I can't believe it that I have been driving for 15 years already! Time sure flies and I wonder how many kilometres have I clocked on the road. Looking back, it was a really daunting experience for me when I took up my very first driving lesson at the Safety Driving School in Petaling Jaya during my college days.

After passing through my theory exam, came the exciting but scary part of practical driving. The consolation was that the driving school had its own compound and therefore, the first couple of lessons were within the grounds and out of the madness of Petaling Jaya traffic. The car made available for me was a beat up Nissan (manual drive, of course!). Going into the car and cranking engine, the engine died on me again and again until my instructor realised that I did not press the clutch pedal! Silly me! So, I did as I was told and pressed the clutch whilst cranking the engine. Woopee! The engine started, then it died. I tried again and again it died. I did not know that I was supposed to engage gear and slowly let go of the clutch whilst pressing the accelarator! Really, I was a newbie unlike some who had driving experience (illegal) and was going through the motions so that they can get a proper license.

However, I got some good value for money experience from the driving school such as the defensive driving course. We were also taught on how to change the car tyres (which was really useful and practical). I also had many tries on the parking manourves until I was really comfortable parking the car. Nowadays, some places have things like Park N Place garage parking system which makes parking a breeze.

How times have changed!