Barely a week after my BM course, I was sent for the class 4 driving course. I had always hoped to go for it, since I can escape my daily workshop chores, and in the meantime learn driving to for free. It is impossible for me to clock the 7000km needed to convert a military license to a civilian license, but the skill is much more important than that piece of paper. The downside, however, is compulsory stay-in.
As I arrived at Sembawang camp on Monday, quite a few surprises were in store for me there. Firstly, we would not be learning the driving at Sembawang camp; instead every morning we would be ferried on charted buses to go to Kaki Bukit camp. This means extra travelling and early waking up time, which is set a 5.00am. I believe many people may not have even slept by then. In addition, we have to book in and out in smart 4 and field pack, and wear a jockey cap instead of a beret. This closely and eerily resembles the practice at Tekong, and I feel suddenly I’m restarting my recruit life. Unlike BMT, whereby everyone is of the same rank and without much hair, my Group (something like Platoon) comprises of people from 1SG to REC, from Air Force and PDF to AMB and Guards. This rojak of technicians, guards, drivers, air defense personnel is unique compared to other courses, and possibly would be the source of all the fun and quarrel in the weeks to come.
In my bunk, there’s a 2SG who has lots of stories to share about his army days. His personal perspective adds on the news I read on the TV or newspaper, as he was present when airplane crashes in Taiwan and other stories. There’s also a PSC scholar and Harvard graduate with a Master degrees in Statistics, who has a very different view on the various issues I discussed with him. 2 Guards Sergeants also share the bunk with me, and they’re unexpectedly quiet and soft-spoken. And there’s an Indian guy whose vocation is driver and shares the same instructor with me.
Now let me talk about the learning experiences so far. The instructors are very fierce group of people. Most of them cannot tolerate the slightest mistakes. There are some people among us who already have driving license and they expect those without license to be comparable. On my first trial, I can’t even keep a straight course and my Land Rover would zigzag across the lines repeatedly. Despite my apologies and explanations, the instructor kept on scolding me. In the subsequent lessons, he kept on nagging and saying things like “are you trying to kill me”, “don’t you understand”, and so on. He sounded like I owe them millions of dollars. This applies to a lot of the instructors as they. I seriously think they should go for some anger management course and be more patient, and be aware of the fact that a person is simply not able to learn everything he is taught.
Nevertheless my skills improved and I can drive on the road without much fuss. It feels very fast just to travel at 50km/h, and I wonder why people want to speed beyond 100km/h on a normal road, without the slightest regard to their and other road users’ safety. Now waiting to drive my 3 toner.
