Tuesday 15 November 2016

Teaching Driving in Your Own Back Yard


Learn-to-drive-in-Nottingham

Driving Lessons are happening further afield for me in Nottingham these days.

Strange how things work out. For the whole summer I have been delivering driving lessons in my own area of Nottingham. Enquiries in this area have dropped off recently in favour of more enquiries from the city centre and other areas. Not to my advantage at all but you've got to roll with it I suppose.
   To be honest there are pros and cons to both for me. If everyone is 10 minutes away it's super convenient in terms of coming home for a coffee in between lessons. The long working day can seem much easier when there is time for multiple comfort breaks and I must say I have gotten used to it. There is time to answer those text messages and sort out all the emails on my phone without having to start all that when I get home after work. Knowing I can come home at the end of the day with everything sorted is such a high.
  The many road works and traffic jams have had little effect on me this summer and arriving for driving lessons on time has been no effort at all. The mileage driven in between lessons is at a minimum reducing the amount of fuel I use and the time between servicing the car is extended meaning I am quids in.
  The down side is that it can all get a bit stale. Doing driving lessons on the same streets five times a day can be a bit of a drag. Sometimes when I come home I simply don't want to go back out again which means the day has no momentum and can seem to go on and on. Sometimes it's good to have a bit of a rush on, but not too much obviously.
  Now I seem to be working more out of my area. If the first lesson is a bit far out then it's an earlier start to the day. One lesson was taking me 40 minutes to get to instead of the usual 10 minutes. That's half an hour of unpaid work and more petrol being used. Getting through that school traffic is stress I don't need. If the lesson is in a busy area at the wrong time it can be a nightmare getting to the next lesson on time. I pride myself on my punctuality and hate being late even by a couple of minutes. The mental stress of being in traffic that just isn't moving while the minutes tick away is enough to make my head pop.
  On the brighter side it does add some variety to the day. It's good to see areas I haven't been in for a few months. Structuring lessons to fit in these areas and cover the learner driver syllabus properly gets me thinking on my feet, making the day go by much quicker. Finding new streets I haven't driven down before to create new short cuts is always enjoyable. It's good to increase one's local knowledge in case you ever want to drive a taxi. Knowing more of the city helps me deliver interesting lessons and stops pupils thinking we're just having a bit of a drive around the same old streets.
  I hope that the enquiries pick up in my own area before the weather gets really bad. When the roads are snowy it's good to not have to fight your way through between lessons which can get a bit exhausting. A mixed bag of local pupils and lessons further out is good as long as it's the first lesson and the last one that are nearby. Nothing worse than that long drive home after work. We all need an evening to relax don't we?

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