Since it’s really hard to rent cars with automatic shift in Europe, I was thinking perhaps I should learn driving manual. Angela was actually willing to let me use her car and also gave me a driving lesson tonight. I practiced in the Lansdowne parking lot as it’s nice and open. The most difficult part is to be able to get the car moving. I should actually document some of the rules here before I forget:

• Press on the clutch to start the engine. Keep it in neutral
• Press on the brake and release the handbrake, keep the left foot on the clutch while switching to the 1st gear. Slowly press on the gas *while* slowly releasing the clutch at the same time
• Step on the clutch again and switch to 2nd gear when it revs up to ~3000RPM. Do the same to switch to the 3rd gear and so on
• To make a turn without stopping, go down to the 2nd gear and make the turn. If need to stop completely at the turn, go down to the first gear.
• To reverse, do the exact same thing as in the 1st gear except to put the shift in reverse
• When shifting gears, make sure to release the clutch *and* step on the gas at the same time, at the same rate. i.e. if releasing the clutch quickly, need to press on gas quickly as well.
• Always press on the clutch when the car is fully stopped
• To do a hard brake, press on clutch and brake at the same time.
• Optional: When stopped at a light, put the gas in neutral and then release the clutch, so you don’t have to keep foot on the clutch all the time
• DO NOT RELEASE THE CLUTCH without putting in any gas, it will STALL the car

I only stalled once today! Although it was a pretty bad one and I had probably freaked the guy in the car behind me… I want to try it again before leaving for the trip just to refresh my mind. I think I should be able to do it….hopefully!

Had a barbecue at home with Wendy, with my new barbecue stove. It’s so cool to be able to enjoy grilling at the comfort of my own home! We had steak, veggie, prawns, portabellos, chicken wings and cheddar sausages. The stove turned out to be really hot and unfortunately it was my first time grilling (I did a test grill a week ago but that doesn’t count), I overcooked one piece of the steaks and also half of the chicken wings Well I’ll do a better job next time. But what really sucked was that when I was pouring the red hot burning charcoals out of my chimney into the grill, some of the small pieces of burning charcoal fell out and landed on my newly installed floor tiles and left marks on quite a few of them! Sob…

I got my new Smart car, finally, after a full month of waiting. It’s the 2010 Brabus Convertible, fully loaded with most of the features that you can add to the Smart. I really like how it looks especially the huge wheels and the nice skirts all around. The leather heated seats are nice too. The new gas engine is more powerful than its diesel counterpart on my old Smart Passion, but then somehow I find it harder to control, like when I accelerate there is this lag that was a little annoying..etc. Nevertheless, nothing is perfect and I think I’ll get used to it soon.

As I’m typing I’m actually watching the Celebration of Lights on ctv.com. Today is Spain and I think it sucked, nothing really special that caught my attention. I’ll probably go to my cousin’s house next Wednesday to watch Mexico’s show, on his oversized balcony.

Just done some dinner! Argh… the white sauce apparently turned bad, taste kind of sour-ish, maybe because I didn’t put it in the fridge after finishing half of the box for lunch… have to drink some 7-up to combat that grossness! Hm… nothing too special today as usual, work work work, and work.. but I guess I do enjoy what I’m working Oh yea almost forgot, that I almost got into a car accident this morning 8O! This car on the opposite traffic was making a left turning into me but this huge truck was blocking my vision and I wasn’t able to see that crazy car! Luckily I stepped on the brake quick enough and avoided the tragic incident! K time to take a hot shower…