That day I was learning parallel parking in BBDC and I had this commentator-instructor.
By that, I mean it like he HAS to explain every single thing, tell you every single step...
For example, "Okay, clutch in now, step harder, start stepping on your accelerator, go forward, k now reverse, reposition yourself, turn your steering wheel to the right. NO, NOW LEFT! Okay, continue to reverse, HARD LOCK TO THE RIGHT..Yes, okay now check your rear-view mirror, now the side mirror, is it hitting the curb?"
Etc etc...
Seriously, I'm the kind of driver that finds it hard to concentrate when you keep giving instructions or explain things or keep asking me questions, especially when the person is speaking at a very low pitch.
I had such a hard time and I got very, very frustrated with him and he in turn, got quite irritated with me and my mistakes.
We were both angry with each other, and we both knew it.
He even said, "Although as instructors, we're here to guide you, but it takes two hands to clap, so we need the students' cooperation too..."
I mounted the bloody curb when he said that just to shock him and anyhow swerve here and there because I just wanted him to shut the hell up.
And it worked because he got pissed at me.
After that, he didn't really speak much, and when I did the parallel parking again when he kept relatively quiet, I managed to freaking do it la!
I like the instructor I had today, I had him for a previous lesson before and he was a compatible teacher for me, I feel. He didn't talk much, gave only important instructions and corrected me when needed.
And because we were doing the circuit courses and I'm taking manual lessons, he was very nice, like he'll put the gear in neutral when we're waiting for our turn to practice parking or when he was explaining things to me, so I wouldn't have to keep stepping on the clutch pedal, which will be very tiring after a while.
He said I have about 8-10 more lessons until I'm 'ready' for my test.
Hmm.
Plus, that day I had my Driving Simulator Lesson and the instructor had half-dozy eyes, who was teaching me and this other girl about my age whose name is Iris(who was quite cute, by the way).
I don't know why when he was talking, his eyes will be like very lazy and he had very droopy eyelids.
LOL.
Anyway, the first part was a simulation of me driving in a town. The computer will simulate like a child suddenly running out from behind a car, or like a car turning out in front of me, and I have to try and avoid it.
Because it was a simulation, I felt very reckless and drove quite dangerously. Plus, the stupid simulation vehicle machine thing we were on like very lag, like you step on the accelerator, it doesn't really register your speed.
Anyway, the thing was, I was driving very fast and I kept crashing into vehicles and knocking pedestrians and cyclists, HAHAHA.
He kept shouting, "NO NO! YOU MUST DRIVE SLOWLY! SO DANGEROUS! Please be careful!"
Then after it ended, the simulation said, "Please stop at the side of the road when you think it is safe. The simulation has ended."
I wanted to play some more so I stepped hard on the accelerator and continued to drive.
I thought I saw my instructor leaping out of his chair from the corner of my vision and started shouting at me to stop and when I turned to look at him his eyes were bulging slightly and not droopy anymore, hhahaha!
I just wanted to see his reaction, it's so funny!
Until Tracy told me today, he can pass or fail you...
Anyway, the other girl was a very safe driver and she drove quite well, I think she only crashed like twice, compared to my 5 times, HAHA!
After that, we would test our reaction speed and emergency brake.
We're supposed to drive on the simulator on a straight stretch of road, going up to 80 km/hr, then going into a road lined with tall hedges and suddenly this stupid lorry will appear in front and we have to hit the brakes to stop from crashing into it.
The girl went first and she was very gentle, like she took damn long to get up to 80km/hr because she was reluctant to step hard, and her reaction time was very slow, because she didn't hit the brakes hard and fast enough, so she kept crashing into the lorry. HAHAHA.
I kept laughing behind her (we have chairs behind the simulator to sit on while the other person is driving the thing), not at her, but at the instructor's reaction.
"No...step harder! Aiyo, accelerate faster! Come on!"
HAHAHAHA! Very funny.
And her reaction time very slow, like her first try was 0.98 seconds, and second was 0.87 seconds, then third 0.77 seconds, and her third went up to 0.8+ and again.
I think the instructor got a bit exasperated so he asked me to switchover.
When my turn came, I was very excited.
The minute he said, "Go."....
I pumped the accelerator to the floorboard then the simulator's engine revved extremely loudly, and all the time I was like laughing, I could hear him saying, "YES! THAT'S IT. Iris, that's how you should step on the accelerator!"
However, my car's speed increased to 120+- km/hr, but it automatically slowed down to 80km/hr after it reached the zone of the hedges.
Then the stupid lorry appeared and I stomped on the brakes very hard, there was a loud sound like, "TONG!" because I stepped very hard on the brakes and it hit the floorboard and I managed to not hit the lorry.
The instructor seemed to be happier than I was, he was exclaiming, "YES! That's good! Iris, you must step on the brakes like her, hard and fast! Firm!"
My reaction time was 0.65 seconds.
He was saying 0.5 to 0.8 is fast, 0.8 seconds and above is considered very slow already. 1 second and above is not human.
I was very happy because I thought I'd get a chance to do it again, since Iris did it so many times, when he said, "Okay, you can get up now, let Iris do it again."
I was like, "HUH!?!? BUT I ONLY TRIED IT ONCE!!!"
"Haiya, you passed it on the first try ma..."
Eeyer :(
