Initial D

David taught me how to drive today! Yippee...! Finally got a chance to turn a steering wheel!

Before talking about that, let me just rattle a while on a really hilarious sight!

What actually happened was that the guys had to shift all the bus chassis from the original yard to free up space. For the benefits of all here, bus chassis are referring to buses without their outer cover. Just imagine a skeleton bus without any seats, (drive seat is only a wooden chair) and you can see all the parts and pieces of the interior bus. The thing can still be driven but its very dangerous cos there is no door or anything to protect the driver. Its actually illegal to drive such things ("things" cos its not a vehicle and yet not a machine, strictly speaking!) and if caught, the driver will be facing really stiff penalties.

Anyway, the guys spent the whole afternoon helping me shift the bus chassis to the new location and so I told Mike that I would help him do his permit since its quite a lot. After a while, I started to get really sleepy, probably due to my flu and so I called Mike to tell him that I was going off, but he asked me to come out and said he wanted to show me some funny magic. Out of curiousty, I decided to humour him. Besides, I was free for the rest of the late afternoon anyway. So I went out and found him there waiting for me in a very lok kok Ford Laser.

"Hop aboard, I want to show you a very funny thing! Wait a while first, they are coming.."

So we sat there in his lork kok Ford and waited.

After about 10mins, I saw 3 funny looking trailers with 3 very uncomfortable men driving them speeding towards us! At first I had difficulty recognizing them and then I realized that its actually the guys driving the bus chassis! They were looking very out of the place and James almost dropped off his wooden seat cos the road is very bumpy! I was laughing and slapping my thighs at the sight! Man, the whole thing is so goddamn hilarious!!! Kaoz!! Imagine 3 grown men who are really good drivers by the way, having difficulty staying put in their seats and manipulating the vehicles that they are driving!

Anyway, I accompanied Mike the whole afternoon fetching the 3 guys to and fro the new and old yard cos the distance was quite long. It was quite fun actually cos these guys are really a fun lot, althoughs sometimes I had difficulty understanding them since they are actually PRC and speak with a very strong Mainland Hokkien accent. The other most interesting thing that happened during the whole shifting process was that the lousy Ford Laser decided to give up on us. At that time, only me and Mike were in the car, the rest were driving the bus chassis illegally across the road. While driving across a very rough patch of land, the bloody Ford gave a few splutters and died on us! Mike was trying his darndest to start the Ford while I was busying laughing my head off at the whole situation! In the end, he managed to get the Ford across to the side and we hopped onto a new car, this time a Nissan Cefiro! Cool car! Like what James said, "a car fit for napping while eating snake in the afternoon, with leather seats and all!"

After the shifting work, Mike wanted to drive me back to the office but Daivd offered to teach me how to drive cos I was lamenting about not knowing how to drive and its such a disgrace to my department since we are dealing with cars! I was more than happy to learn from him, afterall I had time on my hand today and got nothing better to do! Daivd promised me that after 2 days of training under him, I would be ready to take the driving test and can even wow the tester with my new found driving skils! Before I elaborate further on my driving adventures, let me rattle a little on Daivd.

David is a PRC who has been working here for 2 years. He used to be in the army back in the Mainland and hes one of the best drivers I have ever seen! He told me that back in the academy, the instructors were really tough, any mistakes made while driving would earn him a punch to the head on the spot. And the cars driven there are so lousy that they should be scrapped long ago! To digrest a little, Daivd is also quite good looking! Hes tanned, really tanned cos hes working under the sun the whole day. And hes awfully tall too.. Imagine a tanned, tall man manipulating a car, doing stunts like turning sharply and spraying dirt with the car! Wow! Cool!

Ok, enough of my drooling! Back to the main topic....

So Daivd made me drive the green Nissan Cefiro around! Cool! First car I got to drive and it was a Xi-Fei-Lou! Hah! Even though the distance between the seats and the accelerator was too far and I had to push the seat all the way in........ After a while, he picked another car, a Corolla this time cos its smaller and easier for me to manipulate..

So I spent the whole afternoon driving, speeding (yes!), turning, braking and more turning in the yard with David. Shiok! I had the whole yard to myself cos its practically empty. Its about the size of a football field and I had so much space to manipulate! Although, there were times when I gave David shocks of his life.. Times like when I turned too sharply and almost lang-gah the container trailers or the other cars parked there, times like when I almost drove into ledges or drains and most shocking of all, times when i mistook the accelerator for brake and stepped on it when I was supposed to brake! Luckily Daivd was very alert and pulled the handbrake immediately, otherwise me and him might just spent the whole night trying to think of excuses on why the car was hit!

All in all, my shifu said I am a fast learner and I was very comfortable with the steering wheel for a first timer! He even asked me if I had touched a steering wheel before cos I steered like a driver! (Gleeful smile!) And he said he is sure that I would be able to pass my driving test on my first try! Cool!!

Ok, Initial D, here I come! :D