Ying Hui's first time driving

My left ankle is sore from bending, my eyes are strained open from having to watch out for every single (even the teensy-weensy) bit of obstacle and my mind is befuddled and clogged up from juggling between listening to instructions, trying to carry out them by manning my still-asleep hands and legs and thinking for myself about the next step.

Despite all the damage to my body, I’m proud to announce that Tham Ying Hui had not-quite-successfully manoeuvred a car, a Kancil to say the least, around her housing area more than 10 rounds, which made her looked like she was lost in the middle of a dense jungle and couldn’t get out. Yes, I bloody did that.

And I must say, driving is definitely an excellent way to wake me up, as in the fully-alert kind, in the morning, even if I just got out of bed for half an hour (actually it was longer than that, but you get my drift) and was aching and resisting the urge to crawl back to bed and the cool comfort of my sanctuary.

You know, when I was pulled to consciousness around 9am this morning, the first thought was like, Shit! I’m going driving today! Oh no, someone will probably get rolled over by me! Yeah. How negative am I? But I dozed off to La La Land again (my latest habit) till about 9.40am when I forced myself out of bed, with much effort, to get ready. 50 minutes to go. Gah!

So I waited, till more or less 10.50am when a white Kancil paused at my neighbour’s place and horned. Doomed. I quickly entered the car and Mr Eric drove to the playground behind my house. He then ran though all the basics with me while I tried to register as much information as I could with my hazy mind. No chance. After he was done, my brain still contained 0% of what he said. Thank God he wrote everything down, or at least what was extremely important, like the steps I should take when I just got into the car, after I started the engine and when I need to stop the vehicle. There was so much to absorb!

I tried to remember as much as I could coz I suspected he was going to hand me the wheel. And he did. He went, “好啦, 到你驾车!” and stepped out of the car. Crap. This is it, I thought. Panicked, I plonked onto the driver’s seat and gingerly pulled the seat belt out of my ass. “Eh, adjust 你的椅子.” Right. I was getting to that, thank you. But I adjusted it anyway, then strapped the seat belt across my torso and checked all 3 mirrors.

And the real first lesson begun. I started with testing to use the accelerator with my right foot then changed to the brake and back again, for a couple of times. Then I moved on to the clutch with my left foot and switching gears. I got a bad feeling that my left leg is longer than my right coz somehow my right foot fitted just comfortably on the accelerator and the brake with my left foot seemed squashed back everytime I released the clutch.

Anyway, I later went on to bring the car forward then reversed and did this for a few tries. Soon enough, off I drove, with the 1^st gear around the playground. And around and around and around and around. Then I made a bigger circle by driving past my house. With about 7 rounds done and litters of fuel (okay, maybe not that much) wasted, I drove straight after coming out of 2/2 and turned right into 2/5, where I encircled the playground there, including a row of houses. I really wonder what people thought of a tiny white Kancil driving past their house more than 3 times, though I suppose seeing the huge red L would pretty much explained everything.

Well, so I drove for a wee more than an hour, making my head spun out of confusion over what my limbs needed to do all the while. Just as I turned into my lane for perhaps the 20^th time, Mr Eric finally muttered the magical words, “好啦,今天驾到这里为止.” Hallelujah! And I gratefully and cautiously drove back to my house, went into free gear and pulled the brake. I survived! Fine, it wasn’t that bad. After scheduling my next lesson, which would be tomorrow morning, about 9am, right after Amanda, I limped slightly back into the house and slumped down in front of the computer, where I wrote this.