"Yandao" BBDC Instructors

I will always remember the day I logged into Nuffnang and saw the words typed into Google along with "BBDC instructors". YANDAO? Seriously? You people look for good-looking instructors when choosing a driving instructor!?

it has come to my attention that apart from alpha inventions, random people are coming to my blog after typing "yandao bbdc instructor" into google.


so to satisfy their curiosity: there are no 'yandao' instructors @ bbdc.


FINE, it depends on how you define 'yandao'. perhaps this would give you an idea. besides, maybe some of them were good-looking in their younger days. but i must say the instructors dont really look the way they do in the photos. both shi fu & hau kw look VERY different and chan hy's hair is a lot longer, for example, and i almost think thats either not alex tan in the photo or ive been seeing the faux one all this while. sim kh however looks just like he does: some evil taxi driver. -_-"


go look at the current instructors of my new group though (g8033) - they look weird!



Original entry here. Today is the 2nd of January 2012 (yes I copied and pasted the entries and also saved it under the original date so as to facilitate your reading pleasure) and while doing this entry I clicked on that link above. The groups have indeed changed again, but my three instructors are still in the same group. They are now in a GOLD group (!!!) because they have higher passing rates. Proud of my instructors. Can't believe, however, that Alex Tan is also in a gold group - the most expensive group!

I also find it very funny that after 2+ years, the 'feedback' link on BBDC's website is still not working. HAHA.

good day at driving

DRIVING was awesome. surprisingly i drove very well despite having alex tan as my instructor. i was actually in an awful mood when i saw 'tan jj' on my allocation slip. unfortunately im still not up to the standard i was at before my first test. i still believe i was driving really well before my test. except maybe im safer now cos i keep checking rear view mirrors. my parking is not very good anymore cos i cant seem to get the car straight. again! i solved the problem with hau kw before my first test. thankfully i can still park decently well without sacrificing any poles.

went to fix my group so as of today, i am no longer under g8001. i feel like im betraying the group, but no! i am the most loyal, since three of the six instructors of g8001 are supposed to be in the new group (g8033). i hope there are no new changes to groupings cos im still worried about the car changes. they say they'll get me the honda city for my three revision lessons & the test though!

i just figured today was my last lesson with alex tan forever and ever, and ill never run the risk of getting ng hl and sim kh again! having the autonomy to decide who will teach me and not have to be told my fate by the stupid system a few minutes before each lesson feels quite good. although looking back at how i started out, it is terribly ironic that i am paying extra to fix instructors from g8001. that said, i have never had problems with chan hy & hau kw. in fact i think the only reason why i remained in g8001 was after i found out chan hy was in the group. though of course thereafter shi fu became more like a shi fu.


Original entry here.

Shifu

ronald siew for driving. cue laugh-out-loud response. this is the last time im gonna blog his name cos from now on, hes going to be known as my shi fu. (besides, i cannot believe ALL OF YOU reading my blog actually know him by name already.) the moment he saw me he came out of the car despite the rain and asked me "what happened?" even before he took the allocation slip. 由此可见 hes been wondering that since he saw me the other day at the front door. im wondering why the instructors dont communicate with each other though - i mean, shouldnt he know that im also under chan hy (i digress: if ronald siew is my shi fu i dont know what to call chan hy, but lets leave that for now. chan hy is not very shi fu-ish but he has obviously taught me a lot too) since i use g118 most of the time? shouldnt they ask around whether their (shared) student passed/failed? maybe shi fu doesnt have that many friends cos everytime i see him around bbdc hes either reading newspaper or roaming around alone. haha. whereas chan hy, like hau kw, is practically friends with everyone in bbdc. (hau kw does really weird things to his fellow instructor friends during lesson. weird, childish crap that i wont type here.)

and i realised shi fu doesnt quite care about the upcoming changes in instructor groupings whereas chan hy & hau kw appear to have rather strong feelings towards it. i dont even think they know their groupings yet (but i do, which is funny).

anyhow, i have decided that ronald siew's my shi fu because 1) most instructors have this thing about "my" students and "others". i figure ronald siew/chan hy would consider me their student while hau kw, ng hl and alex tan, dont. 2) hes the only one who showed a genuine interest in knowing what exactly happened during the test, right down to every single point i lost. chan hy too but ronald siew asked a LOT of questions about the mistakes i made. 3) according to drama serials, particularly chinese/ hong kong ones, teacher-disciple relationships (师徒关系) often start out on very negative notes - like cannot see eye-to-eye on several things etc. the other way is if the teacher saves the disciple's life as in 少年四大名捕 but thats a bit exaggerated for driving lessons. lastly, 4) ronald siew can seriously remember a lot about my strengths/weaknesses in terms of driving. it amazes and impresses me and really shows he cares about my learning progress.



i am very amused cos i just read through all my entries labelled 'bbdc' and its damn funny the things i said about shi fu in the past. i guess we just change our opinions after getting to know somebody better. besides, hes a lot nicer now than in the past. also, i note that i have always hated alex tan, and that i used to hate g8001, until one fine day i got chan hy, and then my opinion of the group changed.

actually the very fact that i can actually parallel park is (in its entirety) thanks to chan hy, so actually he should be the real shi fu. but its too weird being able to joke around with your shi fu.

Original entry (including other stuff about me blogging about driving) here.

Driving tuition

had lunch, rushed to driving. the cab driver was amusing & very nice. on the PIE he suddenly said to me, "did you see that?"


me (listening to jay chou on my ipod): huh?
driver: lorry cannot keep right lane!
me (thinking: uhhh okayyy???): oh
driver: lorry is considered slow-moving vehicle. if he gets caught sure got points.
me: haha okay.

after a long time, nearer bbdc, he continued:

driver: see some drivers drive slowly but like to keep right lane. road hogging! very dangerous you know.
me: yeah
driver: and then some drivers not very experienced they dont look far. must look far otherwise got obstruction you dont know.
me (thinking about myself not looking far whenever i drive): hahaha yeah.
driver: all this instructor got teach lah hor?

driving tuition.

i was terribly annoyed during driving lesson though. i just felt damn irritated with hau kw (and you know i am ok with hau kw). i hate the way he counts points. i rather instructors teach me with the hope of making me a safe and competent driver not just so i can pass my test, perhaps? i dont know. its not the first time he was counting points (and his best friend alex tan also counts points cos thats the only thing he can do) but today it just annoyed me. also, i think he was falling asleep during my parallel park. i couldnt be sure cos he had his sunglasses on (thats the reason why he wears sunglasses when theres no sun). i was very pissed off when i saw that he was nodding off. i am sorry if he wasnt, but hes not the nodding-in-recognition-of-having-done-the-right-steps type. if i was sure he was nodding off i'd have complained already. but for now, there are bigger/more important things to complain about.

i walked to the counter, nicely and calmly and talked to the guy about the whole changing instructor nonsense. he assured me and said they'll get the lessons for me before the test. then he passed me the list of new groupings for me to look for the instructors i am comfortable with and i found out good & bad news. ronald siew, chan hy & hau kw are in the same group. thats the good news. the bad news is that their new group is a honda jazz group which means if i fix them as my instructors i will have three days to get used to the honda jazz.

the honda jazz is significantly different in terms of size and height from the honda city if you're wondering. its a different car altogether.

by this time i was super pissed off. there is no way i am going to use another type of car for practice three days before my driving test, and i am already making a compromise by paying to fix a group. i got annoyed and asked to speak to the helpdesk guy's boss but he told me "i will forward it to her" and promised me he'll try his best to get me that car and those instructors. he better, otherwise i will find a way to talk to his boss.

(on a very random side note i think ronald siew, chan hy and hau kw must be very glad to no longer be under sim kh's leadership.) poor ronald siew cos i am still avoiding him. saw him again today but he was in the car and thankfully i wasnt using g118. i am sorry, i am just too embarrassed for having failed my traffic police driving test.

WHICH D_____ ALSO FAILED. she took the test today and messaged me some questions about driving while i was driving. when she replied after her warm-up i talked to her a bit and thought she was going to pass but she got something like 48 points and needed five attempts to do parallel park. i was damn amused when she told me, i couldnt stop laughing as i walked into vivo city. thankfully she wasnt offended cos shes amused too.


Original entry here.

Anyone is better than Alex Tan

ng hl for driving after a terrible cab ride in which the shameless taxi driver took an atrociously long route. the worst thing was that chan hy was slacking away at the side (haha) presumably cos the student who booked that lesson didnt come and bbdc's stupid enough not to automatically gimme his lesson. haha. granted, ng hl's actually ok. just damn naggy and he speaks super slowly. besides, anyone is better than alex tan. im just spoilt by the g118 instructors. 3 more lessons before i get to fix my instructors.

Original entry here.

the behind-the-scenes

When I learnt that its wiser to sign up for driving at the start of the year, and not at the end.

still, driving was awesome. chan hy. he told me a lot of stuff i cannot blog about (cos bbdc sucks, remember) but he also told me funny stuff like how the instructors' year-end test encompasses 70 questions (they're only allowed to get 4 wrong) and a practical test with everything under a time limit. in his own words, during the test even instructors mount kerb & hit pole because they're all trying to do it under the time limit. he also told me about the parking without pole business and apparently they havent determined the turning points and all that. but he said the instructors all know its better to do it without pole because when you go out there are no poles to help you but nobody has said anything for so long cos poles = easier.

the moment i walked into bbdc i saw ronald siew but i walked away quickly so he wouldnt have a chance to say anything to me. he had the "EH??" look on his face so im guessing he doesnt know i failed my test. ive been wishing i dont get him cos i think its superbly embarrassing that i failed my test. for some reason though it only occurred to me today that the only two instructors who remember and take note of each student's strengths and weaknesses are him & chan hy. they've damn good memory and you could say they care. so please please please please may bbdc do the right thing for once and put all three of them (+ hau kw) in the same group. if i have to choose between three of them i really wouldnt know who to choose. probably chan hy since im trying to avoid ronald siew. erps.

on a totally random note, the instructors in each group are further put into pairs to share a car each. for my group, the pairings are: ng hl & sim kh (g117), ronald siew & chan hy (g118) and alex tan & hau kw (g119). thank goodness i am under g118 most of the time. i wonder how hau kw can stand alex tan. heck, HOW CAN ANYONE STAND ALEX TAN. i would like to know if anyone has actually fixed him as their instructor.

chan hy says if i have any friends who wanna learn driving at bbdc, i am to tell you to sign up at the start of the year and not at the end cos they break up groups every year-end.


Original entry here.

Confidence or lack thereof

For sometime following my failed test I had confidence issues in terms of driving. And when you drive, confidence is the most important. It's always a bad thing to be under or over confident when driving. Both ways you'll be a hazard to fellow road users.


hau kw for driving! considering i booked the lesson last night, im lucky. but i really think im losing this whole driving thing cos i just cant seem to enjoy it anymore and the confidence is just not there. very erps i know. but true. i dunno how.

Original entry here.

No more poles?!

DID YOU KNOW THAT WITH EFFECT 15 MARCH 2010, ALL PARKINGS WILL BE DONE WITHOUT THE POLES???


how lame is that!!!


i thought it was a good thing when i first read the news on bbdc's website. at least blur people like ME wouldnt be knocking down poles anymore. besides, the sound of poles dropping still freak me out today. but on hindsight, how the hell are people expected to even learn how to park without the poles? then again it probably makes more sense since there are no poles on the roads outside the circuit.


stupid bbdc has decided to open slots for jan and i have, expectedly, NO SLOTS booked for the days leading up to my test. i take back whatever i have said so far about bbdc. bbdc sucks. if you're reading this to decide whether to learn driving at bbdc, dont! they dont give a damn about whether you pass or not, and that sucks!


full entry here.

Driving woes again

first driving lesson after traumatic monday and, it rained- nice and heavy. unfortunately, only at the start and end of the lesson. still i made even more mistakes than i did during the test. i knocked down the inner pole during parallel parking THREE times. i think theres something psychological about it.

or maybe i was just too irritated with alex tan to drive properly. i figure bbdc instructors can be categorized into those who care more about safety, those who care more about skill, those who care about both, and those who dont care at all. alex tan, like ng hl, belongs to the last category. (hau kw is the first, ronald siew the second and chan hy the third.) instructors who belong to the last category often have something else in common: which is they exaggerate the mistakes you make in terms of their reaction, but do nothing to make you improve. they also have a penchant for keeping things really quiet in the car even when things go wrong.

i neither see nor appreciate the value in keeping quiet when things go wrong. everyone else, even sim kh, ensures you improve thereafter. alex tan on the other hand, either has no clue how to make me improve or simply cannot be bothered to communicate it. (i think its the former.)

met chan hy right after i came out of the car. when i first said hi i realised he forgot that my test date was monday and that if he was right, i wouldn't be there and then saying hi to him, so i told him i failed my test. as expected, i got that jaw-dropping 'what happened??' reaction, which changed to that 'what a waste' reaction when i told him i knocked a pole down during parallel parking.

just how much will i pay to not get alex tan again? the amount required to be under that fixed instructor scheme. unfortunately i forgot to quiz the counter about it today. my only fear is that they're all changing groups and chan hy and hau kw may not be in the same group.



Original entry here.

FAILED

so the worst possible thing happened. ok maybe not. after all, i did have zero immediate failures. thats a plus considering how i used to collect them. but i made mistakes i never thought i'd make - like forgetting to release handbrake, knocking down a pole during parallel park, and not checking mirror before slowing down. i knew that mirror thing was a problem right from the end of stage 2. but i somehow never did anything about it because none of the instructors have ever pointed it out. nevertheless... i failed. that is really not so much to document the experience as much as it is doing my best to make this the ultimate bbdc review blog.


besides, it was raining so heavily (chan hy's words are a prophecy) i could barely see the arrows on the road; and i have never driven at night before i had no idea how to turn on the headlights. not that i was penalised for that, but still. after i knocked down the pole i thought i had failed already so when he told me to go out onto the roads i was like, HUH? and as a result, it affected the rest of my test (as i said, chan hy's words are a prophecy).


ironically the only part of chan hy's words that failed to come true is the thing about me passing. im sorry to all my instructors, cos me failing means they dont get their year-end bonus. and still i wish i got hau kw right from the start considering the rest of the points came from safety issues.


but y'know after the debrief it became apparent to me how the traffic police standard is so different from the instructors'. not because the instructors are slack, but because the tester is just looking out for different things. as such i think the traffic police should release an entire list of official test criteria.






anyway! im not upset anymore (i felt awful after i knocked the pole down and even worse after i got out of the car) and what remains is just the embarrassment from not being able to pass on my first try (cos everyone else passes on first try, right, but its bbdc and most of my friends who learnt it @ bbdc didnt pass on their first try). the truth is i didnt deserve to pass today either - driving in the rain reminded me i wasnt confident enough to deal with such changes in the weather.


fact is, better to knock poles in the circuit and fail driving test than knock down people in real life and spend a couple of years in jail.


must move on. i look forward to passing before the expiry of my PDL. my re-test will be on 7/1/10. long time to go. for now, im going to take a breather from this whole driving thing. second try please. i'd seriously be too embarrassed to face any of my driver friends if i take it more than twice. xD


the worst part of 2009 was failing my driving test. original entry here.

the history of this blog, and more nerves

i keep thinking about what will happen tomorrow. on a lighter note, it will be my last time @ bbdc if i do pass. i will, upon getting the letter from traffic police, proceed down to the counter to buy p-plates, and make sure i get the $200-odd left in my bbdc account back. and if i fail, of course, the first thing to do would be to put more money into the account so i have enough for say, 3 more lessons, and to book test date. if i fail and meet any of the g8001 instructors i will be eternally embarrassed i think.


(the earliest re-test date is 29/12, which means failing tomorrow would make it just right for me to take my test early jan, with a couple of revision lessons in between holiday and school. im sure it'll suffice. bbdc has yet to open up training slots for jan, so getting lessons shouldnt be a problem if i stalk the website enough. other than their intention to change groups to 10 instructors/group next year, and the money aspect of things, i dont see any issue that may potentially turn problematic.)






i signed into nuffnang to check my hits and amazingly, readership has increased over the past two weeks. and guess why! ive been getting hits from google searches for "bbdc worst instructor" as well as a couple of instructors' names. i even got one from "young instructor bbdc". HAHAHA. i cant stop laughing at the thought of having people google such things and come to my blog. indeed, i am running a free-for-all bbdc review service. at the same time i also feel quite freaked out cos if some of the instructors google such things and get my blog, i wonder what they'll think.


they'll probably be damn pressured to be nice to me.


oh man, look at this and this. now it seems i have only blogged about the two of them which is untrue, since according to the statistics (which i intend to publish if i pass tomorrow), i have actually had ronald siew teach me most often. maybe nobody has tried typing ronald siew into google yet. now this becomes another reason to pass tomorrow because how can i risk instructors googling their names and finding my blog??? THATS LIKE THE MOST EMBARRASSING THING EVER, a reason why i dont blog profs' names!


i find it quite surprising nobody has googled sim kh. now there is one reason - sim kh is not computer literate. yes, he happened to mention that while telling me his life story. which would imply that the rest of the instructors, particularly those whose names have been googled, are actually googling themselves. thats quite probable/acceptable since if i were running a service like that i'd probably google myself every night to see what my students say about me.


i now have this terrible image of them instructors googling their names, finding my blog, knowing that its me and the next day going to tell all the other instructors about what ive written.


should be thankful for everyone who has been typing instructors' names into google and in the process raising my readership. thank you. although i hope i wont have any more chances of blogging about them anymore. MUST PASS TOMORROW.


okay, i will blog about my tester tomorrow. may i get one who is nice, lenient and quiet. and please may i pass tomorrow. i keep telling myself less than 11 points (when it comes to things where 20 is the max, i just have to benchmark it against my olevel score.) but truthfully im damn scared ill get some immediate failure crap. because ive been getting immediate failures all this while, get it???


hahahaha.


ok i just found some forum pages discussing driving and some girls (the posts are dated 2004 to be fair) are gushing about "yan dao bbdc instructors" and others are going "bbdc?? i dont see any yan dao instructors there leh!!!" HAHAHA. and i read a blog stating bbdc's passing rate is very low. which is, not unbelievable. i only know ONE person from bbdc who passed on her first attempt. truthfully, i dont know. i just dont want to jinx myself. after reading so much though i have practically zilch confidence, not in myself, but in the testers.


if i do fail though, please dont laugh at me the way my sister does over me not knowing a thing about complex numbers (this is like, the ultimate joke between the both of us, because till date i still know nothing about complex numbers). people pass and people fail. its all part of life.


Original entry here.

(Not the) last driving lesson

guess who i got for driving today :)

if my hopes come true all the time, then may i please pass on monday!!

ronald siew for my last driving lesson, which would've been a damn freaking good pass if today had been my test date. hau kw also became the first instructor to acknowledge my presence while they're teaching someone else. not bad, considering he only taught me twice. but he was laughing at me doing vertical parking though (cos urm, i couldnt tell if the car was straight during his lesson).

and, i made this random and unimportant discovery about hau kw. i finally understand why he refuses to take off his sunglasses in the car even when theres no sun. hurhur.

ronald siew gave a lot of random advice at the end of the lesson. he said, "if the tester ask you how many lessons you've had ah, dont go and tell him 27, 28 (which is what i've had). inflate the number and tell him 35! otherwise ah later he say not enough then ask you do again." i couldnt help but burst out laughing. SERIOUSLY WTH!!!! im not wth-ing at his advice, but do such things actually happen??? he also said "when you enter the tester's office and he starts pointing out like why just now never do this never do that, dont tell him 'because whatever whatever'! just say 'oh ok yah i should have done that... thanks i learnt a lot from you'! make him happy cos they dont like people giving them excuses." now thats damn funny is it not??

he ended the lesson saying "...then just wait for LTA to endorse".

):

hahaha.


Pity the better the last lesson the worst the test goes :/ Original entry here.

Pre-test nerves

on a lighter note, i am DAMN GLAD it rained rather heavily today (ok not heavily, but it certainly wasnt a drizzle) at bbdc, because i finally had my chance to drive and do all the courses in the rain. parking is a lot harder with your rear windscreen all foggy and wet. but i succeeded. had no problems parallel parking at all. life is great.

chan hy thinks i will pass on monday. that is a plus, y'know, cos even though he isnt as strict as hau kw, hes still an instructor and hes not slack. the good thing about having an instructor you're comfortable with is that you have no qualms voicing your concerns/fears about the test. it was quite reassuring knowing that some testers are humane, even though a particular one apparently derives great joy from making people do the courses in reverse order. and, apparently bbdc instructors all have to undergo an assessment every year end, and that causes great stress for all of them alike us taking our test. its quite funny really if driving and teaching driving everyday isnt even enough to boost their confidence.

i cannot decide if i should hope for a mean/strict or nice/reassuring instructor for my last driving lesson tomorrow. i need to be able to perform up to standard even if i get an awful tester, so the former seems like a good option, but i really need the confidence boost a nice/reassuring instructor may offer.

ok, maybe i should hope i get ronald siew cos hes like The Mix. but i'd need to ask him to keep quiet (!) cos hes always prompting me.

i always imagine driving along bukit batok/teck whye and bumping into my instructors on the roads. but what i envision myself doing most is sending the g8001 instructors a thank-you card. i know, i am so weird; but at least both of these visions reflect my will to pass on my first try. (ill probably send a card to chan hy, one to ronald siew and a general one to the whole of g8001 which encompasses the annoying, deliveryman-turned-taxi driver-turned-bbdc driving instructor sim kh, the i-am-so-tall-i-can-barely-fit-into-the-car hau kw, the please-wait-for-awhile-i-need-to-go-toilet ng hl and the dude who passed me on three modules without teaching me a thing, tan jj.) no seriously. i know i should pass first then talk. but what im trying to imply is that the pressure on myself to pass is not simply out of pride and the $2k, but cos all of them put in so much effort into teaching me and making me a safe and competent driver, i feel the responsibility to pass on my first try.

Full entry, in which I also lament how much it costs to cab from BBDC to just about anywhere, here.

7 Days

hau kw for driving. because it was a revision lesson and not some trial thing (though my first and last lesson with him was also not a trial - so why was he so unfriendly that day?!) he was a lot nicer today. and i have, as a result, started to think that perhaps on the driving side of things, the situation would've been different if i got him earlier on. if i didnt have lessons with the first few instructors who couldnt be bothered to teach me properly. hes like, the best instructor in the group, aside from chan hy. but chan hy is a bit too nice sometimes. whereas hau kw is DAMN STRICT with everything - he even has problems with the way i put down the handbrake. but aside from being damn strict, hes also quite funny/nice without distracting you unnecessarily during lesson. he does have the tendency to give instructions a little late though.

OK AM I REALLY RUNNING A BBDC REVIEW SERVICE HERE???

was supposed to have two more revision lessons on thurs and fri, but i just booked one more for 4pm tomorrow, which means rushing off from nation-building lect ten mins early and having less time to study for the test on wed.

but i think i should give it my best shot next monday. i get the feeling there is a chance i can actually do well for my first attempt. i just need a bit more confidence.

lets all say "VAMOS!" and perhaps, ill have good news for you next week.


Original entry in full length here.

Still the best instructor around

first driving revision lesson. chan hy. its amusing how he only teaches me once for each stage. still the best instructor around - hes damn patient! we spent most of the lesson on parallel parking and i think i am more confident about it now.

Full entry here.

while people collect demerit points during their driving test, yours truly collects 'immediate failures' as if they are demerit points.

21 days till my driving test and i am THIS unprepared.

hau kw for driving (never had him teach me before - he was the only one of g8001 whom ive never met) which is, i guess, good, cos with someone i am unfamiliar with it becomes clear how lost i am without prompting.

i forgot to accelerate first then put down the handbrake on top of the slope, i mounted kerbs twice - during directional change and s-course, i hit the pole during that ramp thing, and i totally forgot what else to do after i am in the lot for parallel parking. also had expensive (in terms of points) stuff like insufficient acceleration, not keeping sufficient distance from the next car, etc.

crap, because ive got like 5 more lessons booked, and i cant afford the time off for any more. im so deadddddd.

if there is one thing chan hy once said that i still remember, it must be that you really shouldnt allow one or two mistakes to affect the rest of your performance. because the psychological impact is insanely strong.

on the other hand, hau kw is like, a KID compared to all the other instructors there. he doesnt even look a day over thirty - why do we have such young people doing retirement jobs?! he is nice and i would say, quite friendly and not annoying like tan jj. those people looking to get a young and shuai (no not at all, but relative to all other instructors whose average age must be like, sixty) instructor can consider fixing his group and have this dude teach you, although truthfully i think you might have a higher chance passing with sim kh as your instructor even though hes annoying as hell. i think i should rename my blog, "BBDC Instructor Reviews".

言归正传 i evidently cannot afford to have chan hy and ronald siew as my instructors anymore. i need instructors who aren't familiar with my driving style and are not ok with prompting me. ok, that spells sim kh.

this must have been my worst driving lesson since stage one. and i finish stage four today. next lesson's final evaluation.



I definitely like how I really ended up with a BBDC review blog :) Original entry here.

Driving again after a 2-week break

i finally went for driving after 14 days and i got ronald siew again. now im super-neutral towards him but as usual, first round of circuit was awesome, didnt strike kerb and didnt need prompting, and things got really bad the second time round. if only we didnt have to warm up before the test; then perhaps ill be fine.

Entry in its entirety here.

forgot to continue counting down & blog the steps to parallel parking. i shall also blog the steps to driving and stopping on a slope.

32 more days. so near yet so far.

parallel parking: 1 position car kerb-side. 2 signal left & check safety. 3 turning to look back, reverse until first pole disappears into top right hand corner of rear window. 4 full lock left and reverse until inner back pole appears in my side mirror. 5 two rounds right and continue reversing until first pole appears at bottom left corner of front window. 6 full lock right and reposition car until it is straight. 7 position the car in the middle of the lot. put to p and pull hand brake. 8 check safety. put to d, drive forward. 9 put to r, reverse while full-lock left. 10 signal right check safety, put to d and drive off.

slope: 1 drive up slope. stop at line. 2 pull handbrake UP!!! foot on accelerator. 3 signal right and check safety. 4 accelerate a bit and put down handbrake. 5 switch off signal and move off as usual.


Full entry here.

Steps for parallel parking

first monday without driving lesson. here goes, steps for parallel parking: 1 position car kerb-side. (check safety & signal left) 2 reverse until first pole disappears into top corner of rear window. 3 full lock left and reverse until inner back pole is visible in my side mirror. 4 turn two rounds right and reverse until first pole enters the corner of front window. 5 full lock right. 6 make the car straight and put the car in the middle of the lot. 7 moving off: put to D, move forward a bit, then put to R, full lock left and reverse. 8 check for safety, signal, put to D and drive off.

i think im right.

i just remembered my biggest problem isnt actually parking, but the stupid driving up the kerb and braking before the pole thing.

Original entry here.

To-do list

things to do this week in the absence of lectures & driving lessons: 1 find driving lesson. HAHA. if i fail, blog the steps for parallel parking everyday.


the countdown has officially started: 35 more days to driving test. i must pass on my first try cos 1) cannot allow sim kh to show his disdain! 2) test is so damn expensive. 3) ive already spent way more than my budget. 4) no time for revision lessons & retest! nov is exams, dec im overseas! 5) pdl expires january and i am NOT going to renew a slip of paper for a freaking $25! 6) i heard they are gonna change instructor groupings at the end of the year. 7) im sick of travelling! i hate taking 985 and 187 cos smrt buses are typically old, warm and dirty. 8) are you kidding! everyone wants to pass on their first try.


Full entry here!

Screwed driving

ronald siew for driving. kerbed once (touched only didnt go up - as if that makes a difference. immediate failure all the same) and i almost knocked a cyclist down cuz he was driving in my blind spot. you know we turn our heads just for the sake of that 2 points, not really to check, so we dont actually expect anything to appear in our blindspot?! kinda got a shock when i saw something there today. :/

Full entry here.

Stage 4

stage 4 of driving is amazingly fun but scary. i made very few mistakes but those were the immediate-failure kind. like striking the kerb (hard!) after a u-turn. such crappy errors. and even though the rest was pretty much ok, i think it was only cuz chan hy was my instructor? i really think the nerves on the actual test itself will be enough to make me fail.

my greatest concern though is finding lessons for the next three weeks!!!

full entry here.

How's your driving going?

...thankfully im going to be at bbdc before that, since bbdc has a direct bus to lot one, which has a direct bus to the child's home.

talking about driving. i abhor the way some people ask me things like hows my driving going, and then tell me how their friend/s started the same time as me but they finished already. are you trying to imply that my progress is slow? it just shows how ignorant they are (of my situation) because i would've finished the whole driving thing by now if not for the fact that my test date's so late. these people annoy me even more when they end off with, "but his/her test is 13 nov!" isnt your friend kind of dumb then!? s/he will probably have to spend so much more on revision lessons than i have to. if i pass, but that is quite a different matter altogether.

Full entry here.

Packed lessons

had sim kh for driving. he was noisy as usual but i shut him out, so its alright. ive got driving again today and thurs - i packed my week dunno for what, i've 3 weeks in oct without lessons. apparently there are people who fixed ronald siew as their instructor (!) -jaw drop- if i could, i'd fix chan hy as my instructor, but hes nice, and nice instructors dont ensure i pass.

Full entry here.

Improvements...

on a driving note i got ronald siew again (this time when i was like 'ah, whatever!' when i saw his name) and t'was normal. just that im very ok with him now so i dont find his 'normal' annoying. surprisingly im good at s-course now and my parallel parking seems ok! until i get sim again, that is, because sim kills all my confidence and replaces it with hatred for him...

i brought my laptop with me hoping to watch d.i.e. again on the bus. in the end i barely watched anything cos my head was spinning. im now watching ep17. siu yee-lookalike so bik just appeared. gah, i hate both characters! ive got a lot of work to do this weekend!


Full entry here!

BBDC Bitching

sim kh was my instructor for driving today. if i slapped him everytime he said something stupid, his face would have been badly bruised by the end of lesson.


he goes like, "hello good afternoon 我是sim" at the start with a stupid fake smile atypical of men his age (seriously, at 70-odd years of age, i dont think people bother being fake anymore - they've seen far too much of life to do that). unfortunately he couldnt carry that fake niceties through and he kept putting down my driving skills. what made it worse was how he'd say something like "sorry, i have to tell you the truth" after pointing out my faults. now how does that make sense? he must be the only teacher in the world of education to apologize for pointing out a student's error.


so he spent 75% of the lesson telling me i was wrong (and barely telling me what is right), and linking it to my lousy "previous instructors" who cared more about being "nice" but will definitely not ensure i pass. he reiterated no less than 3 times that his passing rate was the highest among everyone, and reminded me that his role is to make me pass on my first try. if not for the fact that whether students in his group pass on first try or not affect his year-end bonus, i dont think he'll give a damn about his students passing. i mean, it wouldnt affect him otherwise, right?


i dont deny that at the start of today's lesson i screwed up crank-course quite badly- i kept striking kerbs. he blamed it on my "previous instructor" (who by the way is in his group of instructors too so wth) who didnt bother teaching me 3.02 properly. in 3.02 they introduce you to the reverse gear so i dont see the link but ok, whatever, maybe theres a link. point being, how can you possibly blame me, or the previous instructor, if i dont know how to do 3.03 considering i havent completed that module yet? if i were that good at it i would have completed it last lesson, no?


i hate his endless bitching about other instructors- like how they are very nice and friendly but have a super-low passing rate, and how you can never learn driving properly with a private instructor, etc. the worst must have been how he said he works very hard (like from 2pm right through 11pm with only a short break in between). you almost start to suspect bbdc blackmailed him into teaching. :/ i just 'orh-ed' all his musings throughout.


and ronald siew was teaching 118 today. i was in car 117 but i usually use 118. hahaha. it has come to a stage where I REALLY DUNNO WHO I'D RATHER GET. but i guess i'd rather get ronald siew now that hes nicer to me, or chan hy, than sim, ng, or alex tan. alex tan is the ultimate cos he allows you to pass modules without going through them. even though sim sucks at least he taught me something.

Well its been more than 2 years now and I can safely say I still remember how annoying Sim KH was at that time. I hope he has retired.

Full entry here.

The Most Dramatic Me

im not sure if i want to get ronald siew for driving tomorrow HAHAHA. but seriously, with the test date set, i just want to learn stage 3 properly and pass on my first attempt (because it is so expensive). so much so i dont actually care about how much i (dis)like the person next to me. i just want a good instructor who will ensure i graduate a skillful, safe and responsible road user.


right. i sound like i am advertising bbdc. i should really publish a book with my driving memoirs. i think i create the most drama (for myself and that guy at the complain counter, plus maybe ronald siew) because nobody else has the same problems.

And in the end I started this blog! Full entry here.

Driving Simulator + Stage 3

I vaguely remember that old and cranky driving simulator which is compulsory for BBDC students and not students who take driving lessons anywhere else or privately:

had a long day of driving. driving simulator sucks. ive been dizzy since. stage 3 also sucks. s-course sucks. crank-course (?!) sucks too. i ran into ronald siew like twice today and he was super nice both times. :/ HAHA. he didnt teach me tho i had the scary-looking but super amiable instructor i had last week. didnt realize he was in my group. the guy at the pr counter called me back on my way to the driving simulator and he was like "miss! miss! so how's everything?" and after i told him all was fine, he reiterated that it was very important that i enjoy my lessons and that he'd do his best to help me should i have any problems in future. tsk. these people make me feel bad.

Full entry here.

this is the time where things got better.

3:06pm:

i have been forced to cab to bbdc because it is raining heavily. wth man. everytime i cab there its $10+. each lesson is $59.60 so it works out to almost $70! just to get stuck in a barely air-conditioned honda with all the hatred in the world transferred onto the person next to me. i better pass on my first try! i hate bbdc!

*
10:15pm:

ronald siew was my instructor.

cue: F***!!!!!

hahaha. a million bad words ran through my head when i saw his name on my allocation slip. i was like damn black-faced waiting beside the car. but SURPRISINGLY someone was in a good mood today and he was damn nice throughout the whole lesson, less naggy and quite fun too. he even told me my driving improved a lot since the last time he taught me. (not that i believe him cos i know im not that good. if i take the test now i sure fail. but at least i have finally finished stage two and i can finally book my test. YAY!)

so. it wasnt too bad. i dont hate ronald siew that much anymore.

full entry here.

this is the time where driving became a painful affair

there was this time not too far into my driving course where i really, really dreaded driving lessons because of the instructors. somehow i just kept getting super annoying instructors. my face would be really black everytime i saw a familiar name on the slip. going to bbdc felt like a gamble every single time because i just wanted to get instructors not from my group. of course this attitude changed later on.

driving was awful- i was having a lot of trouble concentrating cos i was so tired and ng hl's bad attitude didnt help. honestly, he has no business showing his customers attitude. bah.

i sense my driving skills deteriorate because of the instructors. its psychological but when you really hate the instructor its very hard to learn from them? its really bad cos i keep harping on the wrong things. things like how 1) if i pass on my first attempt instructors in my group - those i hate - are going to get a bonus. like really; thats what the guy at the service counter told me the purpose of fixed group was. thats not really my concern per se, but people like huimin 'graduated' from bbdc without getting the same instructors more than once, which means her instructors only taught her once, but they got their bonus all the same cos huimin passed on her first attempt. i dont really care about them and their bonus considering im not paying it, cos in the first place 2) i dont even think i can pass on my first attempt if this continues cos i freaking hate driving lessons with these instructors.

i really want to change my group but they said i can only change to another auto group, but my fave instructor's teaching manual (WHY WHY WHY?!) and i have no idea which auto group i should choose. also, if i change group i have to give up all my current training slots (which ive booked 2-3x a week for the whole month of september, which would theoretically allow me to finish driving lessons by october) so i am very very unwilling to do that.

its really weird how im typing like this cos not too long ago i was looking forward to each of my driving lessons. this is sad and unfortunate. mr lu shouldnt be teaching manual!!!!

entry in its entirety here.

complaints

reading this again was really funny for me cos i no longer feel the same as i did when i typed this entry. read it with a large pinch of salt and please understand where i was coming from when i typed it.

today i went driving, the whole time during which it was threatening to rain, it finally did after the class so i was half-drenched while walking out of bbdc. the good thing about rain is that you no longer have to endure smoking idiots outside the gate. i hopped onto any random bus (literally) which brought me all the way to marsiling (!) then i took mrt back to jurong east (!) so stupid right, i just needed shelter. the ride was kinda thrilling anyway.

...

by the way, bbdc, for all their good service, can be really inflexible. they insist i have to pay $20+ for a 'fixed instructor scheme account' and $4 more for every lesson if i want to change my group. thing is, i hate 4 out of 6 instructors in my group. they're weird, unhygienic, naggy (but useless in improving my driving skills) and annoying.

ok they are not that weird but they do annoying things, like wind down windows with the aircon on (and refuse to wind it back up when i ask- hello, its damn noisy and dirty outside with all the roadworks going on), or nag and insist that what im doing is wrong but refuse to tell me what is right. one tried to show, but some of us just aint that visual, communicate it vocally! the worst is how they dig their noses and touch the same steering wheel i touch. SICK!!!!!!!!!!!!

i went to complain and the guy, though friendly & cordial, insisted that i have problems with my group cos they have the "responsibility to ensure i pass on first try". he drew a parallel saying its like how "aunties and uncles are always nicer than parents." WELL I AM SORRY, but my parents are a lot nicer than my aunties and uncles. though not all of them suck but following the same parallel it is (some of) my relatives who are useless in improving my life & annoying. i said to the guy plainly, regardless of what kind of stress they face in having to ensure their students pass on first try, it still doesnt undermine the fact that their true responsibility lies in communicating how i can become a better driver, and since they dont, it just means they're not doing their jobs.

its just like pilots who are under a lot of stress cannot possibly crash the plane and have their airlines say in their defense that the pilots are under a lot of stress what.

the other problem with his parallel is the notion of choice. we dont get to choose who we are born to, but certainly it is within human control who my driving instructors are. seriously, i frickin hate sim, ronald siew, alex tan and ng hl. alright, not so much ng hl but he speaks really slowly, which annoys me. ronald siew is the worst. i got him twice already. hes unhygienic, unfriendly, and answers my questions with other questions (like, "do i definitely have to use the hand-over-hand technique when turning?" his answer was "then what you wanna do? you dont think hand-over-hand can help you huh? then do you think you can be a safe driver?" like bah, JUST "YES" WOULD SUFFICE YOU KNOW, IM NOT ARGUING AGAINST IT.) alex tan kept asking "so, you got question to ask me?" throughout the whole lesson, pointing out generic comments and didnt teach much, if at all. sim is simply impossible to understand. view their mugshots here: http://www.bbdc.sg/bbdc/bbdc_web/autoGroups.asp my group's the first. i like the instructors outside my group much better. but strangely the instructor i like the most is listed under manual (!) - which is strange cuz i remember him telling me that learning auto was a "明确的选择"!

anyhow, guy @ complain counter finished up by stating that he hopes that i dont come for every lesson hoping i dont get those instructors, and i told him it is exactly what has been happening. i said 'f***' three times when i got ronald siew the second time.


ok enough bitching. i hope potential bbdc students out there dont end up in g8001 as i did. (complain guy also told me there are students who chose them under the fixed instructor scheme. wth man what are those people thinking???)

looking back, i really cannot understand how come mr siew (now shi fu) used to react like that. anyway he became a lot nicer to me after i talked to the guy at the counter. as far as i can remember he still loves winding down the window but i got used to it after a while. i still hate the rest though!

my hope for a nice instructor

tomorrow i watch laughing-gor, maybe, and visit cd-rama before driving. driving is the yay. i hope i get a nice instructor.

this was the stage in which i really dreaded lessons with some instructors even though i still enjoyed driving in general. there's nothing much else in the original entry but it is here if you're interested.

alex tan

school complaints aside, i went for my 5th driving lesson today after a week of not driving and i thought it was quite screwed but the instructor passed me for 3 (!) subjects. which is bad cuz i dont feel confident about making sharp turns at all nor do i about driving at 70km/h.

the rest of the entry is available here.

ps: that was alex tan j. j. who passed me for three subjects even though i didn't deserve to. actually he doesn't get anything out of passing me for three subjects so i have no idea why he did.

more brief mentions

made brief mention of my learning to drive in an entry i wrote to conclude my 3-month break last year.

first time on the roads

had my first driving lesson on the roads, as well as the first in english. wow. striked two kerbs and almost smashed the car cos my turning was too wide and i cant seem to turn the steering wheel back fast enough.

and more @ http://ycroxmyworld.blogspot.com/2009/08/first-day-of-last-week.html

ps: i remember i hated the instructor for this lesson. hes damn lucky i cannot remember his name. he wasnt in any of my groups but he was damn unfriendly.

so it was my fault that i mounted the kerb. actually maybe not cos apparently i was inexperienced in handling the car at that stage?! besides i struck so many kerbs with mr chan later on and he didnt scold me, not even once.

first driving lesson

had my first driving lesson today! i had a super nice instructor who was extremely amused with how i cleaned everything with dettol wipes before the lesson started. driving's okay, but the circuit gets boring after a while, especially when you just go around and around - it starts to get monotonous and then you have problems concentrating. i also have problems controlling the accelerator. 不用怕！很好玩的！indeed.

entry in its entirety here.

just a brief mention

im flying off at about 6-ish bangkok time, will reach home 10-ish singapore time. and uh, i hope i remember to check my driving theory shiz on the bbdc website cos i know i squeezed everything into tomorrow and the day after.

original entry here.

sign-up!

and i have signed up for driving lessons for real. after rejecting the idea for more than a year. had no idea it'll be that expensive (and now i know all you people flocking to learn driving are quite rich huh!) but thankfully its being paid for.

my only worry is something very random - to touch the same steering wheel as a million other people who possibly dont wash their hands after going to the toilet. the thought of which freaks me out, and im thinking if i'd be allowed to drive while wearing gloves. maybe surgical gloves, if the durian-seller type makes me look like some robber. i know its a mad idea. but just like how i hate using public computers, i hate touching surfaces that a million others have touched before. which also explains why i hate going to public toilets and opening doors.

actually the truth is i really dont want to learn driving cos i know i'll still prefer being driven around. confessions of someone lazy.

original entry here.