17 July - Do something every day that scares you..
Now that is a motto to live by. Even if just weekly, monthly, or on your birthday, do something that reminds you you are alive. Must make you feel great.
Coming to Canada didnt scare me much, and hasnt really scared me yet. I'm waiting for all the fear to kick in. But today I did the scariest thing i've done since I've been here - i hired a car.
So, after an afternoon driving 150km in Ontario in preparation for work journeys next week, after several trips to the loo, a couple of panic attacks and 3 calls to the samaritans, i feel i can now finally reflect on the experience. Here are some of my random observations, about car hire, about driving in Canada, and well, whatever else comes out...
1) The spec of North American cars is based on very different parameters to ours. So whilst even my P309 (oh how i miss it) had electric windows and central locking, and a sunroof, almost all cars here have air con. They dont always seem to bother with electric windows. Its so hot (or cold, presumably) outside, that they dont use them with the same regularity. They are missing out. I taught at least 3 people at different traffic lights how to use the window to gain access to the exterior of the door, which you can use as a drum accompaniment to good music. I'm not certain they were impressed.
2) When in Rome.... i went through at least 3 red lights to turn right, and gained more confidence each time. Someone please remind me to stop doing this before I come back home.
3) When hiring a car, check you know what fuel the car takes! 'Gas? Is that unleaded or what?' 'GAS'. He wasnt joking - the shell i went to just had 'gas'.
4) When hiring a car, always ask if the car has been serviced regularly. I turned the key and a yellow light came on. I didnt recognise this yellow light, but after 2 years driving the P309, it will surprise none of you that i am no stranger to yellow lights, red lights (or flashing lights for that matter - Scribbles knows what i mean!) The handbook said that a steady yellow light indicated 'that the car may not be able to operate at its maximum efficiency'. Big lot of use that is. Any particular reason why it might not operate efficiently, you know, water, fuel, brake fluid, overheated engine? Help me out here.
5) Leading on from 4, i opened the bonnet (thats hood to the Canadian readers). I soon caught a glimpse of one reason the car may not be operating at maximum efficiency. The oil compartment (for want of a better word) has a screw top rather reminiscent of the top you would remove to top up coolant. I found it in my hand whilst looking for the bonnet catch. Fat lot of good its going to do bouncing round on top of the engine folks! Hey presto, once i screwed the cap back on, the light went out!
6) Some statistics about my adventures. 1 - the number of skids i did when working out how strongly to brake, and the number of wheel spins when pulling away from red lights (you've got to try havent you!) 3 - the number of (legal) red lights i went through. 100 - the maximum speed i did (km/h of course). 1 - the number of times i approached a turning in the left hand lane! Actually, that doesnt take too long to get over. 2 - the number of fellow road users who felt obliged to compliment my driving skills by virtue of a nice hard beep on the horn.
7) There are cross roads everywhere here (of course there are, the city is built as a grid). Unfortunately, and Ed pointed this out last week, where there are no traffic lights, you are obliged to stop at a cross roads and, if the way is clear, proceed (presumably with care, H.G. my traffic teaching friend will advise on lingo). If 4 of you are all at the cross roads at the same time, its carnage. I saw it happening in Niagara on Saturday, and today just decided to sit there, let them get on with it, and listen to them beep at each other as they drove past! There is only one word for situations like this. Roundabouts.
8) The roads here, once you're on them, arent marked to tell you what road you're on. For reference, any local readers, I was on highway 401 travelling from Toronto to Mississauga. But once you're on, they dont tell you you're still on it. So you have to look at the slip roads to make sure they are still directing traffic on to the road you want... trouble is, the slip roads are like 15 lanes away. These roads are carnage, there are blue sign and green sign areas, and there are usually about 7 or 8 lanes in every direction. Worse still, no lane is faster (or slower for that matter) than any other, and, possibly even more worse than that, lanes occasionally just disappear. I remember my first drive from Pboro to Bham and i decided just to do the 'stay to the left' thing, and follow the lorries. That doesnt work here. At least 2 or 3 times the lane just stopped! But its the same for the cars you are following, and people just seem to live with it. Nutters
8) There is no such thing as a 'quiet Sunday drive' around here. There was method in my choosing Sunday afternoon to practice driving. And to go with my method, was traffic jams for about 8km towards the airport.
9) They still have filling stations where the attendant does it for you! I thought 'its a shell, bound to be normal'. The guy comes out, wipes your window (he neednt have bothered, its been pissing down all weekend) and asks what you want. i resisted the urge to reply in the movie speak 'Fill HER up'. But I am sure I might be tempted over the coming months!
10) I bought a Toronto A to Z. Its not called that, but the guys back home will understand. How cool is this? I knew what address I was looking for (my client for Tuesday morning, because i'm organised like that!) Trouble is, because the roads just go on for ever, so do the numbers - mine was something like 7700. They have found a stunning way of getting over this. In the A to Z, they actually mark off on the cross road intersections what the number of the buildings will be, so you will instinctively know when you join a 10 mile road half way along it, whether to turn left or right. I'm telling you, that was worth the cost of the book on its own.
Overall though, the roads were good, they are much bigger than ours, with so many more cars on them. But driving is driving, and hey, after five ways island (which i am too scared to go on, as many of you know!) how much harder can it get? I'll let you know Tuesday.
Tuesday is also the day the beans start getting counted in earnest, so i may even have some work related tales... but not too many!
Coming to Canada didnt scare me much, and hasnt really scared me yet. I'm waiting for all the fear to kick in. But today I did the scariest thing i've done since I've been here - i hired a car.
So, after an afternoon driving 150km in Ontario in preparation for work journeys next week, after several trips to the loo, a couple of panic attacks and 3 calls to the samaritans, i feel i can now finally reflect on the experience. Here are some of my random observations, about car hire, about driving in Canada, and well, whatever else comes out...
1) The spec of North American cars is based on very different parameters to ours. So whilst even my P309 (oh how i miss it) had electric windows and central locking, and a sunroof, almost all cars here have air con. They dont always seem to bother with electric windows. Its so hot (or cold, presumably) outside, that they dont use them with the same regularity. They are missing out. I taught at least 3 people at different traffic lights how to use the window to gain access to the exterior of the door, which you can use as a drum accompaniment to good music. I'm not certain they were impressed.
2) When in Rome.... i went through at least 3 red lights to turn right, and gained more confidence each time. Someone please remind me to stop doing this before I come back home.
3) When hiring a car, check you know what fuel the car takes! 'Gas? Is that unleaded or what?' 'GAS'. He wasnt joking - the shell i went to just had 'gas'.
4) When hiring a car, always ask if the car has been serviced regularly. I turned the key and a yellow light came on. I didnt recognise this yellow light, but after 2 years driving the P309, it will surprise none of you that i am no stranger to yellow lights, red lights (or flashing lights for that matter - Scribbles knows what i mean!) The handbook said that a steady yellow light indicated 'that the car may not be able to operate at its maximum efficiency'. Big lot of use that is. Any particular reason why it might not operate efficiently, you know, water, fuel, brake fluid, overheated engine? Help me out here.
5) Leading on from 4, i opened the bonnet (thats hood to the Canadian readers). I soon caught a glimpse of one reason the car may not be operating at maximum efficiency. The oil compartment (for want of a better word) has a screw top rather reminiscent of the top you would remove to top up coolant. I found it in my hand whilst looking for the bonnet catch. Fat lot of good its going to do bouncing round on top of the engine folks! Hey presto, once i screwed the cap back on, the light went out!
6) Some statistics about my adventures. 1 - the number of skids i did when working out how strongly to brake, and the number of wheel spins when pulling away from red lights (you've got to try havent you!) 3 - the number of (legal) red lights i went through. 100 - the maximum speed i did (km/h of course). 1 - the number of times i approached a turning in the left hand lane! Actually, that doesnt take too long to get over. 2 - the number of fellow road users who felt obliged to compliment my driving skills by virtue of a nice hard beep on the horn.
7) There are cross roads everywhere here (of course there are, the city is built as a grid). Unfortunately, and Ed pointed this out last week, where there are no traffic lights, you are obliged to stop at a cross roads and, if the way is clear, proceed (presumably with care, H.G. my traffic teaching friend will advise on lingo). If 4 of you are all at the cross roads at the same time, its carnage. I saw it happening in Niagara on Saturday, and today just decided to sit there, let them get on with it, and listen to them beep at each other as they drove past! There is only one word for situations like this. Roundabouts.
8) The roads here, once you're on them, arent marked to tell you what road you're on. For reference, any local readers, I was on highway 401 travelling from Toronto to Mississauga. But once you're on, they dont tell you you're still on it. So you have to look at the slip roads to make sure they are still directing traffic on to the road you want... trouble is, the slip roads are like 15 lanes away. These roads are carnage, there are blue sign and green sign areas, and there are usually about 7 or 8 lanes in every direction. Worse still, no lane is faster (or slower for that matter) than any other, and, possibly even more worse than that, lanes occasionally just disappear. I remember my first drive from Pboro to Bham and i decided just to do the 'stay to the left' thing, and follow the lorries. That doesnt work here. At least 2 or 3 times the lane just stopped! But its the same for the cars you are following, and people just seem to live with it. Nutters
8) There is no such thing as a 'quiet Sunday drive' around here. There was method in my choosing Sunday afternoon to practice driving. And to go with my method, was traffic jams for about 8km towards the airport.
9) They still have filling stations where the attendant does it for you! I thought 'its a shell, bound to be normal'. The guy comes out, wipes your window (he neednt have bothered, its been pissing down all weekend) and asks what you want. i resisted the urge to reply in the movie speak 'Fill HER up'. But I am sure I might be tempted over the coming months!
10) I bought a Toronto A to Z. Its not called that, but the guys back home will understand. How cool is this? I knew what address I was looking for (my client for Tuesday morning, because i'm organised like that!) Trouble is, because the roads just go on for ever, so do the numbers - mine was something like 7700. They have found a stunning way of getting over this. In the A to Z, they actually mark off on the cross road intersections what the number of the buildings will be, so you will instinctively know when you join a 10 mile road half way along it, whether to turn left or right. I'm telling you, that was worth the cost of the book on its own.
Overall though, the roads were good, they are much bigger than ours, with so many more cars on them. But driving is driving, and hey, after five ways island (which i am too scared to go on, as many of you know!) how much harder can it get? I'll let you know Tuesday.
Tuesday is also the day the beans start getting counted in earnest, so i may even have some work related tales... but not too many!
posted by CBC at 10:00 pm
2 Comments:
I chuckled each time you said Hire a Car...*shakes ma head*
Yea, the 401 is nasty. So is the Garderner Express Tip: Stay away from both areas if you can around 9 am and then around 3:30 -4:30 pm.
I hate driving around Toronto. Good for you for giving it a go. Yea, ALWAYS go right on a RED (as long as the coast is clear).
Maybe cbc could take you for a drive and you could point out where he's going wrong?
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