I realised the true nature of driving today (or at least a simulated part of it). How much can one driver’s limit be tested before he cracks, and starts endangering the entire junction with blinded judgement?
Inside the sheltered environs of a circuit, I found myself waiting impatiently at a T-junction as many budding jeep and 5-tonner drivers struggled to tame the apparently wild beasts. My finger came very close towards getting glued permanently to the horn button on my bike. Though I didn’t use it at all in the end, that I found myself extremely annoyed at these drivers (who obviously had the right of way) was an interesting, and perhaps disturbing revelation about me. Am I a impatient jerk, a potential road bully?
Perhaps what saved my day was my addiction to popular music. I started to hum my favourite tune (from Martika — Toy Soldiers), and it made the waiting seemed all that easier to take. However, it seems that some of my fellow course mates couldn’t take the pressure. They decided to overtake me, and drove straight into the jeep’s path. They ended up pushing their bikes back to the start point (the instructor was seriously contemplating making them run with the bike).
Balance is an important part of life. Without it, one would be… unbalanced. Anyway, we had plenty of it today, after all the balancing tests we went through today, with promises of more tomorrow, we were quite tired of the bike!
The complete test course includes a 6 second driving act on a long flat log (one cannot fall off or stay for less than 6 seconds), ribbed log, a figure-8 course, and finally, a mini-salom. Fail any of the items, and the whole test is a gone case.
I managed to pass all the items on the two assessment they made me do, which is good. Because if that were not the case, I would still be at the circuit making rounds instead of ranting over here!
Scribbled under:
Army Days
Just finished another major test yesterday. The Highway Situation Problems Test is one of the more challenging of all the tests that any driver in the SAF would take. It is essentially a board with a 2D view of many different types of roads, junctions. The tester would put models of various vehicles to simulate different traffic situations. They would then expect you to explain (without any prejudice to any details) how you would overcome the situation.
The tough part of the whole test is not really about “forgetting to mention the important parts”, but rather the pressure the tester puts you in, with their extremely hostile attitude towards you. To put across the point, they position the stop-watch such that they are able to start it as if they were timing a swimming athlete…
A maximum of 5 scenarios would be set out, and a minimum of 3 perfect scenarios are needed to achieve a pass. Making a mistake will render you a fail in that particular scenario. Tough indeed.
I thought I was in for a good start, when the tester appeared docile and subdued (contrary to complaints from earlier test takers). However, he pounced on me immediately when I forgot to “check that my exit was clear”.
The good news was that I was able to trudge through the other three scenarios he put me through, but not without plenty of linguistic flaws. I ended up describing everything in a typical Singaporean flavour, with all the “lors”, “huhs” creeping their way into my speech. But who cares, I managed to pass, and that is all that matters to me.
Scribbled under:
Army Days
As some of you might find the contents of this blog familiar, I find it necessary to clarify:
My blog was previously at http://pkchukiss.tblog.com. However, as I’ve found a better blog host over here at Blogger (powered by Google), I’ve decided to make the move and shift into the neighbourhood. Feel free to comment on the contents!
Since I’ve made the impulsive decision to leave tBlog, I took the easy way out towards starting my blog here — I used one of the templates available here, which explains why some might find the layout a bit cliched.
Do visit often!
Scribbled under:
General
Apologies for the tardiness of my posts.. These few days at the bike course have been trying for my overworked brain… How does one cope with studying for the highway code and highway situation problem tests, while remembering the steps to turn?
I earned myself a knock on my helmet on Wednesday when I accidentally threw the clutch in first gear, which resulted in me overshooting the stop line, and I stopped in the middle of the T-junction, where other learner jeeps and motorcyclists struggled to avoid me, even at their snail paces.
After much chastising, I could not possible forget that lesson! Anyway, from what I heard from the instructors, it seems that the actual circuit riding test involves much acting, or wayang, as one might say in Singlish. We would have to check the mirrors every few second, turn the head to check the blind spot, essentially turning the whole affair literally into a lion dance with all that head turning.
Now that it is all temporarily past me, I can finally let my hair down. With the thermometer bursting its bulb at 30 degrees centigrade (even at night), I decided to pamper myself with an aggressive swim with my friends. However, the huge crowd there (it seems that hot weather is a huge driving factor in Singapore) made it impossible to complete laps properly without encountering a head-on collision with another swimmer. We gave up on the swim and decided to watch “Troy” instead.
To save time, we went to a cinema chain nearby, which happened to belong to a company which I had a bad experience with in the past. Wanting to give it a second chance at proving its worth, I relented on my usual complains, and gave up my crisp ten dollar note.
It proved to be a costly mistake. Firstly, the movie happened to be almost 3 hours long, which made me extremely restless (couldn’t get all that energy out of my system at the swimming pool), the seats stank to high heaven, and (to my extreme horror), I spotted cockroaches scuttering around on the floor. One even had the audacity to invade a girl’s shirt, which raised a small commotion as she endeavoured (read: screamed) to remove it… … Needless to say, I’m never patronising that chain ever again.
Just to prevent any possible lawsuit, I am not mentioning the guilty party’s name, lest I have to get funding to fight a court case! It does not hurt, however, to mention that this company has a cinema in both Ang Mo Kio and Toa Payoh…
Post Edited: It seems that attempting to type at 1 a.m. in the morning has profound effects on one’s ability to produce grammatically sound English. I seek your kind understanding… (In fact, I do believe that I am just about the only Singaporean blogger who bothers to type in prim and proper structures…)
Scribbled under:
Army Days
Yes! I’ve finally passed my highway code test! 48 out of 50 marks could hardly count as a safe pass though, because obviously I got two questions wrong, and goodness knows what mistake I will make on the road, as I have no idea what went wrong (we never did get our papers back).
So now it is on to bigger things, like the highway situation problem test, in which we are tasked with crossing junctions safely. Judging from the lessons so far, it is simply a rigid set of answers which the tester wants from you. However, the memory work required is driving my brain nuts!
“Beware of traffic coming from left going straight, oncoming turning left. Check rear mirror, blind spot, beware of vehicles turning with you, beware of pedestrians, tap horn to warn motorcyclists………..” <– Can’t believe I am supposed to parrot it out whole.
So far, riding lessons are pretty fun, and tiring at the same time. We rode our bikes in standing position, and I must admit, attempting to grip the petrol tank with my ankles while trying to push my stomach in and jutting out my chest proved trying to my previously undeveloped muscle groups. The end result? Many weak legs which trembled uncontrollably. I even had problems dismounting from the bike without dropping it!
Resistance training, anyone?
Scribbled under:
Army Days
(Finally managed to get into this site! I kept getting the “server busy” message when I tried to log in earlier. Guess this web server was overloaded by the sheer number of users!)
The bike course is proving to be more tiring than I thought! There are tons of simultaneous steps to even move off, something which I managed to get upside down on my first try, earning me a sharp knock on my helmet from the instructor… I opened the throttle, then set to first gear, accidentally released the clutch too fast, which resulted in me jerking forward (nearly up the far kerb!)
However, after much hard work (compounded with “choice” words from the instructors), I managed to get on the road, and successfully go up to the third gear (previous experience with a bicycle has finally paid off), and tackle easy bends. My reward? I got to leave the place before the rest (only 4 people from my group got away from the tenacious grip of Remedial Training).
I ended up falling asleep on the bus, and nearly missed my stop.
I guess that tomorrow will be another interesting day for me, even as I tackle the Yamaha…
Scribbled under:
Army Days
I guess any normal human being would find it unusual to see more than one blog entries in a single day, not to mention 3! I guess I have a lot to say today!
While I was on my way home immediately after my booking out, I ran into something that rather annoyed me on Friday night: The MRT intercom was playing an advertisement advocating courtesy.
In fact, I was sleeping when it happened: Two men talking over the intercom. Initially, I thought that it was just a mistake by the driver (you know, the kind when people accidentally press the wrong button and broadcast their private conversations), and tried to sleep. Then after a while, it happened again. Irritated, I listened carefully, only to discover that it was a courtesy message by SMRT. How ironic. Does disturbing me in my private moment count as being courteous?
Also, this points to a trend of aural invasion, even as we are inundated by the flood of visual stimulus around us. No longer are we only subjected blatant television advertisments on buses and trains, now we are about to lose our peace of mind; one can shut off his eyes, but ear plugs are hardly useful in covering out these sounds (one can still hear it through the ear plugs).
What’s next? Advertisements which overload your taste buds? How about some McNuggets which taste like coffee to promote StarBucks?
Scribbled under:
General
As I was chosen to be a signaler (or rather, chosen to ride a bike, and consequently, be a signaler), I am being sent on course to learn to ride a motorcycle.
The course briefing was yesterday, and my, the restrictions are so shocking. I will not be allowed to take any leave, apply for offs, or arrange any specialist appointments during the entire one month of the course! In addition to that, the Course Orderly Executive threatened to put anyone of us who does anything wrong to be out of course!
Talk about a positive head-start! :rolls eyes:
Anyway, I went back to my college to pay a visit to the teachers there, and found that I could dunk my favourite teachers, and all proceeds from the dunking would go towards a pocket money fund for needy students. I obliged, not merely out of generosity, but also out of the admiration for the teachers who thought nothing of being dunked! I also got to vent up my pent-up frustration in the morning while I am at it! That’s three birds with a stone.
As my platoon sergeant would say, it is “absolutely outside-standing”.
Scribbled under:
Army Days
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