Drive on the left. Drive on the left. Drive on the left.

I left the office today just before 5 to make sure the downtown car rental facility would still be open, neglecting to consider that my would force my debut of driving in South Africa to occur during rush hour: bad idea #1. Anyway, I complete the paperwork and as we're approaching the car, I try to look like left driving is all I do. After last weekend's mistake of walking to the driver's side door of Neil's (the guy who showed me different apartments) car, today I wanted to avoid looking like a fool by approaching the passenger side door. After a successful demonstration of knowing which side of the car to get in, I took my seat and tried to orient myself; the car is also a manual. I've driven a clutch in Scotland (where you drive on the left) but that was 8 years ago and it was probably a ten minute drive! So, I was sitting in my newly acquired rental (still in the garage) preparing myself... the gear shift is on my left; I can do this; I will drive on the left side of the road; wow, this exit between the pillar and the next car is pretty skinny (my mirror thought so, too); I should have thought through my route back to the office before pulling out; oops, the blinker is on the right side of the steering wheel (as I turn off the windshield wipers)... Surprisingly, I made no wrong turns (as far as directions or onto one-ways in the wrong direction) yet it was still quite the relief to park the car back at the office.

Just after 6, Patricia and I packed up and as I was sitting in the car gearing myself up for driving on the left, I realized I wasn't finding the seatbelt. I turned to look where my fingers were coming up empty and found them grabbing at the air just over Patricia's shoulder - on my left. Oops again, the driver side seatbelt is on the right... I buckled up and refocused to get driving left on my mind. After the short drive to the hotel and again obeying the one ways, we parked and I suggested taking a cab to find dinner at the waterfront. I figured I have plenty of time to acclimate to the leftward driving, no need to drive through the city with no directions, in the dark, and walk from the parking deck to the restaurant in the dark (justification can be so easy when you've already made the decision!)

Tomorrow morning, we're driving over to the Camps Bay/Clifton area to look at apartments for Patricia and I'll move into mine. I'm thrilled at the idea of not touching my suitcase again for a while - such a nice touch to this gig!