Hi Sarah!
Looks like you've been bringing Hannah to lots of plays. If only we had plays here in English too... that would be an alternative to entertain the kids on a dreary weekend such as this one. Gone is the warm weather and the cold wintry days are back again... it's gonna be in the minus for the next few nights.
Hmm, I think I'm quite lucky there. My daddy has always been ever supportive of my driving. I actually started learning when I was 19. But stopped after the 7th lesson coz I reckoned it made so sense that the test date was too near my date of departure to Germany then for my studies. And then in between, many things came along the way and I never really went back to learn driving again until Bryan was almost a year old. I did try to start before Bryan was born, so I went for my ATT again. But right after I got my ATT results, I found out that I was pregnant with Bryan with morning sickness no end - even right till birth! So, Apricot, I really empathise your situation. Like Apricot, sour things only made me puke more.
So that was my last chance to learn driving... I told myself I need to make it before the second one comes along or before my husband's posting. And I had to do it fast. With my dad driving me around for my part time teaching, full time job and then driving class, I told myself I really had to pass coz of all the effort the people around me were putting in. e.g. mom babysat for me, dh dropped really early at 6.45am for the ciruit driving etc..
And yeah... like you said, with a lot of luck, I made it!
My daddy stamped his approval when he took me out for test drives after I got my license.
My dh doesn't nag at me. So it was just my children who would be screaming their heads off in the beginning. But now, they got used to Mommy driving them around. They no longer bully me anymore.
There was once I told them in a dead serious tone that I needed them to be very good children, all calm and quiet, coz we were gonna be driving home on a foggy night across all those country roads with no street lamps sort. I was in a panic as to whether I would make it home and was secretly admonishing myself for bringing the kids out to a friend's place till so late. My husband was travelling then... so he wouldn't be able to come and "save" us. That was the first time Bryan learnt about what fog was and he was very cooperative and reminded his meimei along the way to be still. But luckily for me, meimei fell asleep quickly not long after we were on the road. And we made it home alright... phew!
Yeah, parking is one big headache for me still... you know, my driving instructor is quite unconventional. He only taught me how to parallel park, never reverse park. And that came only when we were in the circuit. And he just sort of told me when I was in the car with him and that was all the parking lessons for me!!! He prefers road experience, and I was driving around the test routes again and again... no more than 1 hour coz he thinks anything more than 60 mins will be taxing to one's concentration in driving, esp for someone who's learning.
So different from my 1st instructor who made me drive him around to run his errands during my lesson time and scolded me no end when the engine stalled and made me learning parking for half the lesson time while he was out chit chatting with other instructors... I think I was have failed a couple of times, had I continued my lesson with him. Imagine he made me drive through South Buona Vista road and then Pasir Panjang Rd with the morning rush lorries and container trucks all over the place on my very first drive out!!!
Hee, good thing is that it's mainly parallel parking here... so I can still do it quickly... I think I'm gonna have problems with impatient Sg waiting for me to reverse park next time... haha!!! And at home it's basement parking with our very own assigned lot. So it's easy that way... But frankly speaking, the Germans here park very badly! And the frustrating thing is that there are usually no lines/drawn lots to show them how badly they park!
