- you keep going to the wrong side of the car to get in.
- in a public car park, you put your foot on the accelerator and press down hard, because you think it's the brake (and you have to have your foot on the brake in an automatic to put it into 'drive'), and then you wonder why the car is roaring. Other people are looking at you at this point.
- you drive more miles than is good on the M25 at 70mph in third gear, before the CD ends and you hear the engine tone. (Sometimes don't you just wish your husband didn't read your blog?)
- you come off the M25, head down the slip road to the traffic lights at the bottom, and judder to a halt, stalling, because being on a motorway has lulled you into forgetting about the need to change gear.
And parking spaces, for heaven's sake. They're so SMALL in England. You expect me to get a CAR in there?
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Was that small parking space AFTER I moved mine out of the way for you?
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And if your normal car is not only automatic but also has no handbrake you also forget to take the handbrake off until you find yourself wondering what that AWFUL smell is... (I don't *think* my husband reads your blog...)
ReplyDeletehahahaha! Once I got over my initial panic at renting such a huge car without knowing it ('do you want a free upgrade to a larger vehicle, ma'am?' NO!) I LOVED the big parking spaces in the States!!
ReplyDeleteTraveling between the two countries I have a true love for Automatic transmissions.
I cannot imagine parking a car in england after living here for the past 4 years, I think I would need to hire a mini! just so that I would be able to park!
ReplyDeleteI thought I would hate driving an automatic, but I'm so used to it now I can't imagine going back to gearsticks. (I managed to avoid driving in the UK last summer as I wasn't insured on the hire car.) And yes, the parking spaces! Plus, you rarely have to parallel park in America - there's always a huge space to swing into.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny, because I think British parking spaces are huge. You should try the Belgian ones sometime...
ReplyDeleteAfter returning to the US from Scotland after a fortnight's holiday (as opposed to a two week vacation!) where I had been driving a 'stick shift', I found myself at the end of our road scrabbling around in the driver's door looking for the gear stick. A very strange feeling since I was back to driving my auotomatic car.
ReplyDeleteMy poor children also have to listen to me chanting 'drive on the left, drive on the left' as we kangaroo out of the car rental place at Glasgow airport. For some reason I don't do the 'drive on the right' version when we get back here.
I actually learned to drive here (US), so my husbad has to tackle the driving when we go back. He always goes the wrong way round at least one roundabout!
ReplyDeleteI'm a pretty decent parker though, in SF places are pretty small and parallel parking a must.
I have been driving in England (read: on the wrong side of the road) for so long now, that I am majorly confused as soon as I drive off the Eurotunnel train in Calais. I have to whisper the 'keep right' mantra for about 20 minutes before getting the hang of it again.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, normally while turning right at an intersection and therea are no cars on the road I'm turning into, I get a major panic about which side of the road I need to turn onto. Not often, just sometimes my brain does this thing where it just can't remember... my husband barely reads MY blog, I'm sure I'm safe here...
ReplyDeleteOn the reverse end of things, after living here in England when I go back to the US, I feel like I can park anywhere because there is SOOOO much room in a parking lot compared to here!!
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