Enlistment Day

None can live without toil, and a craft that provides yours needs is a blessing indeed…Dhammavadaka

The Court hearing process was wrapped up at the end of March 2014. I took a short break to do some self-reflection on my some 3 decades of adult working life. Early April, I traveled up north, some 700KM into Malaysia, to perform my filial piety duty to my Ancestor or commonly know as Qingming Festival. 

On April 15, 2014, I was enlisted as a Trainee Bus Captain. Today, it is the start of my 8 weeks of Basic Driving training lesson. Prior to the start of the class session, all trainees will have to put on the Company’s polo-T. “For the past 28years, as an exempted staff,

I have not put on a Company’s Uniform, but today it is mandated, and today also, I left my car at home, and I took a public bus to work for the 1^st time, since 1987!”

 The Trainer introduced himself first to the class and follows by each and every one of the trainees. During my turn, I told the class, I am an Engineer by profession and have not driven a 12M long Bus before. The spontaneous question from the Trainer was, “why are you here?”. I guess the Chapter on “Why I Blog” will have sought to answer his question in a comprehensive and detailed manner. However, since I do not wish to hold up the class, I just replied, I am here to seek a pre-retirement job before I can collect my CPF monies @ 55, and go off to enjoy my life.

Training lessons are conducted by in-house Trainers. Day1 and day 2 is about:

·         Highway Code

·         Basic theory of driving technique

There were couple of understanding test paper that I need to take so that, the trainer can access whether  am I ready to move into the next phase of the training that leads to the Class 4A Driving Licence qualification. At time, I think the trainer, is doing his best to get us relax and enjoy the class lesson with some live demonstration on what is his preferred way to negotiate a road bends. He would prefer to use the technique called, “slow in, fast out” with his pelvic gyrating in a forward and backward action; for a moment, the entire male class trainee broke out with a big laugher, after some self-intuitive and creative imagination lah.

It has been a course refresher for me on those Highway Codes that I last been examined by the Traffic Police was around 1984. I have no problem of meeting the written test paper rating requirements. After 2 days of classroom lesson, and passing the required understanding tests, the next phase is practicum.