No, this site isn’t dead. It’s just barely updated that’s all. And so this post will be a wall of text with ~85% accuracy as time blurs the tiny details. Tiny details like how I rediscovered © is Alt-169 on the keyboard (ASCII is fun) should be left out, but hey I probably forget this again if I don’t type it somewhere.
DRIVING
First up. Now I can legally drive alone and finally drive past that ridiculously slow 50km/h speed limit. That’s right, I’ve passed the TP test. Honestly speaking, I was super jittery since last night. That, the evening coffee and the afternoon nap combined left me staring at the ceiling wondering when I will finally fall asleep. So I woke up this morning feeling like I have barely slept a wink, which only made matters worse. Little background info. Started my driving account last year, took my own sweet time to take the BTT, failed it because I didn’t bother studying thinking it’s really common sense and laughed it off when I failed by one point(44/50). Seriously I still think its funny. And so I waited three whole months, retook the test and barely passed (46/50).
Passing the BTT allowed me to book the FTT and start learning how to drive, but not before paying $25 for a small piece of paper that qualifies me to drive on all roads in SG except expressways, blablabla. The most expensive piece of paper I probably bought ever which is also useless from today onward. Yay. Even now, I can remember my first ever lesson. My first time ever in the driver’s seat, looking forward and thinking how does one see in such confined places. My first task was to master control of the clutch, using my leg to step on the clutch till the biting point engages. From then on, it was regular lessons every week, improving and learning while awaiting the FTT.
On the day of the FTT, I was still kind of worried that the same outcome will replay itself. Just like the last time, I studied last minute, hoping for miracles. My conclusion? Miracles exist, because I scored full marks for it. Jokes aside, it was impossible to fail the FTT. The questions this time round was less of a theory based and more of a common sense style. Like if you’re driving and suddenly a kid dashes out across the road should you speed up, drive at the same speed or slow down. Pretty obvious I think. Upon passing the FTT, my circuit lessons started. What a nightmare circuit was. Imagine driving at 10km/h and spending half of time waiting for cars to move so you can actually do something. I had my fair share of bumping on the kerb and engine stalls. Coupled with my short term memory on how to proceed with each station, I ended up getting scolded practically every lesson. Turns out when I’m driving, my brain automatically shuts out the distractions, which also happens to include my instructor’s tips and steps. I prefer to rely on my own judgement, which served me quite well in the end.
To ensure I passed the test on the first try, I booked driving lessons for six days in a row (which became five because of some miscommunication). Typical kiasu attitude. Fast forward till today and I’m sitting in the little room, waiting for the dude dressed in white to enter and call my name. A bunch of them came by, some friendly, some with a serious ‘today-is-a-bad-day’ face and I’m left there wondering if my tester was ever going to come. Well he did and off I went for the test. Started the engine, engaged gear one, lowered the handbrake and off the went. One second later, the engine stalled and the car rolled backwards. Opps. From the corner of my eye, I saw the tester furiously tapping away on his tablet. Bad news. Insert image of sakura’s rage mode. A surge of adrenaline resulted, which flushed away the tiredness and could actually focus.
First instruction from the dude was to turn right into the line of cars. I mistook his words to mean turning into the queue for parking immediately got scolded for being careless. Went through the s curve, up the slope (forgot to turn direction lights oops), into parallel parking. If there’s anything I’m afraid of, it had to be this one. But somehow, I managed to do my fastest and best ever parallel parking. Then came the 90 degree turns and finally the normal parking. So basically the dude tested me on practically everything in the circuit. Drove out of the driving centre, went for a right turn at the uncontrolled junction. Of all the possible right turns, he had to pick the one where the traffic was not regulated. Somehow, the there was no traffic when I reached the turning point, so that went quite well. Then a left turn, changing three lanes, a u-turn, and I’m back to the driving centre. Skip all the waiting, and the dude’s sitting in front of me saying “Your driving quite good, you passed”. Whewwwww.
Called my instructor, told him the results and he remarked the dude was one of the nicest testers around. Wow. I consider myself quite lucky. First off getting a nice tester, next not getting faulted for the engine stall right at the start. Also all the people who gave me priority in the circuit, the perfect traffic conditions today and also not getting any demerit points for the “careless driving”. To be honest, I have never seen such excellent traffic conditions in all my hours of driving. No cars obstructed my lane changing and the traffic lights didn’t flash amber right when I was about to cross (that happened so many times before).
Week 1
August started off rocky. Tuesday afternoon I suddenly felt rather weird and fell sick later in the evening. Like real sick. I couldn’t focus, had a splitting headache and kept sneezing every now and then. Felt hot one moment and super cold the next moment. One moment I felt so cold I grabbed my friends hand to get some heat and he said “are you even alive”. Had an outcamp run at gardens by the bay that friday, but couldn’t participate due to the flu. And so I had time to stroll around appreciate the scenery. That particular day, my csm was out hunting guys who didn’t wear white socks. I totally had no idea white socks were part of the dress code, honest. When I saw his expression that day, I instantly knew something was wrong. Again, luck was on my side once more, as he caught a few guys, my friend included while I went to the restroom. My friend gave me a warning about it and I tried my best to avoid him from then on. What was funny was that another friend of mine had an extra pair of white socks which he lend to me. I immediately put them on and could openly walk around after that. I remember his face when he saw me later on. The face of “wait……I swear his socks were black a moment ago”. Lesson learnt, only wear white socks for official events.
After the outcamp run where I didn’t sweat a single drop of perspiration, I went with a couple of friends for a movie and karaoke. Thing about watching movies with lots of people is that most people have already watched one movie or two and it is hard to find a common movie that no one has watched yet. One movie opened that day, which was the new fantastic four movie. After watching all the past fantastic four movies, I had doubts the new one could be better. Well. after the movie, the unanimous conclusion was that the movie sucks. Waste of my 8 bucks. Or was it 9?
Week 2 : National Day Parade
2015. SG50. Was really looking forward to the promised super long weekend of 3.5 days when I received a call informing me that I had to head for work for the next two days. I hung up the phone in disbelieve. And so I headed back to camp the very night with a gut feeling that the flu is coming back. And it did. By the next evening, my job was not done, but I could barely focus anymore and my legs threatened to give up on me any moment. To be fair, I did enjoy the time there. Got to see a lot of things I really could never get a chance to in my life. Skipping 50% of events for security purposes, and we come to mid week 2. Got notified of a police investigation regarding alleged theft related to the friday’s events. Just when I thought that week could not get more interesting, now there is a possibility of an ugly affair stirring up? Nice…..
Anyway, long story short, nothing much happened. Just went to the police station, gave my statement and end of story. Just feel that it;s a waste of my time and money that’s all.
TO BE CONTINUED…..