Driving in England

LOL Wench!  Thats so awesome.  Unfortunately I can't use that one.  I'll have to find another way to impress him.  I could try cooking I suppose.

Brownies work for me

Never mind they're just mixed from the package with two candy bars added, he (and his friends) now think I'm some kinda baking god.  
wench

My first lesson in the UK was with Tom...because he drank too much ale... which is very rare for him...but left me in need to drive home...  LOL...  I had no problem with the shifts...that was easy...my truck is a 5 speed... and glad to see that even though i was on wrong side of the car...the gears still worked in the same way..  However, I was driving real slow and cautious and Tom was screeching at me to go faster... I did not care though...because I was very lost in what to do...  the traffic lights really bothered me with the way they go backwards...  and it was a bit daunting trying to focus on how to make my turns...  but I did it and we made it home safe and sound...

Of course the few times Tom has been here...  I could not get him behind the wheel but once...  we both have manuals...but for some reason, he could not work my truck and kept stalling out...so he gave up quick...LOL


My license sadly expires in April of 04...I am going to attempt to renew it early after we are married so that I will have it for another 5 years...  then when I take my test in the UK...I will have both... (hopefully)  will not give up maryland license without a fight.

Wench I may get lucky yet then.  I am a pretty good baker.  Learned from my Nana.  I have been told I should sell my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies.  So you never know!

mmmmmmmmmm...don't do that to me Kiz!  I'm hungry!

You know you gotta post that recipe right?  right?

[smiley=chef.gif]hehe
wench

Wow... what a combination....  Sounds incredible!!

(We need to move this to Food!)

Let me just say that Wench's brownies are so damn good!

I don't know if you all like egg nog.  But at Christmas time I love it.  Course its the only time to get it.  I have an awesome bread for egg nog.  Even my sister loves it with tea and she doesn't like egg nog.  Ok ok I'll jump over to food at some point.  But just so you know I'd be happy to bake a sample or two and send.  With the recipe of course.  

Anyone for Broken Glass Pie?  lol

Big sorry for hijacking this post.

Thanks for your good wishes Kizmet!! I have a feeling I'm going to need them hehe Hmm...My NY License is good until April 2010...do you think I could get away with driving on it even though I've already been here more than a year? Oh good grief, what am I saying?? As if I'd have the courage at the moment hehe

I suppose getting a car is a good first start   We should have one in the next few weeks! Yay!

PS- Ok you guys...I thought it was just *me* who can turn any post into something food related! We're all just a bunch of peas in a pod hehe Wench! I love brownies!! (hint hint) Especially brownies with candy bars in them...snickers? mmmm *Drool* hehe I'd love to hear your recipes, Kizmet! My Nana also is a *great* baker and I get my love of cooking from her and my Mom   Please share your recipes! Oh- also! Just a note for when you move over....pumpkin is really really hard to find in prepacked cans! I wasn't able to find any when I wanted to make a pumpkin pie for thanksgiving last year! ACK! hehe

thats women for ya guys, turned the topic to food, thats why they cant drive in uk, too busy thinking about food lol,,,,,,, i'm in uk and i found the fact you can turn right on a red light very strange , got used to 4 ways now mind

Does anyone find it very intimidating,scary, nerve wracking driving in England?    I've had my DL for 27 years (back in US) and have driven both manual and automatic transmissions but still find driving here really difficult (we have a manual trans)!  My poor FH has been taking me out but we've decided that I'm going to take some driving lessons...both so I'm more comfortable driving here and to "retrain" me a bit for the driving test I'll eventually take.  Just wondering about other American drivers' perspectives!  

I got my license in Texas in 1991 when I was 16...I moved here in 2001.  I don't think driving here is difficult.  The signage could be better and people on the motorways drive like they're at Le Mans, but no...driving here isn't any harder than it is in the U.S.  There are just different hazards.

I'm quite nervous about it - and will eventually be taking lessons. I don't know how to drive a stick, so I'll be learning that as well, and it's a bit daunting to do it backwards methinks. I've drive our car here, but it's a Shogun, which is taller than a normal car, and I freaked out that I had to drive so CLOSE to the left-hand curb, and was so high up I had no idea how close I really was. I think if I had been in a normal sized car it would have been different. But I will learn to drive eventually, mainly with the sprog coming, I think it will make things easier. But I'm also waiting until we move back to Cmabridgeshire, no freaking WAY I'm driving in a place as busy as where I live now.

Hmmm....my first car was a stick.  I was the only kid at my HS with a stick shift, but boy has it come in handy.  My last car in the U.S. was a 1999 Nissan Sentra...with a stick shift.  I bought it that way on PURPOSE.  After my first car went bye-bye when my father killed it, he bought me another one and it was an automatic.  I drove that piece of crap for four years before getting a new one.  I swore that my new car would be a stick shift because automatics are so boring.

In a way the non-stickies are lucky...you don't have to learn any bad U.S. stick-shift habits...but in a way I don't envy you because learning to drive a stick-shift is maddening.  Whatever you do, do NOT let your spouse try to teach you unless one of you LIKES sleeping on the sofa.  My husband is 36 and doesn't know how to drive.  I try to teach him on our Honda, but the transmission didn't do anything to ME to deserve such a punishment.  

Me, I LOVE all the sticks here.  I think automatics are for wussies anyway.    If you're not driving a stick, you're not really driving, after all....the car is driving YOU.  That's no fun!

Personally I prefer driving an automatic...particularly over here...that way I can concentrate on avoiding all the idjits on the road.  Plus with all the start and stop traffic (can you say 45 min to go 5 miles?), it's nice not having to worry about shifting.  

Driving is driving, whether it's an automatic or manual.  


wench

I was very interested to read this thread.  I've been driving in the US since 1967 and learned to drive a stick...and have driven manuals my entire life.  Last Friday, I took my first UK driving lesson and now feel that it's going to be impossible for me to get ready to pass the driving test by my 12-month anniversary as a UK resident...mid December.  For one thing, I don't think I can even get a test appointment in Oxfordshire by the deadline!  And for another, apparently I do a whole LOAD of things incorrectly, by UK standards.  I can identify with the person who said that they were "coasting" too much.  I've been told the same thing.  I've also been told that I cross my hands when making a turn, and that habit of using my hands on the wheel is going to be ENORMOUSLY hard to break.  I was very discouraged but then decided that if I lose my solo driving priviledges for a few months early next year, then so be it.  My Audi can just sit in the garage until the weekends, when my partner is here with me and can be my supervisor.  I hear SO many stories about even the best drivers not being able to pass the practical on their first try that I'm pretty sure I won't manage either.

Good to read the experiences of others!

Janet
Deddington, Oxon

Me, I LOVE all the sticks here.  I think automatics are for wussies anyway.    If you're not driving a stick, you're not really driving, after all....the car is driving YOU.  That's no fun!

Yes, but can you drive a stick while talking on a mobile phone, eating a hamburger, making rude gestures at people who cut you off...all the while beating your kids in the back seat for picking on each other??  (***this is just a joke..I DON'T beat my kids)

Ok I don't really do all those things...well not all at once anyway...lol. But I could do those things in an automatic if I wanted to a heck of a lot easier than in a stick shift.

I get stuck in a lot of traffic going to and from work so it's really nice at times like that for my automatic to be driving ME. There are times I miss my standard transmission but rush hour definitely isn't one of them.

For all of you who are worried because you don't know how to drive a stick shift and are having to learn, you're actually lucky because it means you're learning over there for the first time so you don't have any bad habits to unlearn.