Sunday, February 03, 2008

As promised, a post on my driving test..
It was a really quick test, approximately half an hour, it started at around 1010am and by 1040, i was watching video in a classroom (everyone who pass the test are required to watch a short video). Lucky for me, there's a warmup lesson by a driving instructor before the real test, to let candidates get used to the test car. I mounted the kerb once in the crank course and stalled engine while trying to move off a slope in the circuit =x Oops! haha.. For the actual test, it went quite smoothly, no major errors that account to immediate failure (eg. mount kerb, fail to stop promptly at stop line... the list goes on) Blah.. so i thought it is actually not difficult to fail a driving test.

But my test route was quite a far (long) one -chosen at random by picking ping pong balls marked with numbers, but by the time the box was passed to me, there was only 1 ball left. Along that Yio Chu Kang Road which is undergoing roadworks, so i almost missed the entrance of an U-turn cos all that stuff put up for the road works blocked my view of the entrance. I knew it was somewhere 'there' cos i'd seen the U-turn sign a short dist away, yeah when i finally saw it, i 'zoooped' in at a relatively fast speed as i didnt have enough time to slow down and make a nice turn. Hmm so the car made a wide turn. I was like OOPS! The U-turn bay's wide enough for 2 vehicles, but my car took up the whole bay =x
Needless to say, i would be awarded demerit points for making a wide turn, failing to slowdown when seeing road hazards (those stupid road works that took forever to complete) and veering off course -more than 10 points in all~

At the end of the test, i followed the tester back to the traffic police room (dunno the exact name la) to know the outcome of the test as well as get the assessment list (to know where and what went wrong) When we stepped in, i saw a plump lady who'd the same testing timeslot as me sitting inside. From the tone of the tester's voice, i knew that she didnt manage to pass, cos he was like telling her off in a stern voice kinda thing. I sat down opposite my tester and watched him calculate my 'scores' and he shun bian ticked more boxes = more demerit points along the way. He commented that my control of the clutch pedal isnt too good and theres room for improvement in my steering technique. Well, i can forget about the clutch pedal since my dad's car is an auto car = no troublesome clutch pedal to control~
Then i watched him write down '16' at the bottom of the 2nd page... i was like SHHHHEEEEETS! I thought i was going to fail, cos the maximum that we can accumulate is 20 demerit points. 1 page in my assessment list alone took up 16 points *faints* He flipped to the 3rd page and added 2 more points to my score before flipping to the 1st page which is empty *heng sia!* Haha.. 1st page is for parking and courses done in the circuit, which i was rather confident of (i thought it went smoothly =p)
So i had a grand total of 18 points!!! Hehe.. Anyway, I PASSED!!!
That's the crucial thing.

Doses of luck involved, like the timing of the test is on a saturday late morning, so the roads arent full of vehicles, making it easier to change lanes. Cos sometimes the tester wants to test the learner driver's abilities, after a right turn (the car's on the rightmost lane), as learner drivers we need to keep to the leftmost lane, so we try to (actually it's a must) change lanes, then the tester said turn right. Wah! Need to change back to rightmost lane. If the roads are clogged with traffic, then darn suay loh. Moreover some qualified drivers like to bully learner drivers on the road (they like to sound their honks for no apparent reason) so chances are they wont want to let learner drivers cut in front of them.

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Started driving with the triangle plate on the very day i received my temp driving lesson. I knew it. My dad will want me to practise driving, haha but i'm always sian-sian one. Drove my family to my uncle's house in Tampines, not very far away from my house, but it's the first time that i'm driving during night time and it's drizzling. Enjoyed a honk orchestra as i drove.. Haha i'd gotten used to it, so these random honks wont make me panicky as those bullies hoped. Blah fat hope! I've confidence in myself that i can drive safely on the road.

Today... Drove to my grandma's house shortly after reaching home from a shopping trip in bugis with yuwen (waiting for her photos haha)
Drove to bedok after that for some cny shopping in a supermarket.. Haiz.. It has been raining and raining these days~

yunn. at 11:54 PM