Adulthood

The wonders of being an adult - took me some years to work out what I really wanted in life and now that I know, I will not turn back. The journey has been an interesting one so far and will continue to be so.

The first notable event of my adult life was learning to drive which I did not have time to attempt until I was 19. Getting my learner's permit was a cinch and my brother-in-law was the first to give me some lessons in his LWB Landcruiser. It was great being so high and we came to a T-intersection where I had to make to a right hand turn. I made the turn safely but what hadn't been explained to me was that as you come out of the turn, you let the steering wheel correct itself by letting it slide through your fingers. Of course I did the exact opposite and had a firm grip of the steering wheel. We began moving onto the wrong side of the road which fortunately was empty and did not cause any problems. Then my brother-in-law told me what I should have been doing AFTER the event! It is something he does automatically because he has been driving for a long time and he forgot that I did not know that driving technique. That was precisely why he was giving me driving lessons, because I needed to learn all those techniques he was able to do without thinking - LOL.

On Sundays my father then taught me to drive in his falcon which had a column gear shift. In those days, shopping centres were not open all weekend so we had LOADS of empty car parking spaces for me to practice parking between the lines.

I did a number of long drives from Warrandyte to Lilydale to Yarra Glen, and back via Christmas Hills and Kangaroo Ground which is quite a sizeable distance (I will have to measure it one day). There were flat open sections of road, traffic lights, right hand turns, left hand turns, hill starts and winding mountains to drive up and down. Even a dirt road (ours of course) full of pot holes and narrow bends. When I finally got my licence, I was allowed to drive my dad's car on occasion but on top of trying to get used to a driving a large car, I found the column gear shift awkward to manouevre and only drove when I had to.

I had my first accident in my father's car as I was returning home one afternoon. I had someone sitting right on my tail and I took the left turn into our driveway (with concrete pillars supporting the gate) too quickly and misjudged the angle. I ended up scraping the whole of the left side of the car against the concrete post and dented most of the panels on that side. I was beside myself as I knew my father would be livid. Luckily my older sister and brother-in-law were there and yes, my father did have a fit and started yelling before he had even looked at the damage. My brother-in-law went outside to inspect the car and returned saying it wasn't as bad as it could have been trying to appease my father's displeasure. He eventually settled down and apologised for getting so cross and the lesson I learnt that afternoon was to ignore impatient drivers behind me at all times!

After that incident I was reluctant to drive my father's car. During the summer at the end of that year, I went cherry picking with my second eldest sister over the holidays. She had a big automatic car which I ended up driving and as it was automatic, I did not have to think about changing gears so it was the perfect vehicle to help me get used to the large size of the car. By the time the holidays finished and with hours of driving practice under my belt, I returned home to drive my father's car which was a doddle! That gave me the opportunity to improve my gear changing skills as I was more than used to the width of the car and was not worrying about whether I would fit through certain spaces etc. The joys of driving after you first get your licence!

My father decided it was time for me to have a car of my own and my very first car was a wonderful old two-toned green Morris Major Elite. Fortunately for me, my father was pretty handy with cars and when the pistons blew up, my dad decided to put a reconditioned engine in it and after that, it ran like a dream despite its vintage. It served me well throughout my university years and my first year of teaching when my studies had finished. And best of all, it could not be driven at a speed greater than 80kmh which pleased my parents no end. My father also liked its solid body and felt it was a safer vehicle for his daughter than more current models at which would crumble at the slightest touch.