Get back on that horse mate.
I drove from the city centre to Dundrum town centre on Tuesday evening in rush hour, pal. I stalled at traffic lights on the canal at one stage and panicked momentarily but then I gathered myself and continued on.
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Were you not happy with the selection of shops in town? You used to be the king of going into town.
I wanted to practice my driving, mate.
That’s alright then. I’m not sure what I would have done if you’d gone off town.
I’d say it’s time to start telling yourself you can drive. Take the good lady off to the country somewhere for the weekend and do all the driving. Then you have it cracked.
Wonderful news, mate. 
Guys, talk to me about the approach to roundabouts please. Do you go down through the gears in a phased manner or just brake in 5th or 4th gear before changing it straight to 2nd gear when you’ve slowed sufficiently?
The latter mate. 4th to 2nd. And with your foglights off.
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How do you manage the approach to any maneuver whereby downshifting is required?
Block shifting or sequential are both acceptable, sequential making better use of engine braking but block shifting is now thought as the default apparently.
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Is your car not an automatic mate?
Unfortunately not, mate. It’s tricky enough looking down at the gear stick to make sure it’s where you felt it last while trying to remain focused on the road too.
T junction I use on the way to work is often used in a dangerous way by people. 2 lanes, clearly marked. One lane only goes left and towards M50 and city centre. One lane only goes right towards Ballyogan and Carrickmines. The left lane is by far the busier. When you take the left lane it immediately breaks out into 2 lanes to choose from. 1 goes to city, 1 goes to M50. What happens is impatient bastards overtake people in the left lane at the T junction using the lane to go right and swing in front of people who have correctly waited in the left lane. The real danger comes when 2 people want to get into the city lane and one has done the right thing to wait in the correct lane and at the same time some clown has decided to jump the queue. I had seen this happen a few times and I was ready for it if it ever happened to me. So, couple of weeks ago some young lad in a shitbox navy polo does exactly what I describe. I made sure to nudge out ahead of him, blocked him off and gave him a quick tirade of abuse for trying the dangerous trick. He came very close to hitting me and if he did it’d all be on him. He was behind me the rest of my way into work. He looked like he’d seen a ghost. If it was a Larry David show he’d have ended up being my group managers son and a new intern on my team but thankfully while he did enter the same business park he ended up desoiling himself elsewhere.
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You should be angling the rearview mirror in front of you to point down at the gearstick so you never have to look there. You never need to look behind, someone runs into the back of you it’s their fault. Point the mirror at your gear stick and you’re all set.
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My current one is pal. But I’m multi-skilled in automobile transmissions.
Ah shit. I thought @briantinnion was asking about my car but he was asking you. If only @Tassotti and @HBV were still around to see this quote function confusion.
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You need to start thinking about gears from 200 metres out, you shouldn’t be approaching in 5 gear, work your way down earlier and be hitting the roundabout in 3rd. No problem stopping in third or 2nd if you have to.
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BTW, new layout to the Leopardstown Roundabout starting today. I’d avoid it if possible because people are idiots and don’t read signs.
Guys, I’ve received contradictory information here.
Drive it like you’re late for mass, and you’ll be grand.