Last driving lesson?

The lesson this morning was quite interesting and enjoyable as it was my first time driving in heavy rain and the instructor was quite encouraging. He said I showed confidence in the circuit but he observed that I was more hesitant and less smooth outside on the road.

My driving test will be on Mon afternoon. I guess whether I will get my driving license after that will depend on my skills. And maybe some luck too. Haha. I hope this will be my last lesson. It has been fun but tiring too from all the time and money spent since 25 Jan. But I don't want to be one of those lousy or reckless drivers out on the roads, so I'm mentally prepared if the tester thinks I need more practice :)

Ups & downs of learning driving

Last Sun's lesson made me feel down as I didn't do well, didn't react fast enough, didn't observe safety when I panicked. The instructor wasn't very encouraging too. I contemplated whether to switch to learning auto car but after thinking it through and encouragement from friends, I've decided to just persevere.

This morning I got a cheerful instructor. He explained to me clearly how to start the car smoothly, brake smoothly, using clutch in and clutch out instead of brake for low speed control and do a nice U turn and lane change. He was encouraging and said I've improved. Hopefully I will do better for tomorrow's lesson under another instructor. Then it will make this a good weekend as I have passed my final theory test yesterday :)

Review of my driving lessons

Yesterday afternoon was my 6th lesson and I think I have made more improvement as compared to 4th and 5th lesson. I got 3 different instructors for those lessons. The first instructor for the 1st 3 lessons was the most encouraging and gave me the confidence to drive on the road. The next 2 instructors were older and more serious, still friendly but will shake their head when the engine stalled while I attempted to stop @ the junction and didn't do a full clutch while braking. Shaking head without humour is quite discouraging but I did learn from the process, just that it became a bit nerve wrecking and less fun.

For the lesson yesterday, the instructor ran through with me all the steps to start the car properly, feel the biting point, when to change gear, when to shift down gear to do engine break, pressing the pedals properly. He didn't make small talk, just focused on my driving and guided me as I drove around the circuit and the Ubi area outside of driving school. I still take too long a time to get the biting point and accelerate but I'm the way there. He didn't encourage or discourage. I prefer the teaching styles of the 1st instructor and the last one which make me feel positive and the lessons were enjoyable too.

Learning Japanese language again

After more than 8 years, I'm picking up Japanese language again. This time, I'm learning with a good friend, Flying Raisin and hopefully we can motivate each other to be able to use the language when we next visit Japan, to read Japanese craft magazine. I can also read the labels of Japanese cat food and treats. Hee.

Yesterday was our first lesson. With fellow classmates of all ages, we learnt how to introduce ourselves, some Hiragana characters, numbers 0, 1 to 10, greetings, etc. It's really fun and nice to be in an environment where everyone is keen to learn and Sato-San was enthusiastic too to teach us. The Ikoma School's staff are also friendly. One of them even called me this morning to remind me to attend the lesson and asked whether I was sure I want to start from basic all over again since I had learnt Japanese for almost a year. I told her that it was a long time ago and I haven't been practising at all.

Hopefully this 3rd time, I will persevere and achieve my objectives :)