Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Driving Lesson - Part 2


If you see this mokcik driving her little fella, please
(1) keep your distance
(2) give way when she signals
(3) don’t stay behind her, she’s slow

It’s been quite a while since the little fella came home but I’ve driven it only twice. 1st time during the weekend to Suadamai Area where the kids’ kindy is, then to Mines area, then turned back to BTHO. 2nd time was yesterday. Back home to BTHO from my office in Bangsar. That was my 1st time driving a medium-range journey. Oh, btw, the little fella needs servicing this weekend. The meter almost touching 1000km already.

I swear people were looking. Even Tebby commented so. A few guys on bikes ‘senyum-senyum kambing’ when we stop at one traffic light. They must have seen me swerving left and right. My God, my hands were not steady and I was jiggling all over. So did the car I think. There was a big slow lorry right in front of me and I had no choice but to overtake it. And I signaled like 2-3 minutes before eventually had the courage to change lane. By then the slow lorry was way ahead! Ha.. ha.. ha.. I fumbled at the toll-booth. The TNG has no cradle in the little fella. It is fixed is the other car. Tebby said he would not help and acted as if he wasn’t there. So I had to manually hold the thing and aimed until it gave out the sound. Thank God it’s an auto car. I have lesser things to mind.

I met my first obstacle right after I took the exit to Kuchai Lama where I had to cross 2 lanes to get to the other side to go south. The distance was barely 20 meters. The traffic was heavy. I inched sideways while trying so hard not to bump into the car in-front. However, I miscalculated the speed of cars coming from behind. And I was not sure of my orientation as well. I looked into the side mirror but I could not tell whether the cars I saw coming from behind were from really behind me or actually at the lane next to mine. I braked. A jeep honked. And honked. And honked. In fact he was still honking even after I managed to get to my exit. *grin* sorilah Uncle. I am drawing a plan to just drive forward and make some rounds to get to that da** exit next time. If I can’t get in that way, I still can do it some other ways right. It may seems stup** and unnecessarily inefficient but for now let’s just call it ‘safety round’. Janji mokcik and the car sampai rumah in one piece. To that Jeep Uncle, waitlahh a few months, you’ll be waving me with respect. (eh, abang ipar aku ada pakai keta Jeep tu. Hijau jugak.. tah tah dia…)

I had a fairly good drive from the point where I gained popularity from the honking event in Kuchai Lama right up to the toll-booth in BESRAYA. Like any other amateur driver, I decided to join the long Q to get myself to Mines exit. Much to Tebby’s disappointment as he always jumps it.

We stopped over at Petronas for gas. Even for that, I was still trembling. Oh… angkat… cucuk… tekan… sangkut… Jangan tak tau, mokcik ni nak buka penutup tempat minyak pon tak pandai! Acara mengisi angin tayar ditangguh dulu as it was getting late. We proceeded to BTHO. First to Suadamai to fetch the kids. They were perplexed seeing Tebby getting out of the car. They got overly excited when the saw me at the driver’s seat. Iman even decided to join me there. Nevertheless, the three of them sat at the back seat. Susah rupanya nak menjawab soalan-soalan anak-anak while trying to focus on the road.

For yesterday, Tebby gave me 70 points (with 100 as full marks).
Aik.. 70 marks aje?
Ye lah. Considering that you could not tell your orientation and miscalculated the speed.
Well, you can’t expect me to be so terer overnight
Well, then don’t expect high marks from me as well.
*b grin*


I’m sure we all know about those ‘baby on board’ stickers. I should get one. ‘Amateur Mokcik Driver On Board’ would do I think. don't you?

Alhamdulillah, after almost an hour, we got back home unscratched. I thought I was going to have a nightmare but I did not. Maybe that Jeep Uncle did. Maybe..

7 comments:

Unknown said...

i can imagine your situation.. dah la keter baru.. pastu nak belajar lagi.. pressure tuu..

anyway.. i'm sure you'll be like Michael Schumacher in no time.. :)

Anonymous said...

it's always scary to drive the 1st time. me is still traumatic over an accident years ago. :)

pB said...

Kah kah kah ...

sodap tu gelak kat ummie...

sorry , pB gurau jer ..

biasalah , kereta baru dan pemandu lama ...

mana leh laju laju ....

lepas ni ummie kena belajar check minyak hitam dan bubuh air

mama_fynn said...

ummi,

i don't have the license but i can imagine what you are going through..im also a coward myself. i tend to be panic and when i m panic i can't think...

Anonymous said...

practise makes perfect kan????

ntah2, nanti2, akak yang merempit dijalanan ngan viva itteww...

aida said...

first time driving after a long time sure scares you..

teringat masa mula2 bawak waja, upgrade terus dari iswara yang kecik molek.. skrg kalau pakai kereta kecik rasa cam sempit je

ummi said...

matasipit ~ rasanya problem tu is more like me. cik viva tu okeh aje.. he he.

abi ~ that was not my first time. but first time after so many years kot.

PB ~ hasben kite pon dok gelakkan kita. cam makcik2 slow yang dia selalu ngomel2 tu huhu. FYI, baru semalam kite tengok enjin sikecik tu.

mamafynn ~ akak lak bila panik, kaki ni dok tekan brek. bila stop, org lain pon hon. hasben akak kata pekak kan aje. sampaikan dia cakap pun akak buat pekak. siap melawan instructor lagi tu.. btw i hope you're all well now. take care okay.

oren ~ oh, not-so-young makcik merempit? oh tidak.. buruksss!!

aida ~ to me, it feels a lot better driving that little viva than tebby's optra. maybe because it is MY car kot.a lot lighter and easy to manuover. sesuwai lah dengan makcik yang kecik ni.