Drained

This week has gone past very quickly indeed. I feel like I've not had much down time to chill out and just totally relax.

Monday was work then met with Ann for AA trainingTuesday was work then went to the gym (my only visit this week!!)Wednesday was work then met with Ann for AA trainingThursday was work them met with Ann for AA trainingAnd today - guess what I'll be doing? Meet Ann for AA training again!

Our training sessions have been productive and has helped us develop a stronger awareness of the areas that we need to work on, and via constructive criticism we can correct each other and learn from the other person's mistakes as well. However, it is not as easy as sitting in someone's car watching them drive. No. What we do is, we meet for two hours at a time, doing role playing. The first hour we spend in my car: I drive, she teaches. The hour is split into two 30mins parts according to the preset tests which we will get on the day of our final test. The first half hour we teach a subject from scratch, e.g. Turn In The Road manoeuvre and treat the pupil as a pure learner, watching and dictating every move they make and catching out any faults they do, explaining the dangers of their faults and correcting them. The second half hour the role of the examiner changes to someone who is at test ready standard or who already holds a full license. This time, we go through a topic with a different approach. Instead of teaching them everything from scratch, you just use questioning and answering to help determine what they need help with. You let them drive on and watch their every move again, picking up any areas that they might need advice on. We have to be careful not to over instruct here as we are not required to teach anything from scratch, the driver should already know how to do it. But if they do commit a fault, esp a potentially dangerous one like coasting around a corner, we have to pull them up and teach them then. This is done in an hour and then we swap cars and swap roles for another hour.

So that might sound fun, but it is mentally draining. When we do our practicing, the 'instructor' has to watch every move the 'pupil' makes. The 'pupil' has to remember exactly what faults they have commited and keep doing them until they are identified by the 'instructor' and listen to their analysis and how to correct it. Once the fault is corrected the 'pupil' cannot commit the fault again within that half-hour. Although we meet at 6:30pm at weekday evening, we don't ever finish 8:30pm sharp. We average between 8:45pm-9pm due to traffic on the way back or getting sidetracked as we discuss various aspects of the test and note down any questions we may have in order to ask our trainer Ronnie. Starting last night though, we have begun to use my phone's timer to countdown the 30mins we have for each phase. So once time is up we have to summarise and end there, then move onto the next phase. That way we have to perform under time pressure, which will give us a feel of what the final test will be like. It's not gonna be easy I tell you.

Life right now is all about work - drive - sleep. Work - drive - sleep. I don't even have time to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I don't even have time for Playstation 3. And the worse thing is I don't even have time for the gym!! I've shifted my ideal 3-visits-a-week to 2 visits at best, or like last time, one visit in eight days!! That's horrible!! Really! I'm thinking to myself, it's only for a short time. And as Elaam encourged me, this is like the final lap in a long race. That it will be tough, but I've to press on. =) I will press on, aye. Though it's quite mundane right now, I know I am going through it for the greater good. That each time I finish meeting, I come a step closer to qualifying as a driving instructor. Once I am fully qualified, I will not have to sit these sort of tests again. Qualified instructors do get inspected every so often, but that is during a lesson so there is less time pressure and by then I will have developed much better teaching skills as well.

I am looking forward to this weekend. I'm not gonna touch any driving stuff in those two days. Instead, tomorrow I'm going to go to the gym for a long session, maybe finish off in the steam room and sauna. Then watch a movie after lunch. Possibly, "Year One". I hope to finish off my Sunday School lesson tonight, but if I can't do it tonight, then that will be on my Saturday night agenda. Sheesh... can't even fully relax I tell ya. But if I can force myself to finish the Sunday School lesson tonight before sleeping, then I could go to a sister's place for dinner. I've declined for now due to Sunday School, but will try and go cos it would be nice to chillax with my maties. On Sunday I may go to the gym again before church, then help out in Sunday School and teach the middle class. Then after that I think I'll watch "Blood: the Last Vampire" in the evening. We'll see about that. Nothing's confirmed yet, besides Sunday School of course...and ironing!!

God bless! :)

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