Strange or not?

In England, if you get pulled over by a police car whilst out driving, some people stay sitting in the car, others, like me prefer to get out and talk to the Officer (I might add it only happened once, when I was 18 and it was because they were stopping cars that looked like mine. It actually had nothing to do with me).

In Australia, once again, many stay sitting in the car, I prefer to get out. I was once stopped when I rolled down a hill and went through a speed trap all of 5 KPH over the limit. The very nice Officer let me off with a warning. Here, I remember reading what to do in the drivers manual before my test. Stay in the car and make sure, your hands are in clear sight of the Police Officer, preferably on the steering wheel.

Makes you realise the subtle (perhaps not so subtle) differences between the countries. You also have to have available both you driving license and the insurance for the car (the latter MUST be kept in the car).

I am doing a lot more driving at the moment, but still find myself reaching over my right shoulder to get the seat belt when I get into the drivers seat. I of course have to correct myself and get the belt from over my left shoulder.

I am also still finding it strange that there are stop signs all over the place in large parking lots (car parks) for shopping centers. Not sure what that says about the behaviour of drivers when out shopping…

Food is still causing me some issues. The bread here is sweet, as it contains sugar. When you go to a Diner (no real equivalent in either the UK or Aussie) and have breakfast, it could easily feed the 5000. I am used to having scrambled eggs on toast, with nothing else unless you ask for it. I learnt a while ago that the best way to make good scrambled eggs is to add some milk (or in my case Soy) to the egg before you whisk it. Makes it very smooth and it is the way eggs are made in café’s in both Aussie and the UK. Not here. I got a large amount of (relatively) dry scrambled eggs, with several large pieces of dry toast and lots (as in LOTS) of hash browns.

My grandchildren asked for pancakes, and they got plates piled high with pancakes, dripping in syrup. On another occasion I had a salad that came with French fries, I asked for vinegar to go on the fries. You would have thought I had asked for something really weird from the look I got, until my daughter explained that Americans do not normally put vinegar on fries(!!!!!!!). You also cannot get the good old traditional English fish and chips. Now that is causing me all sorts of grief, not because I eat it very often, but because I can’t find it anywhere (you know when you get that craving for something you can’t have)

I was out with my son in laws parents and the grandchildren the other day and we went to what I can only assume was the US equivalent of the RSL or British Legion type of club, less sophisticated but providing good cheap food. You could have pizza or pasta with a variety of sources and/or toppings. I had chicken pasta, expecting some form of pasta with a source that included chicken. Not unreasonable. What I got was spaghetti with tomato source and half a chicken (yes HALF) and it was not a small chicken either. It was very tasty but there was so much of it.

So, still finding things strange, but sometimes you find yourself questioning whether what you used to know was strange and what is in front of you is normal.

Gets very confusing.