Driving Miss Jeannie, 20 Dec 2012

Over the holidays, Jean and I are house-sitting for Janet (boss) and her husband. Part of the package is use of their car. After 6 weeks, I still think sometimes when people drive by me "Why is that driver texting (or reading a book, or doing a crossword)?" This whole other side driving takes a bit to get used to.

When I arrived in Melbourne I had these lofty I ideas about how I would get some lessons from a driving school to help me acclimatize to driving on the opposite side of the road. What happened is that the night before Jean arrived Janet took me for a drive out to the airport and then around the neighborhood. I turned on the windshield wipers every time I wanted to signal a turn (turn signal is with your right here), and Janet said "Stay to the left, the left!" and "You're drifting, you're drifting again" a lot. Apparently side-swapping drivers tend to drift to the left because it's terrifying to be looking right into the oncoming traffic. I am no exception.

We drove around for a half hour including some neighborhood and freeway driving. I pulled back up in front of the house and Janet announced, "I need a glass of wine." Having taught 3 boys to drive has given her nerves of steel, or we would have gotten to that point a lot sooner.

On the bright side, Jean arrived safely on Thursday morning,

and I drove by myself to the airport to get her! Now when we drive somewhere and I give her my handbag to put on the floor by her feet she says, "I can't put it down there. The gas pedal is there."