Saturday, April 28, 2007
decided to try out writing diaries in camp, because it's really super duper boring in there... hahaha... ok, so here goes my long long long long post for the week...
took my highway situational problems test on monday... and it was horrible.. well ,the test itself is stupid because we have to push our vehicle ( a toy one) across the board and talk crap about all the safety precautions we had to take (i.e. slow down, left right mirror check, beware of motorcycles squeezing and vehicles overtaking, signal right, check blind spot, confirm safe, proceed with caution, stop before the stop line)... and all that, just to move two centimetres on the board... and on top of that, i got one of the worst testers with the worst scenarios... i had this board, with my vehicle on the minor road approaching a T-junction with traffic jam on both sides of the major road... and on top of that, all the vehicles in the traffic jam are heavy vehicles (buses, trucks and vans, etc)... so my view is so-called "blocked"... crap right? i very much wanted to say "stop, off engine and go for tea break, come back in 30 minutes to check"... but i know it's a one way ticket to failure... so i gave it a try... and i passed it, very surprising... later when i returned, my instructor even commented that he was surprised that i managed to pass that scenario... but most surprisingly, i failed one which is a simple right turn at a yellow box T-junction... because i did not beware of pedestrians dashing across the road... lol... in the end i got 3/4... a pass... thankfully... that coming from the infamous andy kwah, who failed 6 out of the 9 he tested, i'm proud of the blessings i received from god... and really it was a miracle... he scolded all the other people at the test, and then he just "mood-swing-ed" and started crapping with me even before i started the test itself.. he asked where i stayed and when i said marine parade... he exclaimed "oh, goh chok tong's district... must be very good ah..." and on and on and on... for about 2 minutes before he actually decided to start the test... and throughout the test, he keep saying "thank your god" because i keep forgetting stuff but managed to remember them last minute... so i should really heed his advice and thank my god... heeee...
in the afternoon, was my first 3 tonner public road drive... and it's thank god again because about 3 minutes before the time i was scheduled to take over the previous driver, the rained stopped... and 30 seconds after i got into the cabin, the downpour carried on again... i'm just so blessed, really... then we moved off... really scary because the seat is high and from way up there, even cars looked like toy ones... and on top of that, the space alloance on each side of the tonner is barely enough to place a foot!! better still, the suspension system is completely non-existant and the air-brake that it uses is sooooooo powerful that a gentle tap results in the whole vehicle jam-braking... and on top of that, the off-road tyres used makes the vehicle have rather poor grip on the tar roads on singapore roads... so when it rained, like on monday, braking too hard results in a skid... lol...
and tuesday's not much better... it still rained cats and dogs.. but not like the monkeys and gorillas on monday... it's slightly better too, because it's my 2nd time driving... but the very size of the mammoth is enough to make adrenaline pump on the double in my veins... hahaha...
then we had our final DTSS session - convoy movement on expressways... and it rocks totally... because we almost had a race with each other with a 3 tonner... very much like daytona singapore... hehehehe... and for once it felt great because everything seemed so real...
at night we had night driving... at first it seemed stupid, because we don't yet know how to drive the vehicle well in the day, imagine at night! but it didn't turn out too bard because of the cool wind and very much reduced number of vehicles on the road at night...
then a miracle happened... on wednesday, i got to drive the test vehicle... and all test vehicles have air con installed!!! so i enjoyed through the entire drive... it felt so great that i wouldn't mind driving in it all day long... just for the sake of it... haha... but it really is fun!!!
but thursday was super duper bad... i was the first driver of the day, so i got to try out the "wet" brakes that were notorious for being super duper sensitive... and it's true... no matter how gently i tapped the brake, it still resulted in a massive jam brake... no matter what speed i went, it went down to zero in split seconds... and so fast that i did not have time to step on the cluth and thus the engine stalls... thanks to the brake, i stalled no less than 5 times... and it got my instructor super irritated and he started scolding me... imagine the famous NEO TB who never scolds anyone, actually scolding me... it was very depressing indeed... maybe it's the brakes, maybe it's me... but after all that, i cannot do anything properly... i nearly could not do a U turn, turned into wrong lanes, drove on double lanes and missed kerbs by millimetres.. ok, it's me, the demoralised benjamin...
i guess that goes far to prove how success-driven i am... when all goes well, i do well... but when something pops out, i panic and cannot do even the most basic tasks well... they call this adversity quotient... and i have overwhelming reasons and proof to prove that i got a negative score on that measurement... crapz!!! i have to do something about it, but what???
while driving on the road on that same thursday, my instructor and i talked about the army... and how it showcases a wealth of people.. ranging from the super smart RJC muggers to the neighbourhood JC kid to the poly playboys to "gangsters" and trouble-makers... we concluded that we all have an in-built level of "smartness" in all of us... and that level is constant for all... it's just that the smart kids channel 100% to studies, the average people channel around 50% and the ah-bengs channel much less... but ain't disturbing people a skill that requires an extensive amount of creativity, passion and hardwork? we often try to ask "gangsters" to channel their energy to study.. of course, they find it hard... but try getting top JC people to try to start a fight... or to burn down a motorcycle... they'll rather be sent to boys' home then to physically do it... or maybe they don't even know how to...
then i looked at myself... how much of myself did i devote to studying? and how much to learning life skills? and lastly, how much of myself i've wasted on stupid computer games and brainless recreation? after some thoughts, i realised that i devote an exceedingly small percentage of my time and energy on learning life skills... skills about interacting with the people around me, skills on observing moods and emotions of others, skills about reacting properly to the emotions showcased by the people around me... this i find myself to be terribly lacking... and studying, not oo much too... but now, i think it's just nice... i wouldn't want myself to be an over-achiever and be top-range and yet remain like now - lacking in interpersonal skills... if i were to simply channel my time and energy from playing computer games to developing my social skills, that would be sufficient...
and on friday, i drove last... before i went up the tonner, he gave me that ultra black face.. then when i got on board, he left... to go to the toilet... so, inside the tonner, i filled up the vehicle log book and all the stuff... then i prayed.. because the atmosphere was really terribly bad.. and my instructor took very very very long to return.. when he finally did, he just ook all the documents, signed them, and kept quiet... the mood was soooo bad, that i knew i had to start a conversation with him... so i started...
the conversation was in chinese, but i translated it for easier reference... and i tell you, then i felt like a drug addict son talking to his dishearted mother... but no choice... have to move off... and it was silence all the way to the camp gate... and to the main road, where he merely said "turn left" then "turn right"... and it carried on like that for about 30 minutes... then he started nagging... and for once, nagging sounded SWEET... just like after a couple's quarrel, even a minor reprimand would sound sweet (because we know the other person still cares for you)... and really, i was literally overjoyed then... i couldn't ask for more nagging manz... weird huh... but yepx... soon the nagging got less and more of "ya, like that very hard meh?" when that first happened, i felt like i'm ten clouds above cloud nine... haha.. he's back to normal!!! and yes, it did return to normal from then on... even maybe nicer than usual... because it was raining heavily, he even offered several times to help me clean my windscreen from the inside to remove the condensation formed up... hehehe...
i must really thank god for that.. otherwise it would have been another super unpleasant and unproductive day for me... and that's exactly what happened to my buddy, who faced the black face through his ride... and it's very obvious and very saddening...
took my highway situational problems test on monday... and it was horrible.. well ,the test itself is stupid because we have to push our vehicle ( a toy one) across the board and talk crap about all the safety precautions we had to take (i.e. slow down, left right mirror check, beware of motorcycles squeezing and vehicles overtaking, signal right, check blind spot, confirm safe, proceed with caution, stop before the stop line)... and all that, just to move two centimetres on the board... and on top of that, i got one of the worst testers with the worst scenarios... i had this board, with my vehicle on the minor road approaching a T-junction with traffic jam on both sides of the major road... and on top of that, all the vehicles in the traffic jam are heavy vehicles (buses, trucks and vans, etc)... so my view is so-called "blocked"... crap right? i very much wanted to say "stop, off engine and go for tea break, come back in 30 minutes to check"... but i know it's a one way ticket to failure... so i gave it a try... and i passed it, very surprising... later when i returned, my instructor even commented that he was surprised that i managed to pass that scenario... but most surprisingly, i failed one which is a simple right turn at a yellow box T-junction... because i did not beware of pedestrians dashing across the road... lol... in the end i got 3/4... a pass... thankfully... that coming from the infamous andy kwah, who failed 6 out of the 9 he tested, i'm proud of the blessings i received from god... and really it was a miracle... he scolded all the other people at the test, and then he just "mood-swing-ed" and started crapping with me even before i started the test itself.. he asked where i stayed and when i said marine parade... he exclaimed "oh, goh chok tong's district... must be very good ah..." and on and on and on... for about 2 minutes before he actually decided to start the test... and throughout the test, he keep saying "thank your god" because i keep forgetting stuff but managed to remember them last minute... so i should really heed his advice and thank my god... heeee...
in the afternoon, was my first 3 tonner public road drive... and it's thank god again because about 3 minutes before the time i was scheduled to take over the previous driver, the rained stopped... and 30 seconds after i got into the cabin, the downpour carried on again... i'm just so blessed, really... then we moved off... really scary because the seat is high and from way up there, even cars looked like toy ones... and on top of that, the space alloance on each side of the tonner is barely enough to place a foot!! better still, the suspension system is completely non-existant and the air-brake that it uses is sooooooo powerful that a gentle tap results in the whole vehicle jam-braking... and on top of that, the off-road tyres used makes the vehicle have rather poor grip on the tar roads on singapore roads... so when it rained, like on monday, braking too hard results in a skid... lol...
and tuesday's not much better... it still rained cats and dogs.. but not like the monkeys and gorillas on monday... it's slightly better too, because it's my 2nd time driving... but the very size of the mammoth is enough to make adrenaline pump on the double in my veins... hahaha...
then we had our final DTSS session - convoy movement on expressways... and it rocks totally... because we almost had a race with each other with a 3 tonner... very much like daytona singapore... hehehehe... and for once it felt great because everything seemed so real...
at night we had night driving... at first it seemed stupid, because we don't yet know how to drive the vehicle well in the day, imagine at night! but it didn't turn out too bard because of the cool wind and very much reduced number of vehicles on the road at night...
then a miracle happened... on wednesday, i got to drive the test vehicle... and all test vehicles have air con installed!!! so i enjoyed through the entire drive... it felt so great that i wouldn't mind driving in it all day long... just for the sake of it... haha... but it really is fun!!!
but thursday was super duper bad... i was the first driver of the day, so i got to try out the "wet" brakes that were notorious for being super duper sensitive... and it's true... no matter how gently i tapped the brake, it still resulted in a massive jam brake... no matter what speed i went, it went down to zero in split seconds... and so fast that i did not have time to step on the cluth and thus the engine stalls... thanks to the brake, i stalled no less than 5 times... and it got my instructor super irritated and he started scolding me... imagine the famous NEO TB who never scolds anyone, actually scolding me... it was very depressing indeed... maybe it's the brakes, maybe it's me... but after all that, i cannot do anything properly... i nearly could not do a U turn, turned into wrong lanes, drove on double lanes and missed kerbs by millimetres.. ok, it's me, the demoralised benjamin...
i guess that goes far to prove how success-driven i am... when all goes well, i do well... but when something pops out, i panic and cannot do even the most basic tasks well... they call this adversity quotient... and i have overwhelming reasons and proof to prove that i got a negative score on that measurement... crapz!!! i have to do something about it, but what???
while driving on the road on that same thursday, my instructor and i talked about the army... and how it showcases a wealth of people.. ranging from the super smart RJC muggers to the neighbourhood JC kid to the poly playboys to "gangsters" and trouble-makers... we concluded that we all have an in-built level of "smartness" in all of us... and that level is constant for all... it's just that the smart kids channel 100% to studies, the average people channel around 50% and the ah-bengs channel much less... but ain't disturbing people a skill that requires an extensive amount of creativity, passion and hardwork? we often try to ask "gangsters" to channel their energy to study.. of course, they find it hard... but try getting top JC people to try to start a fight... or to burn down a motorcycle... they'll rather be sent to boys' home then to physically do it... or maybe they don't even know how to...
then i looked at myself... how much of myself did i devote to studying? and how much to learning life skills? and lastly, how much of myself i've wasted on stupid computer games and brainless recreation? after some thoughts, i realised that i devote an exceedingly small percentage of my time and energy on learning life skills... skills about interacting with the people around me, skills on observing moods and emotions of others, skills about reacting properly to the emotions showcased by the people around me... this i find myself to be terribly lacking... and studying, not oo much too... but now, i think it's just nice... i wouldn't want myself to be an over-achiever and be top-range and yet remain like now - lacking in interpersonal skills... if i were to simply channel my time and energy from playing computer games to developing my social skills, that would be sufficient...
and on friday, i drove last... before i went up the tonner, he gave me that ultra black face.. then when i got on board, he left... to go to the toilet... so, inside the tonner, i filled up the vehicle log book and all the stuff... then i prayed.. because the atmosphere was really terribly bad.. and my instructor took very very very long to return.. when he finally did, he just ook all the documents, signed them, and kept quiet... the mood was soooo bad, that i knew i had to start a conversation with him... so i started...
"sir, why you so bad mood?"
"no la, where got bad mood?"
"kek sim ah?" (in hokkien, meaining disheartened)
"no la, no hope, where will kek sim de?"
"but no hope, how to achieve?"
"then don't achieve lo!"
(silence...)
"ok, move off"
the conversation was in chinese, but i translated it for easier reference... and i tell you, then i felt like a drug addict son talking to his dishearted mother... but no choice... have to move off... and it was silence all the way to the camp gate... and to the main road, where he merely said "turn left" then "turn right"... and it carried on like that for about 30 minutes... then he started nagging... and for once, nagging sounded SWEET... just like after a couple's quarrel, even a minor reprimand would sound sweet (because we know the other person still cares for you)... and really, i was literally overjoyed then... i couldn't ask for more nagging manz... weird huh... but yepx... soon the nagging got less and more of "ya, like that very hard meh?" when that first happened, i felt like i'm ten clouds above cloud nine... haha.. he's back to normal!!! and yes, it did return to normal from then on... even maybe nicer than usual... because it was raining heavily, he even offered several times to help me clean my windscreen from the inside to remove the condensation formed up... hehehe...
i must really thank god for that.. otherwise it would have been another super unpleasant and unproductive day for me... and that's exactly what happened to my buddy, who faced the black face through his ride... and it's very obvious and very saddening...
|
|
|
|
PAGE LOADING
please wait...