Driving on the left

Hi all! First, I'll say the movie excursion went super well. I laid the ground rules down that they would stay with me at all times while walking around and would listen and be kind to each other and other people. They agreed and off we went! :) Megamind was very cute and the kids loved it. Do you want to know what it costs for two kids and one adult to attend a matinee? $45. That includes 2 $1 lollipops and $4 parking. It seemed more expensive to me than it should be, but maybe I'm just out of touch. (LOL, I sound like an old woman- "when I went to matinees, they were $4! For adults!")

I'm posting pics of the moon the night of the lunar eclipse. We tried to see the lunar eclipse, but it was pretty impossible for us in our location. Still, they look cool!

And, for more pics...the kids helped me make Chrissy goodies today. ;) I made homemade marshmallow creme which let me make chocolate fudge. Chocolate fudge and people chow. The kids loooooved making people chow and they liked it even though they swore they didn't like peanut butter. Next up I'll be making homemade Bisquik so I can make homemade sausage balls. :) Oh, and peanut butter fudge, maybe...

So, today's topic is driving. This encompasses a lot of things...the layout of Canberra, being on the left side of the road (of course), spatial relations, all of that. Canberra is a planned city. Therefore, the land is all owned by the government and it is "leased" to homeowners for a dollar for 99 years. Just a way for them to control the ebbs and flows of land transfer and city planning. In the center of the city is, conveniently, the city centre. ;) This is where Parliament House is located (equivalent of the Capitol Bldg in Washington D.C.), and this is surrounded by Lake Burlygriffin, the embassies, the Prime Minister's house, and other posh neighborhoods. Tiny towns spread out on all sides. Each town has its own town centre which has shops and restaurants and grocery stores and gas stations. These centres are surrounded by houses and flats. You don't ever address a letter to Canberra, ACT. It's always addressed to the tiny towns- Bruce, Belconnen, Isabella Plains, Red Hill, Manuka (pronounced Monica), Calwell, Macquarie, Page, Kambah, Tuggernong, Narrabundah, etc.Each of these towns is connected by major roads that are the equivalent of highways. I live in one of the eastern towns, barely on the edge of Canberra, called Queanbeyan (pronounced Queen-bee-yann). The kids' school is near the city centre, as is the theatre we went to yesterday.

Here's how driving on the left works. It probably would be easier for some and harder for others. The biggest thing for me was confidence, and I still am not 100% confident but I do okay. The steering wheel is on the other side of the car, on the left if you are facing the car. The rear view mirror is of course then on my left when I am in the car, and this takes a lot of getting used to. It's hard to remember to use that mirror since I was so used to looking to my right to see what was behind me. It's a trippy experience because the majority of the car is now on my left instead of my right. The indicators are on the right side of the steering wheel and the windshield wipers are on the left. When I first started driving I kept turning on the windshield wipers instead of turning on the indicator I wanted.

Mick took me to his old neighborhood of Royalla, which is outside of Canberra and out in the country. The houses are much further apart and there is no one on the road during the day. So after we bought the car, he drove me out there and I drove around Royalla to get the feel. It has a few roundabouts so I got to practice those. He also had me start trying to get the feel of the car spatially by driving over the bumps on the middle line and the side of the road. I focused solely on staying in the lane and didn't pay attention to my speed. At first, I was either going to fast or too slow. After my session at Royalla, I drove part of the way back to the city on the highway to try maintaining my speed and lane space.


Then, Mick had me drive to Bungendore, which is about 30 minutes east of Queanbeyan. We drove there, had a pie and cherry slice for lunch, and back to Queanbeyan. I hated going 100 km/hr. I felt like I didn't have control. Now I can do that without a problem. 100 km/hr is only about 60 mph so it's not like I wasn't doing that in the US. :) It was just the difference of being in unfamiliar territory and unfamiliar car. But I had a lot of practice.

Next we drove around the neighborhood where the kids go to school. Neighborhoods are trickier because people park along the street and the road gets narrower. Also, Canberra has this thing where they put medians to narrow the road further in an effort to slow people down. And speedbumps are crosswalks so they are very wide. I don't like driving through the neighborhood, needless to say. There's also lots of parallel parking, which I wasn't stellar at when I was in the US, much less here!

Finally, when Mick had a job, I would drive to the grocery store and drive the kids to school. I still don't feel awesomely confident about driving to new places, but I do have a map and I can try to navigate a bit. I've done pretty well I think. :) Haven't hit anything or anyone though I would scare Mick sometimes with how close I got to those stupid median things. The worst thing for me is trying to drive through parking lots that are really fully. Parking is still tough because of the space relations. And yesterday in the parking garage they have narrow lanes that are tough for me to maneuver through without hitting the sides with my tires (or, as Aussies would spell it, tyres).

There's no way to describe fully in words what driving on the left is like. It's taking my 17 years of driving experience and flipping it on its head. I have to post a separate post with the video, but stay tuned...