I´ve been driving from my home to the company where I work alone! My first experience was on Tuesday when I decided that I wanted to use the car (since Stephan is staying at home to study for his exams). Boy, was it scary! I had to enter the highway and was praying that God would open a space for me. Turns out an LKW (long vehicle) was on the lane that I wanted to enter. I had to wait for this LKW to pass before I signalled in after it. There was another LKW just behind this one, so I had to quickly turn in and ended I being stuck in btw 2 LKWs. And the best part was I had to exit the highway. Its a bit hard to describe, but the lane where I had to turn into, is connected to another highway. So there were some vehicles which were already on the lane that I had to turn into. The best part was that the LKW that was in front of me, turned into that narrow lane to exit as well. Imagine the length of an LKW.......and the part where I had to exit is very short, if I somehow didn´t squeeze into the narrow lane, I wouldn´t have been able to exit and would have had to make a detour. So, I had to quickly accelerate to exit, brake like crazy (cos the LKW had to brake real hard, cos the bend was very sharp) AND there was another LKW just behind me AGAIN! Anyways, for those who catch no ball, point was... it was really terrifying for me..... To end it off, I had to parallel park outside the company and as luck would have it, I´m not an expert at parallel parking. My parking experience took 5 minutes in 2 different lots.....I finally strolled into class at exactly 4.15pm and was so flustered that I had to relate my driving experience to my students......
Anyways.... I´m so proud that I managed to drive myself to and fro work again today. Yah hey! I makes me feel so independent, that I can just trust in God and nobody else. I actually prayed "Ok God, there´s just you and me. If you don´t help me, nobody will. So I´m trusting that you will bring me to work and back in one piece....." and it works!
6 comments:
Good try. Once you get over this fear hurdle, it would be fine. I know because I went through it. The first time I drove on my own, I had sore hand muscles from gripping too tightly to the steering wheel. My thighs ached too as I wasn't used to placing them in a certain position for more than 20 mins and having to anticipate braking all the time. Parking would be easier if you install small blind spot mirrors to your existing side view mirrors. With the blind spot mirrors, you can even see the pavement level while parking. It would be even better with a reverse camera which I installed in my vehicle. On a few occasions, I witnessed some surprise looks on some bystander's faces (particularly the guys)that I could manage to parallel park in tight spots but what they did not know was that I had a reverse camera
Well done you!!!!! I miss driving a lot but can understand your fear. Once you've done it a few times by yourself (especially getting on a off the Autobahn) you will be fine. It looks a lot harder than it is.
Very proud of you!
xx
Hi Anonymous! Is that you Grace? hahah. I don´t remember my dad having a reverse camera. Yah! I know what that looks like, my uncle has one of that too. Sounds like a great idea! I can definitely talk to Stephan about getting a reverse camera....how much do one of those stuff cost?
Dear Jie Jie! Thanks so much for your encouragement! Hee...I haven´t actually got on an Autobahn by myself yet.... What I got on is an expressway....only about 80km/h...Autobahn is 100km/h right?
A reverse camera cost about S$2000 but worth the while really.
Grace
Hey Grace, I´ve spoken to Stephan about the reverse mirror. However, we both think that since the car we´re driving is relatively small, there´s no urgent need to get a reverse mirror. Plus considering the price, its a luxury that we can´t afford at the moment. Perhaps in the future when we have kids and a bigger car, and I would have to drive more often, we´d seriously consider purchasing one. Thanks for your suggestion though. :)
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