FREEDOM!

The last few weeks have been a little bit manic at work, internal and external factors have led to me being all over the place and I haven't had time to stop and think let alone write... 

HOWEVER! I have managed to pass my driving test - whoop! Granted I am just waiting on my Dad finding the right car, it has to be an automatic with a small engine and according to L it NEEDS to be purple, as that's Mummy's favourite - I think I have managed to convince him that the colour doesn't matter as long as we can get to the zoo... Having said that I saw the car I have wanted for years the other day - a vintage Beetle and it was purple and sparkly! Shame that a) It was a manual, b) it wasn't for sale and c) I could never have afforded it at the moment! But as I whispered to it when passing - one day my friend, one day, especially as L spotted it too and got extra excited - 'Look Mummy, your car!' my boy knows his Mummy well!  

Since passing last week, I am yet to get back behind the wheel and I will admit it is feeling a bit daunting and I will be driving quite a bit. This combined with long/night shifts and ME/CFS is why I chose to take my test in an automatic, it is easier on me physically, plus mentally I feel that I can concentrate more on what is happening around me - making me feel safer!

Yet when I have told other people that I'm driving an auto, a lot of them have scoffed! I mentioned this on FB in a group I belong to about the lighter side of ME and was met with reassurance that I had chosen right. Yet it did open me up to wondering why people are so quick to judge on the transmission of the car - surely the fact that I am mobile and safe is all that matters? 

In the US automatics are the norm and manuals are seen as being more difficult to drive, so what makes our country feel different about it? Given that in the years which I have been learning to drive, I have driven and taken my test in both, I really can't see the fuss over a manual (except that it is bloody easier to find a car!) if anything in an automatic, I enjoy the drive more without all the gear changes. 

So lookout give it another two weeks and I will be on the roads and with it brings 3-4 hours of my life back (traffic permitting).