Driving.

I'm not exactly the most confident driver around but I've come to develop a love-hate relationship with driving ever since I got my license some 10 months back. I can't deny that it's brought about so much new-found convenience, but... at the same time, there are also so many things that I can't stand about driving (and, drivers in Singapore).

My top 5 driving peeves:

1) Drivers who don't signal when they're changing lanes.

What, you waiting for your signal lights to turn on by themselves?

2) People who can't park properly in the designated lots.

Do you really have to take up 2 lots?

3) Drivers who speed up to keep you from changing lanes.

I've missed a couple of expressway exits because of people like these; I swear like crazy when this happens.

4) Lane-hogs

Keep to the left if you're going slow please.

5) ERP gantries and expensive parking

I'm sure I'm not alone on this; my heart sinks a little every time I hear the beep from the reader when I have to go through one of the gantries. Most expensive parking fee paid? $12 at SMU; my jaw dropped because it was supposed to be a per entry fee of $3 after 8 p.m. Something must have gone wrong somewhere!

The list is non-exhaustive for sure, you probably can't wait to add things like "people who talk on their mobile phones or text while driving", "rude drivers", "pedestrians who cross the roads as though they're walking on their grandfathers' roads", and something not entirely really related to driving like "people who say females make bad drivers"... and so on.

Speaking of which, I think it's also really unfair to say that all cabbies are bad drivers. The reckless ones, they just happened to give a bad name to cabbies on the whole.

my new driving companion.

And while there are so many things I do not like about driving, there are also many that I do enjoy. I like to sing along to the songs that are playing while I'm on a drive, because no one will hear how horrible I sound. I like cruising along empty and long stretches of roads in the middle of the night because it takes my mind off issues that may be making me sad/moody. I like being able to get that extra 30 minutes of snooze-time because of a much shorter travelling time. I feel independent when I'm out alone on the road. There are also actually plenty of nice drivers on the roads too.

Anyhow, all this wonderful and frustrating experiences would not have been possible if Mumsy had not asked me to go get my driving license a year ago. I'd never, for once, stopped counting myself lucky because Mumsy decided to let me use the family car most of the time, even though I'm staying in hall.