One resolution down!

I passed my driving test :)

I almost did not make it......

I was almost late for my warm-up session at 9.15am this morning due to a little incident.

I reached there and the instructor on duty at the counter specifically informed me that where my no.46 car is parked. It seems that I was the only one who fixed the car for the test.

A young, good-lookin' malay instructor was my warm-up instructor. He must have sensed my nervousness, he tried to make me feel better.

"Do you know something good?"

"What?"

"Your car number is same as your address! So lucky!"

I was stumped for a moment.

You see, my hse postal code is 460046.

".....of coz lah! I specifically booked the car but not because of the number, its because I ve been using this car for training."

The warm up session was ok and I did route 10. He commented that route 10 is a easy route.

Soon, the warm up session is over. I got to the 2nd floor for the balloting of routes and assigning of testers.

To my surprise, I was given test route 10!

But my happiness was shortlived and nervousness once again took hold of me, as my tester was the last one to come into the room.

I followed him to the car and he looked friendly in the 1st impression but, alas, when he was in the car, he became serious.

At the beginning, in the circuit, all was well... then I hit a kerb during parallel parking.

I felt as if the whole world has collapsed on me. To make things worse, the tester scolded me...

"Did you know you hit kerb?! I can't let this off...tsk tsk..." he shook his head and started marking on the paper.

Trying to keep myself calm, I remembered the advice from ms Cactus. I asked for permission to re-do the parking. Re-did the parking but not as good.

My morale was low and thru' out the circuit, the tester nagged me on checking before turning....

When I was about to turn right to the centre's gate to go out for route 10, the tester slapped his hand on the dashboard....

I was caught unaware and did the emergency brake too slow. He said it was too slow and done improperly.

I felt like crying then.

Out the roads I went with a very heavy heart. I did quite ok for the roads and got no problem in changing gears up and down. But along the way, the tester nagged me on my late safety checks a couple of times.

I thought I was a gone-case liao...

After the test, I went up with him to the room.

He started lecturing me. Tears welled up in my eyes, as I looked at my so-many-ticks paper.

I heard him mumbled a number but I could not hear him properly. He pushed the paper towards me and I tried to see my score but tears has blurred my vision then. I tried not to blink in the fear that my tears flow, then....I saw the tester smile.

It was then I know I passed :)

The Ultimate Test

Tomorrow is my practical driving test and tonite I m having my last revision lesson.

Did I mention that I heard a really bad piece of news from my 2nd last revision lesson?

As it was the new year, there is a swop.

Testers from my driving centre (BBDC) have been 'swopped' with the testers from Ubi centre!

Which means.....I will be tested by a tester from Ubi driving centre!!!

Grrr....Damn it!

"Very hard to pass if you taking your test from Ubi..." this is a very common hearsay

Jiak lat... :(

To make things worse, because of the new year, my instructors 'swopped' their cars too. And I can't get more practices on the car which I fixed for my test... zzz....

How, like that? Tink must pray for the best but prepare for failure tomolo....

Throttle jitters - Latest news

My pract. test date is.......

11 Jan 2007, Thurs
10.15am

The date is a bit far, I know, but no choice....

I still have 25 lessons to go before the test :P

Throttle jitters - Road trip

Two friday nites ago, I begun my maiden journey on the treacherous roads in Bukit Batok.

While gingerly making my way out to the roads, I was pretty shaken by the gigantic 'tanker ship' aka the BBDC free shuttle bus turning into the driveway.

I dun understand why the driving centre needs to have a huge travel coach as their free shuttle bus.....


Anyway, I was thrilled when I hit fourth gear :)
Thought I was travelling real fast, but when i checked my odometer, I was only travelling at 60km/hr.


I hate turnings, especially at crossings.
I need to master the changing down to 2nd gear in one swift movement when I start to turn.
Whenever I change my gear, I would forget about my right hand holding the steering wheel.


I hate taxis who stop after the traffic junctions.
A taxi stopped right after the traffic junction and I waited till the traffic lights changed from green to red and to green again before I could move on...'

I really need to improve on...

1) The moving off from stationary - sometimes too slow, sometimes jerky
2) The braking - too abrupt and jerky
3) The tendency to align the car towards the right while travelling
4) The checking of mirrors before turning, moving and stopping

I need more practices...

Throttle jitters - changing gears

Had my 2nd prac. lesson last nite.

It was a lesson on changing gears. Learnt to change gears up and down, the max gear I change to was the 3rd gear as I was traveling around the circuit.

Kept moving the gear stick to 5th gear until I realised that 3rd gear is actually right above neutral gear.. *---*

When told to signal my move, my wipers came up... *---*
ps: the signal indicator is on my right, not left...

"Is the car inching forward?" I asked the instructor (its the same talkative guy) after I stopped the car with the clutch in.

"No lah! Must be your illusion lah!" the instructor shook his head as if I was a bit 'gila'. *---*
I was travelling round and round the circuit for the entire 100 min lesson ok? Can't blame me wah...

One of my leg almost had cramps after lesson, and surprise!, it was not the clutch-in left leg..its my right leg on the accelerator! Even the instructor was baffled!

Its only at the end of the lesson that I found out that my seat is adjusted too near the steering wheel..*---*
It was 'clever' of me to take the entire 100mins to realise why my right foot is aching.

Got a lesson on Friday nite and may go out to the roads...

I m excited oredi! ;)

Throttle jitters - 1st pract.

I started on my driving practical lessons. I tried to make sure that I have 2 lessons per week.

Only after I complete the fifth lesson, then I can book for my practical test which would be in Nov/ Dec. This is important as my PDL expire in Jan and I m not gonna waste $ to reapply....

In my 1st lesson,I learnt all the different parts in the car...learnt to start engine and travel at 1st and 2nd gear...

ms complaint queen has warned me of how talkative the instructors can be and I now understand..

Buay tahan when the instructor kept talking to me, asking me a hell lot of questions when I m trying to concentrate to change my gears... I guess he is a bit bored sitting in the passenger seat.

Nevertheless, he was a good instructor but a very sarcastic one.

I was taught how to change tyre. He challenged me to loosen a nut in the tyre. I was so happy when I managed to do so by jumping on the lever to unscrew the nut.

"This shows that you have enough 'weight' to change the tyre" he said flatly. Grrr...I shot him a irritated look...

he said that I drive like auntie, too slow and too careful...grr..

cannot believe I paid about $70 per lesson to listen to his sarcasm...

Anyway, I did have fun driving around the circuit..

Looking forward to my next lesson on Wednesday nite ;D

Throttle jitters - One down, more to go...

I passed my theory test :D

Though this is not the first time I passed this test and I did all the practice booklets provided by BBDC and pored through the '400qns and ans' book,...... I'm still proud of myself *wide grin

Now that everything is computerised, i did the theory test practices and test on LCD touch screen and the results of my test was shown immediately after I end the test...

very high tech now...I dun even have the little driving booklet for the lessons as everything is computerised now...just need to log online to see my progress...

Got my bonus today and I m going to send a cheque to BBDC to top up my account....

And I can start booking my practical lessons!!!

Throttle jitters - theory practice

My theory certificate lapsed and I had to retake my theory again....

I went for my theory practice yesterday...I did 3 booklets, failed two and passed the last one.

I got 2 out of 50 qns wrong and scored 96%.

Must score above 90% to pass. Meaning max. 3 wrong qns.

Above is the training structure and the stage circled in cyan is where I m now....

I m going to take the evaluation on Wednesday after which I will be allowed to take my theory test...

Test dates

Throttle jitters - the beginning

I m going to learn to drive...

Backtrack to before wedding.....

I told almost everyone (especially my irritating bro and sis...they would love me to have a car so that I can ferry them around) that I was not going to consider getting a driver's licence with the upcoming big-wedding-expenditure...

Now....

Now that I got a huge expenditure settled and our savings starting from 3-figure sum, I felt that its' time for me to get this licence thingy over with...

I dun wan to wait till I get pregnant and could not learn driving for the 9 whole months...no way!

I contemplated in getting class 3A (auto) which is the same price but way lot easier...but everyone was like urging me not to do that...

You see, I have the confidence to fail my driving test! And people around me dun see it!!!! This is so exasperating!

So hor, if I fail my test eventually and inevitably, I will blame everyone except myself :)

Anyway, I got myself registered with the BBDC (no, its not a church)..heard that their passing rate is higher than anywhere else...I chose BBDC not becoz of their passing rate...its bcoz its near my working place, really!