Thursday, February 24, 2011

Meet Jim


This is Jim, my new car. It is a Mitsubishi Pajero. Not sure why it can't be called a Montero here, but basically that's what it would be in the US. The hub decided that we needed to get an SUV to fit the family. (Really he wanted it so that we could do a bunch of sand driving and off roading.) It is a great car. We named it Jim after the salesman. Who was this old Australian oyster farmer with a lisp and a once broken nose. The car is fine. The problem is that I have to drive it. Driving here is a bit tricky. You drive on the left side of the road from the right side of the car. It is really an odd feeling. Backing up and parallel parking is next to impossible. My US friends have this advice, "Just remember back to when you were 16 in driver's ed what they taught you about parallel parking and then flip it all and do the reverse." I can't even begin to tell you all of the things that are wrong with that statement. Beginning with the fact that I can't remember yesterday or what month it is let alone when I was 16. So basically, I don't parallel park which is a pain because we essentially live in the city. It is full of small roads and on street parking. I never thought I would say this, but I miss Texas and all of its parking lots. Sometimes I take 10 trips around the block just to find a spot I can just pull into. The other problem is that I am fairly unsure where the right side of the car is. Just to be safe I pretty much drive down the middle of the road. So far that has worked pretty well. I just hold my breath when a car passes me headed the other direction. The biggest adjustment has been getting in to the right side of the car to drive. I am embarrassed to admit the amount of times that I gotten in on the passenger side. If there are people around. I feel like I have to do a fake look through the glove compartment as a cover. I am sure that I will get used to it. I am sure that one day I will stop turing on the wipers instead of the turn signal. I am sure I will get to the point that I can parallel park and actually back up with confidence. But I am also sure that when that happens the hub will say to me, time to go back to the US. . .maybe then I can just get a driver. Wouldn't that be nice?

2 comments:

Hazel Donovan said...

You actually make it seem so easy with your presentation but I find this topic to be really something which I think I would never understand. It seems too complicated and extremely broad for me. I’m looking forward to your next post, I will try to get the hang of it!
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