The Waiting Game

I was in a room with another 90 over people yesterday afternoon, everyone with anxiety written all over their face. They were as if Singapore Idol contestants waiting for their results to get into the top 28 positions. If you think I was taking part in a similar competition, I did not. I was merely waiting for my riding test results in Comfort Driving Centre. The settings, however, were about the same: there were 10 testers who overlooked the entire test, and these testers would come into the room at different intervals to call out the numbers of the candidates who failed to make it, while the remaining uncalled numbers would be those who had passed the test.

Eager as I was to get my results, I wasn't particularly very anxious about it, as I did not have much confidence about my performance earlier in the morning. Even before I left home, I had already seen a bad omen in the form of heavy downpour. My confidence was shaken a little, as it would mean more difficulties in completing my courses, especially the narrow plank, figure of eight and emergency brake courses. During the warm-up, I skidded and fell off my bike just as I was about to go up the wet and slippery metal plank, and since then my confidence level sank to an all-time low. However, desperate to not fail and retake my test again, I decided to follow some supersition practice of "sayang"-ing (coaxing) my bike before I go through these courses, and to my surprise, I got through them without a hitch. With all my circuit courses all completed, half the battle's won and I was left with only the road courses to clear. My confidence level rose back to normal, as I didn't have much problem with the road courses during my previous road revisions.

My road courses were completed smoothly, but at the last left-turn junction, the traffic light became amber as I was making the turn. I didn't know if I turned before the light changed to amber, or did the traffic signal changed before I made the turn. In a state of panic, I actually steered into the wrong lane. My confidence level dropped once again.

Back to the waiting room, I actually fell asleep while waiting, and I was waken by the voice of one of the testers calling out the numbers. I thought I heard my number, and I followed the rest of the people out, only to realise that I had heard wrongly. I went back to the room and carried on waiting, while the number of people in the room became lesser and lesser as more numbers were being called. But there were some cases of "false alarms", as some candidates were initially called, but later returned shortly after. I wondered if these testers had been watching too much of Singapore Idol or American Idol!

It was a long 60 minutes of wait before our instructor came into our room and closed the door behind him. Immediately, the remaining people in the room and I knew that the elimination period is over and we were all safe. Some even began cheering loudly. Our instructor congratulated us for passing the riding test, and after allocating us the time slot to go collect our result slip, he made us watch a compulsory video of road safety, as well as leading us in a road motorists' pledge. With some time left in hand before collecting the result slip, I decided to have a quick lunch first at the canteen. However, I couldn't eat much as I was more eagar to get my result slip fast so that I could update my qualifications on my driving license!

Now that I'm a qualified Class 2B and Class 3 license holder, it's time for me to say goodbye to Comfort Driving Centre. But I will probably be back by next year to get my Class 2A license. So long for now, CDC, and see you again next year, hopefully!