Argh - reading this makes me even more terrified of my upcoming trip to the UK, being afraid that I'm going to be exactly the kind of git you're talking about. My boyfriend (a Geordie who works in the Middle East for most of the year and keeps a place in Devon) is determined that I'm going to learn to drive in the UK this trip, and the prospect doesn't thrill me. I have at least done some (for me) wrong-side driving in Asia and Oz, but I never was particularly good at it. At least in Japan I had a left-hand drive vehicle, which only gave me one change to have to cope with at a time. I found that when I was put into a right-hand vehicle and on the opposite side of the road, I kept wanting to put myself on the left-side white line (as I would be in a left-hand vehicle), which of course resulted in being across two lanes more often than not.

He at least has an advantage over me in that where he is for most of the year is the same road setup as the US, with the only real difference being that they have roundabouts and we don't (another thing that I'm dreading having to deal with). I'm a good driver here, the only accident I've had in 25+ years was where I was stopped at a light and someone ran into the back of me (still not sure how anyone can be quite that inattentive, it wasn't like the light had just changed. We'd all been stopped for at least a full minute when it happened). But I've also got the advantage of a vehicle that is so familiar to me (had it for 8 years) that I don't have to look down to adjust anything, and I'm driving the same piece of road between home and work every day and have been for years. That helps because I know where the tricky bits of road are where people are most likely to do stupid things.

I do at least feel pretty confident of the road rules, they're not all that different to US rules (and people going slow in the fast lane and/or forcing you to pass them on the wrong side is as annoying here as it is there, so that at least wouldn't be something I'd be likely to be guilty of), but I'm afraid I'm still going to be a little scary behind the wheel. Can I get a sign for the car that says "clueless Yank behind the wheel", I wonder?   <grin>