Today I went to a full day of company mandated driving school to learn safe driving for off road environments. Did someone say doughnuts, oversteering, understeering and emergency braking instead of excel? Yes please! The morning was great despite sharing a sedan with four fairly large men. After lunch (and by lunch I mean averting my eyes while all the guys ate cold meat pies off the lunch truck), we left the training center for some off road driving.
I took over driving the white land cruiser (sans flames, after all it is Australia, not Qatar) in a parking lot about twenty minutes from the city. My first task was to indicate while pulling out of the parking spot. I buckled my seat belt, adjusted the mirrors, started the engine, put the car in drive, reached my hand up to turn the blinkers on, and promptly started the windshield wipers. Oh yes, I totally forgot that non-European cars in Australia have the windshield wipers and blinkers on reverse sides of the steering wheel.
I apologized to the instructor, explaining that in case he couldn’t tell from my accent, I’m American and used to the blinkers being on the left side of the steering wheel. Furthermore I explained, my car in Australia is European and has the blinkers on the left side of the steering wheel. I then apologized to the rear of the car, explaining how not only am I relatively new at driving on the opposite side of the road (left turn into near lane, right turn into far lane), I also have never driven such a large car. Let’s just say that they all double checked that their seatbelts were securely fastened.
Luckily, it was all uphill from there and the instructor told me that I passed with flying colors, even not taking into account that I’m a newbie at driving on the opposite side of the road. Now if only M would let me order a frame so I can display my shiny new certificate on my office wall…clearly a DTEC 6 Certificate belongs alongside my diploma.
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