To catch up on a few things...

Yesterday I sat my final exam (well I hope it was my final exam) for my Masters that I have been studying for over the past year. Now that I have some free time and not constantly reading, I can catch up on some things.

Last November when I was on my one week of Chinese Language class holidays, I decided to go for my Scooter licence. When I have travelled in Taiwan, the Doctor has hired a scooter and I sat on the back. Although this is common practice in Taiwan, when travelling with each of us having a backpack, it can be a little crowded on the scooter.

After searching on the Internet, I found all the details including a practice test. It even had English so I didn't need to rely on my Chinese. Mind you, the way the English questions were asked, Chinese may have been easier to do.

Anyway, after doing lots of practice, I went in for my test. At the testing centre, they also had a computer to practise before the test - so it was good to get a bit more practise in before sitting the actual test. The thing that worried me was there were new questions that I hadn't encountered before. I think the Ministry of Transport did that deliberately just to just the young kids off.

Then I finally went in to the proper test. They sat me down at a computer, changed it to English and said off you go. Working through the questions, I found even more questions that I hadn't encountered before; so it took a bit of guesswork. Then, I came across one question that had me really confused. Bearing in mind that I am sitting a 50cc scooter test, the question was:

"When you are driving a truck and are pulled over to a weighting station. You are found to have loaded the truck too heavy. Who pays the fine?"

I raised my hand and asked the tester why is this question in the test? He proceeded to tell me that a truck was a really big car. This I knew (even in Chinese), but I don't understand the relevance. I am testing for only a scooter and not a big truck... After a bit of consideration, the tester said just ignore it and he will give me a credit point at the end if I needed it.

I proceeded on with the rest of the test and found that I had a bit of time left over. So I decided to review before submitting. In the process of going back through the questions, the computer froze. I raised my hand again and I am sure that the tester was thinking foreigners have so many problems... After a bit of playing around, the tester said he couldn't fix the computer and I had to go to another computer and do a different test. OK, that is not so bad; maybe I will get more familiar questions this time around.

New computer, new test, I got asked more familiar questions and passed it with two questions to spare. I walked out with my new 50cc scooter licence quite happy that I not wasted my time and money. Now all I needed was someone to teach me how to ride a scooter. The moral I got from this story that I shared with my friends:

If you sit a computer test and don't like the questions, flip through the pages quickly and the computer will freeze. Then you can start a fresh...

But please don't tell Taiwan I did this because they may think I did it deliberately (I didn't honestly).

By the way, my friend Xiao Zhu taught me how to ride a scooter and I take every opportunity to practise. Here is a picture of a recent trip where I did get to practise.

I have a few more stories to tell, but I do them under different postings.

Till next time, haveagoodone...