I did it again today.
I got out the wrong side of the taxi.
I don’t know who was more upset: The cab driver. The guy who had to slam on the brakes and swerve. Or me – naturally going the right way in the wrong country.
Or is it the wrong way in the right country?
I understand this driving on the other side of the road thing. Although, I can’t seem to adjust to it properly. Walking stairs, for example, you have to queue to the left, not the right, which is unnatural to me. If you veer to the right here, and I’ve done it, you don’t walk away from them: You walk into them.
And old habits die hard. Much as you want to conform, sometimes you just do what’s natural. Like getting out the right side of a cab. Which means walking into traffic and putting the cab driver’s door in play.
I know it’s not just me, although I’m challenged in a certain way. My old friend Terry Jones managed to have an episode years ago while on assignment in London. He walked out of a bar, hailed a cab, and walked smack into traffic to claim the cab. Only thing was, he got hit by a car he never saw coming. Good thing Jones is as large as he is. He wasn’t dented.
The car couldn’t say the same thing.
Categories: Olympics
