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Originally Posted by Mystique
You'd be chewed and spat out if you ever tried a UK test, believe me.
I have my own tales of woe, too. Mainly a case of money for young people here, we can't afford lessons to practice, so it can drag.
Any fellow brits who've recently passed over the last year, feel free to share experiences.
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The only thing I can wholeheartedly thank the Singapore Armed Forces for is my driving licence. I was a motor transport officer, meaning to say, I was the man in charge of the unit's garage — all 170 three-ton trucks, landrovers, jeeps,
unimogs, motorcyles, mini-buses and utility cars. So, they decided that I needed to know how to drive. And seeing as the Army needs to keep things simple for the grunts who are tasked to be vocational drivers, I breezed through the written tests (heheh).
To be sure though, I was a natural behind the wheel. I don't know if that's because the NCO instructor was saving his venom for the lower-ranked privates in the class (heheheh, ahh, the privilege of rank), but I do remember grasping the basics of controlling the clutch, signalling, steering, road awareness and defensive driving within a couple of days. Cross-country driving was especially fun. We had to learn how to apply differential gears to negotiate muddy roads and very steep inclines. Unfortunately, I've forgotten most of those skills (and lost most of my nerve) by now.
There was a major problem though: I could not convert my military driving licence into a civilian licence because I was not a driver by vocation (officially, I'm a combat officer, damned).
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That had to wait until I was studying in Britain, when I started taking token driving lessons in order to book a test. I thought I'd pass easily. Boy was I wrong. It took me
three attempts to pass the theoretical tests, which made me the butt of countless dorm jokes, because they were multiple-choice questions. Well, to be fair, how was I supposed to know the British road sign for "beware of horses" or other such nonsense? The only animals you'd find on Singapore roads are roadkill.
So, shock and horror, I actually had to study to pass the theory segment.
The practical test, on the other hand, went extremely well. The examiner felt confident enough to hold a conversation with me throughout the test. After the test, he plainly told me, "It's obvious that you have driven before."
Not bad, considering how I was inwardly petrified whenever I came to a roundabout in Britain — they hardly exist in Singapore any more, so I'm naturally unfamiliar with the rules for entering and exiting one. I generally found British traffic much faster than I'm used to back home. And I always dreaded being overtaken by massive 18-wheelers.
After passing the tests, I enjoyed several road trips around the country in my final year at university, from John o' Groats to Land's End, in a nimble little Fiat Punto. It was very pleasant to drive along the A-roads of Cornwall, and the road along Loch Ness offers stunning views. But I nearly ran into a deer in the Highlands in the night — that gave me a very big fright.
Once I got home, converting the British licence into a Singapore licence was a simple affair. Unfortunately, I've since lost the British licence, which is a great pity, considering how I had been using it as my identity document while I was an undergraduate. It carried a lot of sentimental value.