Well, it wasn't as bad as planned. I managed to get to the track in one piece, minus a few litres of cold sweat, and no, I don't think I've wet myself, but that was a close one.
It's a nice road as well. With a portion at 70mph. If you don't know what hanging on to dear life means, try doing 70mph, under heavy rain, overtaking huge trucks on a naked 500, while barely capable of changing gears, and confusing brakes with other bits of the machine. Fuck me and my luck, I swear I saw the grim reaper in my mirrors, laughing his head off.
Anyway, after that epic 20 min journey, I was so stressed I just couldn't do the slow bits. I was as stiff as a board, my arms wouldn't bend. Anyway, I've managed to calm down a bit and learned the slalom, which was dead cool. Apparently, you have to push the bike's steering in the opposite direction of the turn. May sounds weird, (and it did sound weird, I thought the instructor was still after my blood), but it's quite natural. To get some lean, you have to do that anyway, so no problemo. Quite a cool feeling too.
So I got more confidence and I'm almost to the point where I can brake in relative safety. Then we have to ride back to base, through the same roads, but completely wet after 3 hours of biking. Hey, wasn't that bad, I quite enjoyed the road this time. Even the hairy bits. For some strange reason, I kept asking myself what would happen if I let go of the steering.
anyway, I'm getting better, and quite enjoying it.