Driving on the Right Side of the Brain and the Left Side of the Lane

Twenty years ago, author Betty Edwards wrote the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.  In it, she shows you how to look at things differently, using different techniques to enable you to bypass your left (logical) brain, and access your right brain, (your subconscious mind), hence the title. In the last two weeks, Shelly and I have had to adjust our brains, and our habits, to driving on the right side of the car and the LEFT side of the road. In more ways than one, it's a trip!  Yesterday was Shelly's first day to take the new Honda Fit out on the road.  See the pictures . . . yes, the car (and today's blog post) are her favorite color---lime green!  Driving in Mauritius is a challenge no matter which side of the car or road you drive on.  The narrow roads are shared with pedestrians, bikes, mopeds, buses, dogs, goats, and speedy taxis.  In order to survive, you must be in a constant state of alert . . . which is not a bad thing while driving.  Multi-tasking, like eating, texting, or talking on a cell phone are illegal here (and for good reason!)  Turns out that driving on the left is a great world-traveler skill to have---at least 76 countries, territories, and dependencies drive on the left. According to Wikipedia, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Isle of Man, Guernsey, Jersey, Malta and Cyprus all drive on the left. Some Commonwealth countries and other former British colonies, such as Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Hong Kong, Jamaica, Mauritius, Singapore, New Zealand, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, South Africa and Trinidad & Tobago drive on the left. Other countries that drive on the left in Asia are Thailand, Indonesia, Bhutan, Nepal, East Timor and Japan. In South America, only Guyana and Suriname drive on the left. Most of the Pacific countries drive on the left.

It is open to debate whether you can use left brain- right brain theory to describe what goes on in your head when you switch from one side of the road to the other, but one thing is for certain:  your survival depends on getting it right (correct, I mean).  So far, so good!