first driving lessonIt's the first time i'm behind the driver seat while the car is moving!!! so exciting!!! definitely worth the time for me to blog abt it. haha!
Today is my first practical driving lesson. To be honest, I did not know what to expect at all. I was expecting to maybe just loiter ard the carpark for a while.. in case if i panic, only 1 car is damaged and not a whole row of vehicles. =P
It's a 2 hr lesson. For the first hr or slightly lesser, it was a 'theory' lesson. My instructor was teaching me the functions of the different components in the car, how & when to use them. The steering wheel.. rear mirror... clutch.. hand brake.. foot brake.. accelerator.. etc. These are still easy to rmb. But when he started to teach me abt changing of gears... that's when i was overwhelmed. I cant rmb anything lar!!! Gosh it is so complicated... but nvm. i told myself it's only the first lesson...sure got time to slowly rmb them.
After that, my instructor drove me around for a short while, pointing out to me the things to note... for e.g. when making a turn, need to turn on the signal at this distance away from the traffic light, need to look at the rear mirror, look at the blind stop, then turn... then time to change gear, release the accelerator, step on the clutch, change gear, step on the accelerator, release the clutch slowly... and so on. ok, to be honest.. i din catch much lar. everything happened damn fast.
so after that 1 short round... my instructor told me that it's time i got on the driver's seat and drive around the same roads. My my... I am going to drive on the real road?? On the first lesson!!! omg. I was shocked! i was not even totally sure how to properly operate a car.. and now i'm going to drive on a real road with real traffic?? haha... I know it sounds very stupid lar, since the roads are not really very heavy ones. But still, being the first time, I couldn't help feeling nervous. In the first round that I made, my instructor feedback to me was that I was holding too tightly onto the steering wheel. If the steering wheel was alive, it would cry in pain! hahaha... i agree. I was holding so tightly cos I didn't know the steering wheel is that stiff~ I thot it would always auto-rotate back to the original position.. seems like it won't! But anyway, I tried to relax in the second round and held the wheel less tightly lar. =P
The turning on of the signal lights, the pulling and releasing of the hand brake and the moving of the gear handle with the left hand are actually pretty fun! haha... even turning the steering wheel is fun. But my feet were giving me problems man, especially the accelerator. It is like... unsensitive for the first few degree of depression, then super-sensitive after that. I always over depress it and end up driving too fast for my ability. =( The foot brake is also like.... not sure if i even stepped on it or not. I guess I was driving too slowly to feel any resistance lar but it was still a feeling of achievement when i managed to stop the car right before the white line. hahaha...
Throughout that hr of practical... I was like a robot, doing whatever my instructor told me to. Step this, release that. Change this, turn on that. haha... I couldn't memorise or learn, just trying to interpret each instruction properly so that I didn't do the wrong thing. I wasn't even aware when the traffic light turned green or if there's a car coming towards me. heh. It was overwhelming for me, but great fun!! haha.. enjoy it. =P Hopefully in the next lesson, I would be more concious of my actions lar.
Well... at least today i didn't cause the engine to stall. And my instructor said I've already done quite well considering this is only my first practical lesson. hahaha.. take it that I've done well bah. Looking fwd to the next lesson!! =)