Australia Epilog

One of the issues I had in Australia was getting used to driving a car with the controls on the right. It felt strange to have so much car sticking out to my left. It was like being a new driver and having to learn the 'feel' of the car all over again. New drivers as such, sometimes make some judgement errors and find themselves over steering into a right turn, cutting it too close and running over the curb on the corner. Or pulling in too far when parking and scraping the curb. I had to learn how to do both of those things all over again except on the left side, and have to admit that I hit my share of curbs. However, I didn't realize until the day I was returning the car just how badly I had warped and scraped up the hubcap. Hertz was pleasant about it. They simply added 60 AUD to my bill.

One of my Australian mates warned me that on my return to driving in the U.S., I might experience some after effects of driving on the left. As a 'yank' driving in Australia, you find yourself thinking about every right or left turn you make, wanting to be sure you don't unconsciously turn into the wrong lane. I was told that I might find myself doing the same thing after I got home. I'm happy to report that I slipped right back into right side driving without any conscious thought. I did signal a few turns with my windshield wipers however.

I seem to have brought a little Australian visitor back home with me. Thursday before I left I experienced chills and a fever, but it was gone by Friday. However, shortly after I started experiencing classic symptoms of salmonella poisoning although I kept thinking I had a little touch of flu. Last night I decided this was something worse and called the doctor today. I now have a prescription that will hopefully clear me up.

By the way, those that were at my house for barbecues this weekend can rest easy. I was very careful about hand washing :)