Drive

I haven't driven in the UK now for coming up to 10 years.  I haven't driven a manual car for closer to 15 years.  I think driving an automatic car in the US for so long now has made me soft, because every time I come back to the UK I'm struck by how different, and how nervous, I am being driven around here.  I suspect this is mainly because I'm so used to driving on the right, with the wheel on the left side of the car, so my spatial awareness of car position on the road is totally off.  Also, the roads are noticeably narrower in the UK compared to the US, and although the cars are also narrower, it does not make for easy driving.  This seems to be especially bad on the minor roads in Surrey, where there is so much street-parking that there is barely room for 2 lanes of traffic and guaranteed that my wing mirror would not last if I was driving round here.  Also, the US does not do roundabouts - so I'm struck by how fast people approach and drive round them here because I don't think I could do that now.  And to top it all, most people still drive a manual - which frankly I find quite bewildering because driving an automatic takes so much hassle out of driving, but it does probably make me a less skilled driver (I'm not sure I could ever go back to driving a manual).  I think I'll keep on doing my best to avoid driving in the UK for as long as I can, but at some point I suspect I'm going to have to brave the UK roads for myself again.