Today was the first day that I took my brother-in-law's car out for a drive. He and his wife are away so I figured that I might as well try driving sooner rather than later.
My first trip was only going to be a drive to a shopping centre, as it is time to replenish the fridge with fresh groceries. I first scoped out the route using Google Maps. The way my mind works, it helps me to actually SEE the route in advance. As backup, I brought my GPS phone, just to have all bases covered.
Getting out of the parkade at home was a bit tricky but not too bad. As I got out on the street, I kept repeating to myself "Keep LEFT, keep LEFT!" That worked! Except, when you're focusing on keeping on the left side of the road, you occasionally miss a turn. :-(
I got to the mall safely, no traffic incidents and no police chasing me. I had to keep paying attention to the speedometer as the police here are REALLY strict about speeding. If you are going 3 km/h over the speed limit you will get pulled over or will get a nice picture taken by a speed camera.
There was only one thing that I kept messing up as I drove. I kept turning on the windshield wipers every time I wanted to turn! LOL I did it so many times that even I started to laugh at myself. The windshield wiper is on the left side of the steering wheel (opposite of what it is in Europe/North America), so I think I hit the wipers instead of the turn signal about 75% of the time. My goal for the next drive is to get that percentage down to at most 50% of the time. :-)
1 comment:
Good for you, Ivan! You will have the left-side-of-the-road driving mastered in no time!
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