In the Driver's Seat

So, I've been driving in England for a while now. and I'm doing, you know, sort of ok. As long as I don't have to leave my comfort zone. Which pretty much means from my house to work and to the local Tesco. Anything that doesn't fall within that zone, is not even to be considered. Cos the thing is, driving here is pretty absurd. Yeah, there's that whole other side of the road thing. That's not great. But you know what really gets me? It's the size of the roads. You'd think it would be a given that you'd need at least enough room for one car going and one car coming on a two-way road. But, in England, you'd be wrong. So even within my tiny 2-mile (it might even be less, but let's pretend) comfort zone, there are many Roads Not Taken.

This evening on my way home (at a decidedly and purposefully non-rush hour, thank you very much) it occured to me that it feels a lot like driving in a videogame. That same adrenaline rush of cars speeding towards you and having to dodge quickly out of the way. Because I'm on the wrong side, not -- this time! -- because I forgot, but because on the already ridiculously narrow road there are too many cars parked on my less-than-half to actually use it.

This wouldn't be so bad except that I am crap at driving games. And I don't get to restart if it goes badly.

Then there are roundabouts. The thing about roundabouts is that they're kind of like people--I'm mostly okay with the ones that I know, but the ones I don't know are sort of scary. Even knowing the rules doesn't help. I think I understand the concept . But then when I come up to one I don't know, it seems foreign all over again.

So finally I get home... which is located picturesquely on a gravelly, small lane... and up a tiny little incline is my garage, which I could practically span the width of with my arms and I have to navigate my car inside, hopefully without wrenching off any mirrors. I'm almost used to the smallness factor and maneuvering the car in just so. It's the fact that I can't help brushing elbows with all of the spider residents that still gets me down.