The Rude Shock of Slope..

Just the day after I had written the "Magic of Second Gear" post, where I was thanking the stars for not having got me stuck on a slope yet, as if arranged by karmic forces, the very next day I got caught in the exact same situation!

I go up full speed in first gear on parking lot slopes because I did not want a recurrence of the scenario where the security guy had to drive up the car to help me out. And on this fateful day, I'm going full speed and screech just behind another car stuck on the parking lot slope (with a loud "Oh Shit" exclamation to boot!).

Full credit to the guy in front, when he had his turn, he calmly got his car up the slope, even though there was but only a whisker of space between our cars. And as if this was truly a play of nature, while I sat shuddering what to do next, and kept looking behind for other cars on the slope, there strangely was no car coming up. For if I'd seen another one coming, I'd have panicked even more. This breather really helped. No car in front or back. I slowly put the hand-brake exercise to practise, and lo and behold! The car went smoothly up!

Imagine my amazement, relief and surprise. But the incident left its mark for sure. I was shivering even after parking my car in the lot...