was getting a little anxious about the fact each time the traffic cleared enough for me to go I wasn't going anywhere. Anyway, I stayed calm and realized my error and hadn't put anyone, particularly myself in danger so I still passed. I'm just glad they didn't test my parking or I really would have failed.

Now I've had my license for years but still rarely drive. I used to have serious anxiety attacks getting behind the wheel but these days I'm more comfortable. I understand my limits and don't push them when possible. I avoid driving in heavy rain, I park at the far end of a carpark because I'm guarenteed to hit someone trying to park between cars, and I avoid driving into the sunlight or on roads I don't know well.

Today my oldest sister flies to Europe for 7 weeks and my mother will be driving her car to keep it in good condition. (*chuckles* My sister isn't always logical, I don't think she takes into account the fact my mother dings her own every other month.) Anyway, while my mother drives that car I get full access to hers. Thus, I have a car for 6-7 weeks.

I'll have to cover my own expenses, like petrol, in that time which will definitely tamper how much I make use of it but it will be nice to be able to avoid getting rained on to and from school for a few weeks. I hope it doesn't give me an excuse to get takeaway more often but with the way my cash situation is at the moment hopefully I'll refrain from such expenses.

I'm not looking forward to giving the car back. I'm sure to become used to having access to it by then. I've been planning to buy a car at some point anyway but finances just won't allow. Perhaps having and then losing this car will help motivate me to save more and spend less. Perhaps...