Yesterday I had the pleasure of legally driving myself to work, for only the second time in the month of July. Except that yesterday was 01 August. Ag man, just read on. It was thrilling and riveting, and I even went up to 90 km per hour! Take that, driving Miss Daisy…But seriously it was a relief. Not that I don’t enjoy Grant’s company on the way to work (his rendition of ‘Freefalling’ is particularly good), but it’s nice not to have to rely on him to drive me around - and nice for him not to lose large parts of his day in traffic.

What lead to this was that I ‘joyfully’ got to experience re-taking my driving test to get my New South Wales license. I figured that it would be quicker and cheaper than returning to SA to get my current one renewed, and I think it’s fair to say that I was right. To be honest I find the Aussie requirements a lot less neck-breaking than the much loved SA K53 method. Here the focus lies in a few more of the skilled driver nuances - and the 360 degree blind spot check is reduced to 180 degrees. And of course having your indicator on for 3 days (yes you have to wait that long) before turning, changing lanes, etc. I did have to put up with the snide giggling on my instructor and test officer who fondly remembered ‘robots’ and ‘traffic circles’ from other Saffers they’ve met before; so as not to dissapoint, I continued with that naming standard (I figured if they were trying to hide a giggle, they weren’t concentrating on me!). The testing officer also noted with pleasant surprise that South Africans can stop at stop streets, contrary to his previous education on the norm in SA. Yep it is a sad fact that a lot of Saffers in Oz are.. well lets not go there. I have to say that one of the bonuses of the driving test here is being able to get a full, unrestricted license to drive either manual or automatic, even though my test was in an automatic. Sweeeet. The only problem is now that I have my NSW license, I can’t gest the damn M.I.S.T. mantra out of my head - mirror, indicator, shoulder, turn! mirror, indicator…