I came home from Uni this weekend after seeing TopGear Live on Saturday with my dad. The show itself was as awesome as usual, although the ending wasn't quite as climactic as it normally is despite it being a world first (well, it was a world first the first time they did it, which was Thursday lunch time). Typically it's The Stig sliding around fighting monsters with explosions and stuff. They did come up with a new game though, which I shall post a terrible phone video of later (among others and some less terrible pictures).
At any rate, after that, I came home and have spent the weekend here. Despite it being a month since I was last here, in some ways it only feels like a few days now that I'm back, however it did feel like it had been a month since I'd driven a car - with my only wheel time in that gap being in a rain-soaked go-kart - so I decided to get reunited with the Punto. It was like meeting up with an old friend for an hour. There was some catching up to do, as it were; the pedals and steering felt weird and I discovered a mystery scratch on the left side of the front bumper, which neither my mother nor my brother are taking responsibility for. The steering initially felt light and a little bit rubbery - but then it's always felt over-assisted - and the pedals, well, I just needed to remember where the clutch bites and to calibrate my braking foot for something much more sensitive and potent than a go-kart brake, which didn't take long.
In fact, it didn't take more than about 10 or 15 minutes for me to settle back in, and then it was just great to be driving again. I picked a couple of choice roads that I hadn't used on my last blast before moving out, which included corners lined with trees or banks, that changed radius, swept over a small hill or were otherwise blind and narrow, because there's a lot of that around here if you know where to look (and I made sure to start looking as soon as I could drive!). Oddly, I had to get used to travelling that fast on a road again as I've only ever walked or occasionally taken the train since moving. Even 40mph felt a little quick the first time. But overall, the feelings involved in driving were satisfying to feel again, and it became natural, like we were communicating in harmony with eachother doing the good old thing once again. I made sure to wring its neck just a little bit once I'd got back in the swing of it! Sadly, I now have to wait again until my birthday in a month or so, and then Christmas before I can drive again, unless I go mad and hire a car after turning 21 next month.
I might have to do more go-karting in the mean time...
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