Catching my flights to US soon...

I'm catching my flights to US in less than 24 hours....and now I'm feeling so nervous at the thought of travelling alone. I hope nothing bad happens during the whole trip. Touchwood. I have never been so hardworking in applying facial mask, but after hearing that the skin gets really dry during a long flight, I decided to apply my masks today and yesterday night to prepare my skin for it. I wanted to check-in online, but I don't have a working printer at home to print the boarding pass. My luggage looks so full now...I hope I'll have enough space for things I'm going to buy...

I went to dine at Zheng Fa Steamboat with my family just now and it was so crowded. Its new location is opposite Novena Church and as featured on the Channel 8's buffet show, it now has an air-conditioned area. However, we did not get to sit in the air-conditioned area, as the tables in the air-conditioned area are for bigger groupsa nd we didn't specially request for it. I always fear the sight of the live prawns being cooked in the hot water....I hope they rest in peace. The queue on a Sat evening was so long that I believe they have to wait for 1 hours plus before they could get a table. The tip is to go earlier, like 10mins before 5pm (5pm is its official start time for dinner).

I think I'm getting rusty in my road driving skills....during my lesson today, I couldn't brake in time and went past the stop line, which my instructor said is an immediate failure case. I never have problem in stopping at stop lines, thus I really don't understand why I did it today. Maybe I'm just too excited about my trip, haa. I always find it hard to change lane in heavy traffic and all the vehicles seem to be so close to my car. I hope I would improve on that soon, or else I'm sure to fail my first attempt of TP. Touchwood again.

I wish myself a happy journey and thanks to all who have wished me Bon Voyage!

Counting down to my US trip...

2 more weeks and I'll be off to US!!! I'm so excited. It'll be the first time that I'm flying alone and on such a long flight to Orlando! I haven't change my USD and I really hope that SGD could get stronger in these 2 weeks....Please let it drop to 1.4.....(I should have changed my money when it was at 1.35. Haiz haiz haiz)

I just checked on NWA's website and realized that my flight is cheaper by S$100+ now! I always thought that it's cheaper to get the air tickets early, but I'm wrong...ok, I have learnt a lesson. The tickets are only cheaper during promotions or nearer to the date of flight departure.

I hope I could sleep well on the plane. I remember that I was ever seated near a toddler who cried and threw tantrum throughout the 6-hrs flight during my trip to Korea. It was a night flight and I was trying my best to sleep...I must have looked like a panda when I arrived at Korea. Hope that won't happen again.

Towards my last part of stage 3 driving lessons....

Thank you Mr Tan H.C. for helping me to revise my S course and crank course! Finally, I learnt how not to mount kerb in these narrow courses, hee. You have given me really good tips. I managed to pass my vertical parking without hitting or shaking any poles, yeah. I tried to learn emergency braking today, but my instructor told me I didn't brake hard enough. He demonstrated and the hard braking could really jerked the car hard! However, that should be the right way to do an emergency brake, even though I find it a bit "violent"(I mean the jerking of the car, not the driver. Haa, I think Mr Tan thought I'm referring to him when I told him it's so violent).

Next lesson I'll be learning how to do an emergency brake again and I hope I can do it better, with the right "violent" jerk that could bring the car to an immediate stop.

Time passes so fast during driving and I really enjoyed learning how to learn. I think I'll miss going into the portal to book the driving lessons and attending the driving lessons. Being a kiasu Singaporean, I have booked many lessons in advance, which I think is more than required to complete the entire course. I guess I'll end up with more revision classes if I pass my remaining subjects smoothly.

I attended my first compulsory auto car lesson on friday night. As usual, I adjusted my seat and tested my left leg's reach to the clutch pedal, which was not present in an auto car, haa. I found tha an auto car's brake needs more pressure than a manual car and that braking has to be done early or the car will jerk to a stop. The accelerator of an auto car seems more sensitive than a manual car's. I felt that it's easier to control the speed of a manual car...I think I'll consider a manual car for my first car purchase...(Actually I shouldn't be thinking about buying a car now since it's recession now and I don't think I have the savings to own a car. Haiz.)

My new crystals

Do you believe in the magic of crystal? I do. I bought a lovely purple and brown crystal bracelet at $98. I really like the crystals and I hope they will bring me luck in driving and in having good health. Purple crystal symbolises a clear mind, and helps in concentration and memory, while the brown crystal enhances one's health. It was said that no other people should be allowed to touch the crystal except its owner, as everyone has different magnetic field that would affect the crystal's magic. So, don't touch my crystals ok?

Recently, I found out that I have lost both my Julie Roberts four leaf clover pendant (it was my 2nd one, I have already lost the 1st) and the purple crystal keychain, which I have bought from Korea and really like....sob. I felt so sad that I went to shop for another crystal the next day. I really love my current crystal bracelet and I hope I won't lost it again.

Addicted to driving

I'm finally in Practical stage 2 (Subject 2.08~proceeding to stage 3 soon) and I'm starting to love driving~ I really like the feeling of being in control of the wheels. I'm now saving up for my first car and I'm still pondering on whether to buy a OPC or normal plate car. However, the high costs of maintaining a car make me indecisive, as taxi seems to be a cheaper option for travelling. If only I could afford a car next year, haiz. Based on my calculation, I could only afford to buy an used car in year 2010. Being an impulsive buyer and someone who is addicted to driving, I doubt I could wait so long. (I checked my zodiac luck in year 2009 and it seems that I would be spending too much and the advice from Fengshui masters is to save for rainy days.) Nowadays, I often visit this website http://www.sgcarmart.com to check out the cars for sale. I really want to own one of those cheaper Korean cars like Kia Picanto and Hyundai Getz. My favourite was Honda Jazz, but it's too expensive. (I never expect myself to be so enthusiastic in driving before I signed up at BBDC, haa. I was someone who don't know a single thing about car before.)

Today is the first time that I learnt driving at night. It was raining heavily and I couldn't even see the line marking on the road. I nearly drove into the lane of the opposite direction without knowing! I even missed out a motorcyclist on my right side mirror during lane change...Phew, luckily I got an alert instructor beside me. A big thank you to all the patient and nice instructors (especially Mr KP Lim and Mr Lu LB) who had made my learning enjoyable!

Graduated!

I'm finally a graduate! I would like to thank my 3 best friends for taking time off from their work to attend my convo yesterday. * So touched * The flowers are really nice, but I don't know what to do with it...maybe I'll bring it to office to display. The RMIT degree was a bit large, but I carried it along (with all my other barang barang) to BBDC where I took my final theory test and passed! Now I could finally just concentrate on learning to drive. I think I'll be able to drive out in my next practical lesson. Hope I won't get too nervous and stall the engine again.

My 3rd driving practical lesson...

It was raining during my first 3 practical lessons. I remember an instructor mentioning that a past learner failed his practical test because he was unable to operate the screen wiper. I guess that won't happen to me. My braking is super lousy, as I was always braking too hard even though I have tried my best to be gentle with the brake pedal. Guess I'm not really the gentle type of person, haa. My engine stalls whenever I tried to be gentle on the accelerator pedal in half-clutch position (it was too gentle) or when I depress my clutch pedal late. My dear instructors, please be patient with me. I think I need more practice, but more practice means more costs. I hope I could complete all my practical lessons in 30 sessions. May I become a better driver soon and make life easier for both the instructor and myself.