Monday February 14th, 2011

The exercise:

Hello, hello! I'm back in town, tanned, tired, and... some other 't' word.

I'll get some pictures up tomorrow, once I get some sleep. For now, do what you can with: left and right.

Mine:

So we managed to survive a week of me driving around Jamaica on the left side of the road. It wasn't too big a deal, as I'd driven on the left in New Zealand for almost two months.

But I had forgotten about the windshield wipers / turn signal issue.

You see, here in Canada, driving on the right side of the road, the wiper control is on the right side of the steering wheel and the turn signal is on the left. When you're driving on the left, it's reversed - wipers on the left, signal on the right.

Which, until you can re-train yourself, leads to a whole lot of wipers dragging across bone-dry windshields whenever you're about to turn.

By the end of the week I had it pretty much down, which was nice. But then today, driving home from the airport in Kelowna, it was a struggle to get back to the 'normal' controls.

This driving on the opposite side of the road business is more complicated than you'd expect.

4 comments:

Greg said...

Heh, I can almost imagine your frustration the fourth or fifth time you turned the wipers on instead of the turn signal (indicators here in Britain). And yes, I imagine you'll be making the same mistake for a few more days still until you get it all out of your system again. Until the next time you go abroad ;-)
Good to have you back, as well; your wit and insight has been missed these past two weeks.

Left and right
"I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with... Q!"
"Does it, Green? Or do you just think that it should start with Q because that's where you'd put if you were writing the dictionary?"
"I think I would productise a far better dictionary than any currently on the marquette." The Green Lightbulb pouted, despite the fact he'd just pronounced market with an audible "qu".
"Yes, but making up new meanings for the word doesn't count if you're the only one who knows them."
"Yes, but when we take over the world--"
"Green! We can't take over the world until we find Dr. Septopus. He's the only one with access to the CONserver, remember?"
"He tattooed passwords on the inside of our eyelids so we couldn't lose them. A different one on each eyelid, left and right."
"But not the master password."
Green folded his arms and looked sulky.
"It was kitchen," he said. "I knew you wouldn't guess it."

Heather said...

Left and Right are terms frequently applied in the politics of the United States. The "left" is typically used to represent politicians with a more liberal view. The "right" tends to refer to those with conservative view points. The battles between them are on-going and can be quite epic.

Today, for the first time since I started to invest myself in politics in any manner, "left" and "right" have been set aside. I wish I could say this because politicians finally established a bi-partisan relationship, even if only in my state. But I can't. At least, not yet.

If all the havoc, animosity, fear, and anger that the current Governor has caused was resolved through bi-partisanship and that relationship remained in place to solve other large issues, I would say it was all well worth it. Instead, I am sitting in front of my computer reading and worrying about my friends, my neighbors, and my children.

I wish the conversation would just go back to the "left" and the "right".

Zhongming said...

"Should i pass him on the left or right?"

"The body is telling me to move left but intuition is telling me right."

"I can imagine the man in front moving his right feet slightly on towards the left."

Boom, with a gust of wind - explosive movement, i swiftly passed him on the right.

But i got it all wrong! It went out of the line!

Marc said...

Greg - you know me too well :P

Ah, Green. It seems like it's been too long since we've joined our inept criminal friend.

Heather - first off, thank you for the left/right politics explanation. I've never bothered to learn what the two terms meant.

I hope things get back on track in your area sooner than later.

Zhongming - haha, I like it. It seems like overthinking a situation almost always ends up with a poor decision - just go with your gut!