Driving etiquette

Last Tue an incident happened on our way to office nearly spoilt our morning.

We're travelling on the right most lane along Upper Thomson. For some unknown reason the middle lane was jammed up & suddenly one of the cars in that row signalled & turned at the same time to our lane. It's so last minute that hubby had to emergency brake & stop very closely behind him (thank God the car behind wasn't near us). So hubby gave him a long honk to let him know that he shouldn't have done such an abrupt lane change. Instead of apologising with a hand signal, we thought we saw him shaking his head.

Soon after that driver cut into the middle lane again. As our car stopped beside him, hubby & I turned & stared at him. Guess what we saw? He intentionally shook his head again & said something to the woman beside him while gesturing a triangle. So he thought hubby's a P-plate. Did he mean that P-plate drivers can be bullied!? Wow it's the 1st time I came across such a sickening driver (not that I have my P-plate up for long). It's obviously his fault & we couldn't believe the idiot could behave like this.

I know what I did thereafter was very childish..... I wound down the window & gave him a big when our car passed his (he made a left turn shortly after). My honey was amused by that act of mine & burst into laughter. I didn't care whether he saw it or not & most likely this birdbrain would choose to ignore. But it's alright, I just wanted to vent it. Our mood was lightened up too, which wasn't my original intention. Ok go ahead & laugh at me.

Black Getz with the alphabets "SFH"... too bad I can't remember his car plate number. But I'm sure I'll recognise him if I see him on the road again. If that happens, don't let me have the chance to catch him committing some road offences, I WILL (Christians cannot swear) not at all mind the trouble of going to the police station to report him.

Patience

If not because of a very impatient & inconsiderate driver, I'd have enjoyed my 1st weekend as a new (& nervous) driver.

After work on Fri evening, I went in search of a P-plate.. it's either not available or sold out in DIY shops & supermarkets. No choice, I waited till nearly midnight & drove to the nearest petrol kiosk. Earlier on I'd called & found out which station sold it. Felt both nervous & excited as I was driving for the 1st time after I passed, & alone.

When I was about to pay for my P-plate, there's this uncle before me who'd just made his purchase, looked at the triangle I placed on the counter & then looked at me. I pretended I didn't know he's staring & looked away slowly. But he's curious enough to start asking me:

Uncle: "(pointing at the P-plate) For yourself?"
Me: "Yep"
Uncle: "Just passed?"
Me: "This morning."
Uncle: "Congratulations!"
Me: "Thank you."
Uncle: "So (pointing at our Airwave outside) is that your parents' car? Or your boyfriend's?"
Me: "My husband's. He's overseas so I've to drive myself to buy the P-plate. Only dare to come out at this time before I display (showing the orange triangle) as there're lesser cars."

By then, he's about to leave the counter. So I said another "thanks" to him & he left the store. When I returned to our car shortly after, uncle was still there, in his Volvo S60 (or maybe S80, I'm not sure). He gestured to let me go first. So I drove off first & he followed behind. Then I took the left most lane to turn left & he went straight. When his car drove past, we waved at each other. That's not bad at all on my first, though short, drive. Hee. If only everyone is as friendly & patient as the Volvo uncle. When back, it didn't take me too long to park the car at its original lot, which is next to a Santa Fe. Quite happy with myself as the lots are relatively small at our place & furthermore the next car was a big one. But I definitely need a lot more practices & gotta be prepared to inflict some scratches on 黑仔. Hubby said before he's already well prepared for that.

Saturday afternoon, sis & family came to our place as I asked my BIL to teach me to do parking. But they requested to go for a ride first so I drove them to Lower Seletar Reservoir. Initially they're all very uptight & held on to the handle. But once we started out, they're kinda relieved. BIL even said I drove quite well which actually boosted my confidence as he's usually rather critical & seldom agrees to the things I do. He, who's a very experienced driver of more than 20 years, also taught me reverse parking patiently. The night before, he advised me not to drive to the airport. But after the ride, he encouraged me to do so & I was actually more assured with his support.

Sat night I was having a relaxing bubble bath with some soft music when C sms me & suggested a night ride. After more than an hour, she who came all the way from Alexandra, parked her car at our place & I drove her out. I made a trial drive to the airport so I could familiarise myself with the route. It's a smooth-cruising one on the expressway & I didn't realise I went up to 100km/h (finally know how it feels to be driving at 100km/h!) & had to constantly keep the speed at 90km/h. We're glad that I was prepared for the next day's drive. When I thanked C for accompanying me, she replied that it didn't take her much to do so.. her life only. Haha. C is really a great friend & sure has a sense of humour. She then came to our place for a light supper & chatted till 4am!

Sun, mum came back from church without taking her lunch. So I drove her to Sun Plaza. I couldn't wait to fetch hubby as I had so much to share with him. Then in the evening, the tailgating driver totally spoilt my day. I wasn't even driving too slowly.. if you're familiar with Yishun Ave 2, the traffic (esp. between Yishun & Khatib stations) is usually pretty heavy in the day/night.. I was driving at around 60km/h & he's been following closely for a distance. Then I slowed down in case the traffic lights ahead changed. But he had no intention to do so. The lights did change & I stopped but he didn't. What an idiot.

Both were uncles.. but one could be so nice & the other, a bully without brain.

Friday morning

We slept at 1am & I got up @ 5.30am, not being able to get back to zzz thereafter. And you know why. Hubby got up @6 & left for airport 15mins later.

It's an indescribably funny feeling.. all of a sudden I felt I was going to fight alone. Hubby has indeed kept his promise in walking me through the journey to getting my license. He chauffeured me to & from the school without fail, not even once, & waited patiently for me during thr 100mins lesson, in total 3500mins... that's not including the first test & those evenings I did e-revision in school for my advance theory. Initially I did feel a fair bit of disappointment when I knew his trip coincided with my test. But it didn't take me too long to realise that I've taken his support for granted. Most of the people I saw at the school went there by themselves... almost everybody's doing that. I'm the one who's been very spoilt by hubby. I largely, if not solely, rely on him in helping me to press on. If he didn't spoonfeed me with all the info & bring me to sign-up for the course, I'm sure I'll still be procrastinating now.

So, I want to say a big THANK YOU to my honey.. & tell him "We've made it!"

TPPT, Round 2

I passed I passed! :D

Seriously I thought I couldn't make this time round again. During the revision on Thurs night, I started to commit all kinds of mistakes in the circuit which I shouldn't be making by then, like kept forgetting to shift to reverse gear for my parking/directional change, failed to look out for some of the points when doing the courses, incorrect positioning... And because it's only my 2nd time driving the new car, I couldn't master the half-clutch and the engine stalled time & again (I couldn't feel the very little vibration & when I really feel it, it's near stalling). I was also very restless.. eg. when waiting to turn out (from the school) to the road, my mind was so occupied that I didn't realise the car in front had moved off long ago. Only when my instructor, who was busy writing then, discovered & asked me whether I was dreaming!

Then the warm-up session just before the test was even worse. Not only did I stall the engine for several times & make the same mistakes like the previous night, I also nearly hit the pole when doing my parallel parking (I'd never ever knocked or even touched one throughout my lessons). If the warm-up instructor didn't stop me in time, he'd have to go & pick it up. I guess he must be thinking "wa siao liao.. this testee cannot make it leh" as he said "now don't think so much already lah, since you already booked the test... just think that you are taking uncle out for a ride lor." Ya man.. if only it is as easy as it sounds. The warm-up instructors do monitor who pass the test. When I was waiting in the room for my warm-up session, one instructor came in & announced "one passed!".. then the rest said "ok 4 more to go..". They also talked about some funny/strange cases of the testees. Made me even more nervous.

I can't describe how disheartened I was by my own performance & I prayed to God.

After the "lucky" draw (of testers) & other stuff.. the test started. Very amazingly, again I wasn't nervous (like during my 1st test), thank God! The engine stalled once, when I was about to do my 1st course in the circuit, & the tester let out a big sigh. What a start. But still I was calm enough. This uncle was very nice.. though he liked to say "go lah go lah / what you waiting for? / can go already still don't want to go!?..." And I would go "sorry sir sorry sir". Tactics taught by my instructor. He reminded me again & again, not to talk back.. whatever it was, just say sorry sir & tolerate for 30mins. Hehe.

After the 30mins test, I followed him to the TP room upstairs. He asked me a few questions, like whether it's my 2nd attempt & why I failed the 1st time. I was trying to guess would he pass me or would it like the 1st time (when I thought I did rather well too). Then he told me I did quite ok in the circuit and what I did wrong. Next I saw him ticked some boxes in the checklist (mistakes committed) & finally in the PASS box. Wow! At that moment I felt like screaming! And I couldn't thank him enough. Got 10 points - 6 in the circuit & 4 on the road.

After nearly 3 months' break...

I went for my 1st driving revision last evening. My test'll be on this Fri and I've only signed up for 2 lessons. Yesterday & tomorrow evening. Not that I don't want to practise more but I've been busy with work lately & I didn't dare to book too many lessons in case I couldn't make it.

Actually I couldn't wait to meet my instructor, Rav, as I wanted to pour out what's been bottled up for 3 months! I want to know what I experienced, was it normal? Rav wanted to know what went wrong too. The moment he looked at the name of my tester, he gasped out "orh... him ar.." then gave me a sympathetic smile.

Me: "please tell me he's a mean person..."
Rav: "ya, he's known for being difficult one.. very ON one.. aiya you got him ar.. (another round of soft, sympathetic laugh)"

Well.. that's all I wanted to hear. Rav said the monday after my test, the 1st thing when he saw Mr P (my warm-up instructor that day) in the morning was to ask him whether I passed. Mr P told him that I did pretty well during the warm-up session & it shouldn't be a problem to pass but didn't know why I failed. Rav said just 1 or 2 weeks ago Mr P still asked about me. As he looked through, he's quite surprised I was penalised on all the small lil mistakes, except for the unjustified "flickering green arrow" part. And the 4 points I got in the circuit was when I did my parallel parking (now I know), not the vertical parking stunt which I was demanded to perform.

After stopping for such a long time, I was a lil rusty in the circuit. It didn't help at all that I was driving the brand new Honda City for the first time as they have changed all the test cars to the new City 2 months ago, shortly after my 1st test. I'm starting to worry now.. as I gotta be oriented with the new car & there're also some changes on the roads too. No choice.. will have to try fully utilise the remaining 100mins to get myself familiarised with the changes.

Tell myself to take it easy.. as I'm not the only one who's going through things like this.

By the way, hubby won't be around on that day. Very coincidentally his company trip falls on this weekend and he's to leave early morning. Hmm :(

TPPT

I said I expected myself to fail. Have also heard too many stories on how the immense nervousness would get on you during the test - your mind would suddenly go blank when you're doing your parking, roll back on the slope, strike curb, etc etc ...

According to my instructor's analysis, my strength is in braking, positioning at junctions (for right turns) & in the circuit. Whereas my killer - forgetting to signal, dragging gear, insufficient acceleration, forgetting my U-turns (quite a few times I committed the serious mistake of doing right-turn instead!). But he said the most important factor was still coping with my nervousness as I panic very easily & usually can't get things right thereafter. In fact all the instructors that'd ever taught me (before I fixed to one) gave the same comment: "Try to relax, don't be so nervous". I also don't want to be like this but can't help it leh.

Last Sat, truly I was so nervous once I started the warm-up session that I didn't handle the clutch well which caused the car to jump & engine stalled. What a start. Hubby's watching everything & I believe he must have been really worried for me! Then there's the usual blunders like forgetting to signal/off signal & dragging gears.

After I got my test route, I made deliberate effort to remember where the U-turn was so as to try not to make the grave mistake (of turning right instead) & told myself to stay calm.

Amazingly I wasn't that nervous when I started off. Given my character.. wasn't that amazing? I thought I fared well in the circuit which was a booster.

Then I went on the road & there wasn't much hazards. The road was quite clear even when I did my lane-changing & I remembered to not change lane when approaching a traffic light (which I did before). The engine didn't stall, not even once (it always happened during my lessons). I was happy I mastered my half-clutch well as I didn't use handbrake at all on slopy roads & no rollback. I was pleasantly surprised by my own miraculously good performance.

At the end of the test.... I still F-A-I-L-E-D. I tell you at that moment, I was so sad & disappointed. If I were to behave like how I did during lessons... got all jittery, I'd expect myself to fail as I deserve it. My instructor said if I could refrain from commiting those of my common mistakes, my driving was ok & should be able to pass. But why? I really didn't make those mistakes.. I remembered my signals, didn't miss the U-turn, changed gears promptly. But why? Maybe he just wanted to encourage me by saying those nice words :(

I got 4 points in the circuit (failed to confirm safety) & 28 points on the road !!! Gosh! And I thought I'd done well on the road. I particularly felt unjust for a 8-point mistake which he marked me for - turning on flickering green arrow. Me?? My instructor would know me the best on this... during lessons, whenever I approached a right-turn junction I always hoped that the arrow would flicker so I didn't need to rush to turn which could easily get out of control. And on that day I was staring hard at the arrow hoping it'd flicker but no.. which's why I proceeded on. It might have flickered in the midst of my U-turn. So what if I stopped when the green arrow wasn't flickering yet? Would I have been marked for another mistake then? Other than that, I was heavily penalised on insufficient acceleration. Then 4 points gained in veering off course (which I deserved as I got a lil out of my lane when doing lane changing), some points for forgetting to check blindspot, taking too long to check blindspot. Just these mistakes, 28 points.

My instructor & some others (hubby too) told me first impression was very important. If I could do well in the circuit, the rest would usually be easier. They bluffed me.

I was very calm when doing the circuit... I did everything well... even when he demanded a last minute stunt. Look at the pic below for what happened.

Training car A was about to do his reverse parking & car B was waiting for his turn. Car C was practising on the platform (for auto cars). The tester told me to turn into that lane & do that particular reverse parking. I was quite taken aback but what could I do except obey? I had to squeeze in-between the 3 cars. Car A, which was about to reverse (his reverse lights were already on), must be very shock to see us behind & honked at us (I supposed the instructor didn't see it's a doube-L car then). After a while they gave up & moved on a lil to wait to turn left. But I only had enough space to move forward to barely see the 1st pole. Yet I did it (perfect, I thought). I'm not sure whether I got my 4 points of "failed to confirm safety" there though.

So it's not true afterall, even after I managed to clear those "obstacles".

Gotta wait another 2 months+ for re-test. Unbelievable! Now I've even lesser confidence than before. What if the next time I do badly in the circuit? What if the road condition isn't good? Or worst of all, what if next time round I suffer from a panic attack?

Was it really a heng-suay situation?

Practical Test

Finally... am taking my test tomorrow.

I seriously don't think I can make it because I'm still rather unstable on the road & tend to forget minor things. But well, without the 1st time, I can't proceed on to the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th attempts. The only problem is.. I believe I gotta wait at least 2 months for the re-test. I hope I've the stamina to wait.

Anyway I'm in no urgency to get the license. Or so I've been telling myself to de-stress.

Last Thurs - Sun

Had a good catch-up session with Wen last Thur. A simple dinner + a pint of beer @ MG's... the 1-for-1 offer was too good to resist ;) At the same time, hubby met up with the sis of his ex, M. They get along very well.. just that they haven't been in contact for the past years.

Hubby came & fetched me around 10pm & we sent M home. It's actually the 2nd time I met her (the 1st was when we bumped into her, & her mum, at Wisma's Forever21 more than a year ago). Have heard quite a bit of good comments about M & finally get to chat with her.. A pretty & friendly gal indeed.

Did nothing special on Fri night.. dinner at Braddell.. had my fav Hokkien mee.

Sat - rushed to SSDC once we opened our eyes in the morning. That's the earliest session I've ever taken - 8.35am. Had prata as brunch @ Sun Plaza.. quite good. Then we went home to get started with our spring cleaning. Only managed to clear 50% as we gotta bring Tubby for review with the surgeon @ 5.30pm in Balestier. Btw, we didn't know he's a famous vet until C told us. No wonder it's so costly. We've ZERO knowledge on veterinarian/veterinary. Frankly.. if we were to know beforehand, we wouldn't have brought him there, perhaps. Up to date, we've spent 2k on him. Sigh...
After settling Tubby at home, off to Sembawang Shopping Centre for a zappy pizza dinner & returned home. Washed our MBR toilet & by the time we're done (& showered), it's past 12am. Gosh.

Sun.. after sending mum to church, we had a very local breakfast at the rochor market. Also went to level 2 to "shop" for partial of our reunion lunch ingredients.. I intended to buy some CNY titbits too but decided to get them from Chinatown as I wish to make a short visit to the CNY street bazaar. Then hubby had a haircut before heading home to finish off the remaining chores. Top the chart (of toughest household chores) gotta be toilet washing, which we'd done the previous night, phew! The runner-up is hanging the 8 sets of ceiling-to-floor curtain. And the ceiling is not low. So I can imagine da-jie's headache as she said her ceiling is 3.3m high! Ha!
Looking at our place after all the hard work.. it feels great.

Passed

Hey hey... I passed my final theory last Fri... Well the ultimate's yet to come but at least I can book my TP test after this Thurs when I should finish my 30th lesson. Am I nervous? Believe I definitely will, starting from next Jan because as of yesterday, the earliest test date will be on 10 Feb 2007. Guess by this thurs it'll run to the 3rd week of Feb if not end of the month, taking into account CNY & our holiday.

So fast huh... from the 1st day I got on the driver seat till now, it's only 2 months. I really have no idea how I managed to complete the 29 lessons (Thurs' will be a review) as I still feel I'm so unfamiliar with driving... is it normal?

It's my 2nd attempt on FTT. 1st was taken more than 2 years ago. I thought it's as ez as the basic (which I took many many years back & passed without studying much) so didn't really spend time on the book. BIG MISTAKE. To begin with I didn't even fully understand what's a clutch. This time round, still didn't touch the book but went for 2 practices & 1 compulsory trial test before the actual 1. Having some hands-on knowledge did help too. Hubby seemed happier than me as he's been very concerned & kept urging me to go for more practices. Can lighten his load now that he only needs to concentrate in nagging me to attend my practical lessons. Honey, yes? This morning he'd just failed to persuade me to go for a lesson today or tomorrow evening instead of thurs so I can book my test date 3 days earlier. What to do... his wife's so lazy. But gotta thank him for encouraging & pushing me on... without him, I'm afraid I'll still be in my lesson 10+ or so? Or may have even been a drop-out.

My Class3 Course

Am currently having 3 times/week (2 on weekday nights & 1 on Sat morning). A lil tiring after those on weekdays as I take the last time slot which ends @ 1030pm.

It's no better for my poor hubby... he sends me there for every lesson, waits for me during that 100mins & makes sure that I see him as soon as I get off the vehicle. He said since he's the 1 who encourages me to learn driving, he's to give full support... & days before my 1st lesson started, he's even more excited than me & looking forward to it, ha! Whereas, I was more nervous & scared than anything hehe. He's always eager to find out what I've done after each lesson.
Good that it's not a long term kinda commitment. But I'm afraid I'll take longer than others to 'graduate' leh...

About the learning experience... already had a few boo-boos so far:
- Was as usual waiting for the instructor in the car & when he finally came, realised that I wasn't the trainee assigned to him so he ran to the staff i/c to enquire for me. By then all the cars started to move & he soon found out that I should go to veh.no. 62 instead of 63! Had to rush to the car as it's moving off already. My instructor was laughing & shaking his head
- Was searching high & low for the veh & every1 would be moving off soon. The panicky me caught hold of 1 instructor for rescue. He helped me to look for the car while getting a few of his kakis to join in the search too. After a while of commotion, came another instructor saying that he's looking for his veh & realised that it's also the 1 I was trying to find. Just then the car appeared... don't know who'd brought it to top up petrol... so it wasn't my fault for this incident.
- Last sat morning I was very late & all the cars already started moving before I found mine. So I could only half-ran half-walked along the roadside & squeezed my way through behind the instructors who're leading the warming up session for all motorcyclists & then the staff gotta stop the ongoing cars to let me cross the road to my veh. Boy it's quite embarrassing!

And also my co-ordination problem, forgetfulness, carelessness... Every1 tells me it's like this initially & I'll get better with more practice. Well I really hope so.

Big Step Out

I'm finally overcoming my fear & have enrolled myself in the driving school (SSDC in YCK) over the weekend.

My beloved hubby has been my pillar of motivation... He's the 1 who finds out all the info & plans everything nicely for me. The practical lessons won't start so soon though, the earliest is end of this month.

Well my jie-meis will be very happy to know. All 4 of us took our basic theory together during school days & I was the only 1 who passed it. Now I'm the only 1 without a driving license (quite embarrassing leh). In fact, 95% of my gfs have already gotten their license to drive long ago.

So during this period if you were to see an "L" plate Honda Civic that can't really make it on the road around AMK/YCH, most likely it's me huh.