Driving

For getting around the city, its been all trains, buses, ferries, and taxi's for us, but for the first time since we arrived, we drove!   We are getting our furniture from Calgary delivered on Thursday and so we needed to buy lamps and a few other things to replace the rental products that will be picked up before our furniture arrives.  And when you need lamps, a garbage can, a shelving unit and a bunch little things for the house, nothing beats IKEA.  Like all IKEAs, the one here is far away from the city centre.  The suburb it is in is about 25 minutes drive from where we live and we actually drove on the freeway!  In fact things went so well that we drove to another mall to buy a vacuum cleaner and we didn't get lost or cause any accidents.  What more can you ask for?
Jim did all of the driving and we aren't sure whether it is less stressful to drive on the opposite side of the road, or be the passenger.  Nothing looks right and there is no possibity of allowing your mind to wander for even a second.  You have to watch where you are in the lane, where the other drivers are and make sure that you don't get all "North American" and start driving on the right hand side of the road. 
Jim adapted really fast.  Going to IKEA was a little tricky, but it soon became second nature.  He turned when he should, how he should and remembered to shoulder check the right way.  Traffic roundabouts were initially odd to say the least, but they work so good...why hasn't North America embraced the roundabout?  Probably the hardest part is getting past the "muscle memory".  The signal is on the right hand side of the steering wheel and the windshield wipers are on the left.  When Joanne drove she washed the windows everytime she turned a corner.  The rental car was an automatic...you need a special license to rent a manual transmission.
This was a BIG step for us.  We won't be leasing a car (why pay to let a vehicle sit in the garage 25 days a month?) but we will definitely be renting a bit and have a vacation to the Sunshine Coast coming up.