I covered 112km today!

It will be crazy of me to cover that distance on foot. Well, it was covered on wheels.

On every thursdays and fridays of every four weeks, my squad will be attached to the Police MRT Unit (PMU) to do patrol duties at MRT stations/bus interchanges. This has been ongoing for about 3 months now.

My role currently is a reserve driver, which means to say that I will cover the duty of a driver if any of the two other drivers are unavailable. One of the drivers was on MC today, so I had to cover him at the eleventh hour. I must say that it is not a bad thing, albeit expecting to get some real patrolling work today.

These days, my OC and I will go on supervisory rounds, checking up on our guys that are on patrol at certain MRT stations. Of course, I will be driving around from station to station. It is becoming quite a challenge for me, because sometimes I've got to locate certain stations which I've not even been to. Other times, it will be the traffic condition that poses much difficulty to me. I wonder, sometimes, if these challenges are overloading for a driver with only almost 5 months of experience under him. On a more positive side, I would choose to think that one can only improve when he is given fresh challenges.

Today, I felt proud of myself. From my base in Queenstown, my OC decided that the first station to go to was Outram Park. It was rather easy, for I have covered the route umpteen times. It was to Lavendar next, another easy task, because that vicinity is where I grew up in. At the end of our patrol at Lavendar MRT, it was time for 'Official Ease', which means an official break for lunch/naps etc, so we headed back to base.

At noon, we set out again, this time for Ang Mo Kio MRT station. Now, it was a challenge because AMK is a foreign place to me, lest the route leading from Queenstown to AMK. Unlike the earlier part where I drove almost independently, I needed directions from my OC this time round so that we would not lose our way. Fortunately, we arrived at our destination after approximately 30 minutes. After some while, my OC decided that we should head for Kovan MRT and that was when I was like 'uhh.. I totally don't know that place', and then he was like 'me too.. never mind.. just drive around lah.. at most we drop by at some stations along the way'. Haha.

So off we went, via CTE (SLE/TPE) and almost in a matter of a few minutes, I was in Sengkang area. Phew, for a moment. But it wasn't to last. Previously, I had an idea that since Kovan's along the NEL, it could be near Sengkang or Punggol. And that's why I exited at Sengkang East, which was probably the wrong move cos we never got around to finding Kovan MRT. Haha. We found Punggol MRT though, and that was like a total ghost town. Buses and trains are running, but there's hardly a substantial number of people there.

The last stop was Tampines MRT, which I insisted that we go, cos it's quite near Punggol and we could also fetch our guys there back to base to report off. But the main reason is because Tampines's my home town! I drove via SLE (TPE/PIE), but then on the TPE/PIE, I hesitated to make an exit where I should have made, resulting in having to drive to Changi East area. Perhaps, it was over-confidence, or over-excitement. Haha. A detour was hence necessary, but we eventually made it to Tampines MRT on schedule. I even drove passed my own house! Haha. If I had time I would have even dropped by my house. It was barely a few minutes at Tampines MRT before stand-down was given. So we headed back to base, at Queenstown. 111.9km covered.

I have my OC to thank cos without him, I would probably have lost my way alot more frequently. He is the reason why I feel that my driving has improved. He renders me discretion on the road and makes me independent. Because of him, I am alot more confident and street-wise. Such once a month duty has been something that I look forward to cos we get to talk about alot of stuffs and I honestly feel quite comfortable communicating with him.

All in all, 111.9km covered, and invaluable lessons learnt (from my OC). =)