Laid back CA-people except
Monday, January 22 2007
People are very laid back here in San Francisco compared to Londoners. My guess is that goes for most of the people in California.
There is one exception and that sunk in while driving … if you place a Californian in a car and their super aggressive alter ego takes over. Maybe it is some sort of cheap therapy for them? Who the fuck know?
All I know is that I had to stand on the break pedal on the 101 highway (freeway, motorway) and slow down from 75 to 15 in a very short time. And then an anxious glance in the mirror to see if the car behind me would stop before licking the babyblue colour of my rental (UK: hire) car. Close but didn’t touch. After that everyone decided it was better to be in any other lane then current one. Some dickhead driver must be in front.
If something happens, I’d like an explanation. It was a start-stop driving for the next couple of miles with no sign of a traffic accident or similar. So why do I have to break so hard on a highway? Gimme a few hours of thinking and more driving, the penny (cent??) dropped.
You regular CA highway driver are probably snorting at me and calling me a rookie (if being polite).
It must have been drivers that cut into a lane real late & sharp which forces the cars behind to break hard with the knock-on effect. Yes? The traffic is madly aggressive in this laid back part of the world.
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:06
Hola Lizzie!
You want to calm down yourself I think. Maybe it is you who is bad driver, who knows? Go with the flow I say.
You have nice blog, but where is your photo?
Bye bye jippers
January 23rd, 2007 at 2:20
hey jippers – thx for commenting 🙂 but … if the car in front of breaks hard, I would be a bad driver if I didn’t do the same. My place is behind the camera so no pics of me …
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:34
Heh! Rookie 😉
You’re not alone. Everyone thinks everyone else is a bad driver. And I’ve noticed you’ve started using proper English (American) words like highway and ‘rental’ but just remember … a boot goes on your foot and a bonnet goes on your head. In ‘real’ English, it’s ‘trunk’ and “hood”
heheheeh great post
January 23rd, 2007 at 12:24
Donno what to write.:-?. I am a bad driver so hope u rn’t good either.
As far as ENGLISH is concerned as CAP mentioned. We(read Indians) are still confused and in the same paragraph end up writing humor and humour.
January 24th, 2007 at 9:46
Hehe, you should see the traffic and driving of the people down here. You’d probably quit driving. It takes a lot of skill to drive with all the morons on wheels! Truckers switch lanes as if they’re dodging traffic cones (those orange conical thingies) in a driving school 😛
February 5th, 2007 at 12:31
Well you won’t want to drive in Florida, then. They are wretched here!
You’ll get used to it, eventually, but always be cautious and drive very defensively.
February 5th, 2007 at 21:58
Oh is the traffic that bad cos of all the pensioner wearing the big sunglasses?
Juuust kiddin’ about the stereotypical view of Florida.
I have been to Florida on holiday a couple years ago. One of the lasting memories was a torrential rain on the freeway and I had stopped the car for awhile.