If you won two free plane tickets, where would you go?
If I won two free plane tickets tomorrow, I would give them to someone who doesn’t refuse to fly. If I had won them when I was 14, I might have used them as I hadn’t yet been traumatised by the plane journey from New Jersey to wherever it was that we landed in England. But, truly, I haven’t a clue where I would have wanted to fly to in 1957.
I know that flying is safer than driving or being driven – that doesn’t comfort me about flying! No, it puts me off travelling by car! In the 40 years that Julian and I have been together, I have been driven to quite a few places.
I’ve seen much of the west of England and the east of England, some of Yorkshire, Cheshire and Northumberland, bits of the Cotswolds, Oxfordshire, Derbyshire, Shropshire and Wales – all by car. I believe I have written about a few of these journeys.
I have always been of a nervous disposition, possibly because I was ‘taught’ to be nervous by my mother who, herself, was of a far more nervous disposition than I! Knowing that normal people do things like go on holiday in cars, I have gone along with Julian, often helping to plan these journeys but always feeling nervous when we were en route.
I, myself, was a driver for about fifty years. When I was driving, normally I wasn’t nervous – I was in charge of how fast the car was going, the route I was travelling, and the destination. I seldom drove further than ten or twenty miles, particularly when I reached my seventies and when I was going longer distances, I was usually going to an auction which was something I loved.
I gave up driving in the November before lockdown. I was paying for insurance, repairs, and road tax to drive fewer than 800 miles a year. It just didn’t make sense for me to carry on driving my poor old 20 year old Focus any longer.
I don’t miss driving at all. Julian, on the other hand, still loves driving and goes all over the place for a week or two, to paint, while I stay home and am not nervous.
White Haired Woman 
I’m right with you regarding flying! We had a scary flight to Tennessee decades ago. I swore off flying for over 20 years, but my child moved to another country, so I needed to get over my anxiety. Now that my child is back, I don’t have to fly anymore! And don’t get me started about driving LOL!
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It’s nice to find someone who agrees with me on flying! I have made one flight since that 1958 flight to England. I felt really sorry for my husband because he loves travelling and wanted to fly to Italy. As I was keen to see a bit of Italy I said I’d do it.i
I spent the 2 hour flight clutching my St Christopher and saying, under my breath, “please God, please God, please God, “ and I’m pretty much an atheist! On the way back I found that the airport of Pisa was also the train station for trains into France, right up to Paris. I figured I could get to Paris and take the Eurostar back to England. I had my credit card ready but was very let down – the Italian train system was on strike! Needless to say, the flight back was fine. 😄
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When I learned to drive, on approaching a junction, I had to wind the window down, hold my arm out if turning right and rotate it, if left, then wind the window up again!
It was a different world…far fewer cars and much more patient people. I still drive but I don’t like it. Public transport has almost disappeared…..well bus services anyway.I’ve hardly used my free bus pass.
If I won 2 air tickets,I’d give them to my 2 grandsons to go to New York.I’ve been 3 times and love it!
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I think you must have learned to drive slightly earlier than I did. I had to learn those hand/arm signals but never used them. I didn’t learn until my late 20s – we lived in central London and really didn’t need to drive anywhere, thanks to the public transport. Later, when ‘Veronica’ was at primary school and we lived in Chiswick, I was working and had to get to work after taking her to school. That’s when I really needed to drive. So, I went to the BSM (British school of Motoring) and bought some lessons. Then I bought a second hand car which looked terrible but had a good engine and few miles on the clock. Considering I learned to drive in Chiswick which was quite a busy area, I wasn’t nervous at all! I loved driving but that was before motorways! I don’t like fast roads with huge lorries at all!
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I too learned to drive (in the 60’s) with the BSM. I didn’t have a car so had no practice at all. I took 7 lessons then failed my test, took 3 more and passed. However, my ex husband didn’t drive and I didn’t own a car until the mid 70s when my younger brother was breathalised and I was able to buy his car for £20.The car came with an 8 track music player…bliss! We lived in Kent by then and I had 2 small children.No seatbelts!….I’d plot outings to the seaside with multiple children and dogs or let the kids chose left or right turnings until we found somewhere exciting. In short,driving gave me a wonderful freedom.My mum lived diagonally across London and with no M25,I had to negotiate London traffic, including Park Lane and Marble Arch with everyone going across each other in all directions!
I don’t know how I did it.
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I failed my first test as well but instead of more lessons, I drove a lot more. I paid a young woman about 50p a time. She had had lots of driving experience and sat beside me. We would drive all over London, just doing what was necessary. That was what I needed, not more lessons from the man who kept telling me to “Cover the clutch, cover the clutch!”.
Because of that teacher, I spent 20 or so years driving with my left foot constantly hovering over the clutch or sometimes, just touching it. Finally, I realised how stupid it was and trained my left foot to sit on the floor when not using it on the clutch. Then, I bought an automatic and forgot all about clutches!
And I hated driving around Hyde Park Corner! Everyone else but me knew where to position themselves and I wandered through with metaphorical fingers crossed.
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