Don't feel depressed, CyclChyk! I don't plan to ever play with that water bottle trick either. But, steering with your hips -- you're probably doing that unconsciously, like I discovered when I paid attention after reading that earlier today! Then I tried deliberately doing it -- all it takes is a shift of weight, lean your butt a bit left or right, and wow, the bike follows! It's remarkably easy to do, hard to think about doing.
Now, I may not be doing what Velo teaches exactly, but I was sort of exxagerating to myself to get the sense of it, you know? I'd probably never REALLY do the silly feeling stuff I was doing today where there was no one to see!
Karen in Boise