Someone's driving
OK, here's something about a friend of mine driving. I don't wish to mention any names so let's refer to this good friend of mine as X because the story that I'm going to relate might offend him should he reads this blog. *Chuckles*
This morning, my driving instructor, gave me a surprise telephone call. He asked if I'd like to follow him to the driving centre. "Why?" I asked. He said that X was going to have his driving lesson at 11.00 a.m. and it was supposed to be his last lesson. Today, he'd finished his 10-hour course on practical driving. My instructor asked if I'd like to see him drive and at the same time spend some quality time together chit-chatting. (Note: X and I have the same driving instructor, co-incidentally) I said OK so I was picked up at 10.50 a.m. I was asked to drive from my house to the centre which I happily obliged.
At 11.00 a.m., we arrived at the centre but X came a few minutes later. Before that, my instructor had a few words with me about X unable to remember certain steps while side-parking his car and couldn't execute the three-point-turn correctly. He thought that if I'm around, hopefully I could set an example for X to understand and follow. Well, when X arrived, we got down to business straightaway. X was told to sit at the driver's seat and I was asked to be next to him while my instructor settles a few matters at the office.
I thought that it couldn't be as bad as what my instructor had said. Well, at least X managed to drive the car and it didn't jerk that much. He was asked to do the three-point-turn and side-parking. It was when he attempted these manouevres that corroborated my instructor's words.
While executing a three-point-turn, you are to make a right turn, reverse the car towards the left and turn right again, all in 3 manouevres only. X could turn right at first, stopped the car and made a left reverse. It was when he tried to turn right to the front that gave him some problem. While attempting to turn right to complete the three-point-turn, the car would slightly go back (he had Gear 1 on and released the brake; the road was slightly sloped); if this happens during his test, he would fail it as the accidental reverse can be considered an extra manouevre which is not allowed.
Next, while attempting to reverse-park his car, everything went well at first. He switched the gear to Reverse and turned the steering wheel anti-clockwise fully so that the car would turn left into the parking lot. What went wrong was when the car was already half-way in and he didn't re-adjust the position of the car to be in a straight position. If he had to correct his position, it would have been very difficult because any wrong moves would end him knocking the steel poles over (I hope you know what I mean) and that would invite embarassment. So I asked him to leave that lane straightaway and attempt the parking again in another lane.
This time our instructor joined us, much to his "disappointment". X's three-point-turn still had problems and were corrected at last. Then came the parking process. Everything went well this time. He managed to park the car into the parking lot with some help from the instructor (somehow X has got a problem with the side and rear mirrors) but the position of the car was still not perfectly straight. Nevertheless, he got the whole car into the lot and that was what matters most. However, when he was asked to come out of the parking lot to complete the parking process, he went to fast and the side bumper of the car hit a pole and "ting!" it went. I had to pick up the pole and X panicked. In the midst of his panicking he forgot to adjust his steering wheel to avoid other poles. Eventually, the instructor had to stop him and remove one of the poles so that he wouldn't knock down anymore.
So, everything was wrong at first. I was then asked to demonstrate once how to execute the three-point-turn and reverse-park the car, which to my relief, I did both of them sufficiently well. Then, X tried again, and with some of my reminders, he managed to complete the manouvres well without any accidents, occasionally nearly hitting the poles while parking the car. But that was OK and after a few more times, only did X made it to park his car successfully, this time rarely with any reminders from me.
Next, came to slope part. He was supposed to go up the hill and when the front wheels reach the white line at the top of the hill, he was to step on the brakes and the front wheels MUST STOP ON THE LINE. OK, nothing wrong in that. He could do that very well. Then, came the part where you must leave the slope. X had pull the handbrakes and shifted the gear to Gear 1. Next he stepped on the accelerator a little bit. What surprised me was that his left hand then held on to the handbrakes-handle and with a sudden gesture, released the handbrakes and at the same time releasing the clutch all of a sudden. The car made a jerk and just continued on; X thought that it was OK. Well, it worked for him the first time but not the second when he tried to come up the slope again. This time, after the car jerked, it stopped and died. And guess what happened?
The car went backwards! At that moment, I myself just kept on shouting (no, not very loudly, but urgently), "Stop! Stop! Stop! Step the brakes!" X responded and the car stopped. He pulled the handbrakes and started the car again. I told him to step on the accelerator more and release the clutch slowly until you feel that the car is trying to go forward (note: the gear must be at Gear 1 and the handbrakes are still pulled), then only he could release the handbrakes and the car would go forward without dying. Many times he would be afraid to step on the accelerator as he feared that he might be stepping on it too much that when he releases the handbrakes, the car would suddenly speed up very fast. I assured him that that was not the case if he had slowly released the clutch.
Then, it was his time to drive on the road. This time, I could not accompany him as he has only an "L" license. He cannot take in any other passengers except his instructor. So, I left X and the instructor and made my way to the waiting area. X drove out with the instructor and I read Jacqulyn Teoh's Royal Commonwealth Essay which I'd copied, printed and brought them along with me. It was a nice story. After finished reading it, they returned and the instructor said that he was to sit for a trial exam. He needs to pass the trial exam in order to sit for the real one. This time, another instructor would test X while driving on the road.
So, my instructor and I made our way to the canteen nearby and he gave me a treat for a cup of tea. While drinking, who do you think I saw? Steven Lau. He was there too, taking Theory lessons! We exchanged hellos and talked for a while before he left to continue with the lecture. He'd only come out for recess. After about 15 minutes, X came back. My instructor took the results from the examiner and asked me to sit again next to X to continue with the three-point-turn and parking practices with X. While X was practising, he related to me about what had happened.
Firstly, his car died three times. In a real exam, he would have failed as the car must not die for more than twice. Next, he drove at a speed of 40 km/h on the second gear. The examiner would surely have penalised him for not using the gear correctly (and I was right). Nevertheless, he proceeded with the training until 1.00 p.m.
It was then time for him to go home. His mother would fetch him home. The instructor took X's trial test results slip and put it at the rear passenger seat, which I immediately grabbed it to have a look at what mistakes X had done. Firstly, let me tell you that he'd passed his trials, but that DOES NOT IN ANY WAY reflect the results for the real one. He scored 17/20 and he needed 16/20 to pass. Anyway, let me tell you what other errors he made:
This morning, my driving instructor, gave me a surprise telephone call. He asked if I'd like to follow him to the driving centre. "Why?" I asked. He said that X was going to have his driving lesson at 11.00 a.m. and it was supposed to be his last lesson. Today, he'd finished his 10-hour course on practical driving. My instructor asked if I'd like to see him drive and at the same time spend some quality time together chit-chatting. (Note: X and I have the same driving instructor, co-incidentally) I said OK so I was picked up at 10.50 a.m. I was asked to drive from my house to the centre which I happily obliged.
At 11.00 a.m., we arrived at the centre but X came a few minutes later. Before that, my instructor had a few words with me about X unable to remember certain steps while side-parking his car and couldn't execute the three-point-turn correctly. He thought that if I'm around, hopefully I could set an example for X to understand and follow. Well, when X arrived, we got down to business straightaway. X was told to sit at the driver's seat and I was asked to be next to him while my instructor settles a few matters at the office.
I thought that it couldn't be as bad as what my instructor had said. Well, at least X managed to drive the car and it didn't jerk that much. He was asked to do the three-point-turn and side-parking. It was when he attempted these manouevres that corroborated my instructor's words.
While executing a three-point-turn, you are to make a right turn, reverse the car towards the left and turn right again, all in 3 manouevres only. X could turn right at first, stopped the car and made a left reverse. It was when he tried to turn right to the front that gave him some problem. While attempting to turn right to complete the three-point-turn, the car would slightly go back (he had Gear 1 on and released the brake; the road was slightly sloped); if this happens during his test, he would fail it as the accidental reverse can be considered an extra manouevre which is not allowed.
Next, while attempting to reverse-park his car, everything went well at first. He switched the gear to Reverse and turned the steering wheel anti-clockwise fully so that the car would turn left into the parking lot. What went wrong was when the car was already half-way in and he didn't re-adjust the position of the car to be in a straight position. If he had to correct his position, it would have been very difficult because any wrong moves would end him knocking the steel poles over (I hope you know what I mean) and that would invite embarassment. So I asked him to leave that lane straightaway and attempt the parking again in another lane.
This time our instructor joined us, much to his "disappointment". X's three-point-turn still had problems and were corrected at last. Then came the parking process. Everything went well this time. He managed to park the car into the parking lot with some help from the instructor (somehow X has got a problem with the side and rear mirrors) but the position of the car was still not perfectly straight. Nevertheless, he got the whole car into the lot and that was what matters most. However, when he was asked to come out of the parking lot to complete the parking process, he went to fast and the side bumper of the car hit a pole and "ting!" it went. I had to pick up the pole and X panicked. In the midst of his panicking he forgot to adjust his steering wheel to avoid other poles. Eventually, the instructor had to stop him and remove one of the poles so that he wouldn't knock down anymore.
So, everything was wrong at first. I was then asked to demonstrate once how to execute the three-point-turn and reverse-park the car, which to my relief, I did both of them sufficiently well. Then, X tried again, and with some of my reminders, he managed to complete the manouvres well without any accidents, occasionally nearly hitting the poles while parking the car. But that was OK and after a few more times, only did X made it to park his car successfully, this time rarely with any reminders from me.
Next, came to slope part. He was supposed to go up the hill and when the front wheels reach the white line at the top of the hill, he was to step on the brakes and the front wheels MUST STOP ON THE LINE. OK, nothing wrong in that. He could do that very well. Then, came the part where you must leave the slope. X had pull the handbrakes and shifted the gear to Gear 1. Next he stepped on the accelerator a little bit. What surprised me was that his left hand then held on to the handbrakes-handle and with a sudden gesture, released the handbrakes and at the same time releasing the clutch all of a sudden. The car made a jerk and just continued on; X thought that it was OK. Well, it worked for him the first time but not the second when he tried to come up the slope again. This time, after the car jerked, it stopped and died. And guess what happened?
The car went backwards! At that moment, I myself just kept on shouting (no, not very loudly, but urgently), "Stop! Stop! Stop! Step the brakes!" X responded and the car stopped. He pulled the handbrakes and started the car again. I told him to step on the accelerator more and release the clutch slowly until you feel that the car is trying to go forward (note: the gear must be at Gear 1 and the handbrakes are still pulled), then only he could release the handbrakes and the car would go forward without dying. Many times he would be afraid to step on the accelerator as he feared that he might be stepping on it too much that when he releases the handbrakes, the car would suddenly speed up very fast. I assured him that that was not the case if he had slowly released the clutch.
Then, it was his time to drive on the road. This time, I could not accompany him as he has only an "L" license. He cannot take in any other passengers except his instructor. So, I left X and the instructor and made my way to the waiting area. X drove out with the instructor and I read Jacqulyn Teoh's Royal Commonwealth Essay which I'd copied, printed and brought them along with me. It was a nice story. After finished reading it, they returned and the instructor said that he was to sit for a trial exam. He needs to pass the trial exam in order to sit for the real one. This time, another instructor would test X while driving on the road.
So, my instructor and I made our way to the canteen nearby and he gave me a treat for a cup of tea. While drinking, who do you think I saw? Steven Lau. He was there too, taking Theory lessons! We exchanged hellos and talked for a while before he left to continue with the lecture. He'd only come out for recess. After about 15 minutes, X came back. My instructor took the results from the examiner and asked me to sit again next to X to continue with the three-point-turn and parking practices with X. While X was practising, he related to me about what had happened.
Firstly, his car died three times. In a real exam, he would have failed as the car must not die for more than twice. Next, he drove at a speed of 40 km/h on the second gear. The examiner would surely have penalised him for not using the gear correctly (and I was right). Nevertheless, he proceeded with the training until 1.00 p.m.
It was then time for him to go home. His mother would fetch him home. The instructor took X's trial test results slip and put it at the rear passenger seat, which I immediately grabbed it to have a look at what mistakes X had done. Firstly, let me tell you that he'd passed his trials, but that DOES NOT IN ANY WAY reflect the results for the real one. He scored 17/20 and he needed 16/20 to pass. Anyway, let me tell you what other errors he made:
- While stopping at the junction, the front bumper of the car crossed the white line. When you stop your car at the junction, according to the law, the bumper must not cross the white line (but real drivers don't follow that; it's actually dangerous)
- He beat the yellow lights. Note: when the lights turn yellow, you MUST stop if you haven't crossed the road. How he beat the yellow lights seemed interesting. At first the lights were green but when he reached the white lines the lights turned to yellow. In the real exam, the examiner would have failed him straightaway and asked him to get down of the car. The examiner would then stop the test and drive him back to the centre.
You see, offence no. 2 is an offence that can be summoned. The law says that if the candidate commites any road offence that can result to a summon, then it's considered that the candidate is driving dangerously and the test must stop immediately. He must be failed straightaway and the examiner must fetch the candidate back to the centre. Be careful next time, X!
After that, X waited for his mother to arrive while I took over at the driver's seat and together with my instructor, made our way back. But I didn't drive home; I drove to the hawker centre to have my lunch and then walked home. Sigh, what a day!
Labels: Henry Yew
posted by Henry Yew at 5:51 pm
1 Comments:
Heya Henry. Alrighty. It looks like I can comment. So thats good. I read you title and thought that it was going to be me...especially since you didnt disclose the name...haha.
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