Some people are hinting that I’m a lousy driver but see how well I parked? And that’s on the very first try and barefoot (I was coming home from getting a pedicure).
I never try to impose my lifestyle choices on others but here I just have to say: if you get an opportunity not to learn to drive until the age of 38, please take it. Suddenly being able to go just anywhere at this advanced age is a very powerful feeling.
And now excuse me because I have to go to a home improvement store for the third time today.
Clarissa's Blog 
I am implying nothing but the fact that if you were in the UK, you wouldn’t be allowed to drive that piece of fine German highway apparatus without an L plate. 🙂
We’d consider it fair warning of your inexperience as a driver, not that you’re going to plough headlong into the nearest concrete barrier within a central reservation …
No L plate? Absolutely shocking, but probably not as shocking as your insurance premiums. 🙂
LikeLike
I don’t even know what an L plate is! Is this a cultural thing?
LikeLike
Perhaps an L plate is a license plate? If that’s the case, it’s probably important to say that in the US some cars only have license plates on the back, rather than on the front and the back.
LikeLike
I think he means a sign on the car indicating a “learner driver” (british expression)
Even though the L doesn’t correspond with anything in Polish that’s what’s used there, though only on cars used by driving schools (which are notriously corrupt).
I remember something similar when I took drivers e in high school though it didn’t say L. Those cars were also equipped with brakes on the passenger side in case the instructor needed to override the student driver’s judgement.
But there was nothing like that on private cars with people with restricted licenses.
LikeLike
Oh. Yeah, I’ve only seen it on driver’s ed cars, too. Not all states automatically provide license restrictions to people over 18 or 19, either.
LikeLike
L plates explained: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L-plate
They’re easily obtained at Homebase, the UK’s version of Lowe’s. 🙂
I used to have one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshinsha_mark
And yes, to an extent it’s cultural — in the UK and Japan, you’re required to display an L plate or a Shoshinsha mark to indicate that you’re a new driver.
The fact that American states simply put people on the road without any warning about driving experience still remains shocking. 🙂
I have in fact passed an American driving licence test while under the influence of a half bottle of cough syrup, so given this fact, I’d be more than slightly alarmed what is possible on American roads …
LikeLike
“if you get an opportunity not to learn to drive until the age of 38, please take it. Suddenly being able to go just anywhere at this advanced age is a very powerful feeling”
I think that would only work in places with terrible public transportation (almost everywhere in the US) and very expensive taxis.
I can’t imagine living in most places in the US without a car, but I’ve never remotely wanted one in Poland (which would also mean having to share the road with Polish drivers, brrrrrrrrrr….)
LikeLike
Out of topic, but did you hear about the new anti-prostitution law in Canada?
LikeLike
No, I haven’t heard. Tell me.
LikeLike
Criminalizes buying sex, advertising sexual services, making one’s income out of prostitution and 48 more pages of stuff. Has some really weird language where people in “legitimate living arrangements”, whatever the fuck might mean, are exempt from some of the criminalization.
The bill: http://ow.ly/d/2e8g
A description: http://www.pivotlegal.org/the_new_sex_work_legislation_explained
LikeLike
It equates child pornography with advertising of prostitution, punishes receiving money from a sex worker while knowing s/he probably earned it through sex work by up to 14 years of prison, up to 5 years of prison for hiring a prostitute, and by page 10 I got too pissed off to keep reading.
LikeLike
So. The Canadian government is now in the business of distinguishing between bad prostitution and good prostitution. How cute. Apparently, the ridiculous Scandinavian model isn’t enough and now Canadians need to make idiots out of themselves, too.
This is the height of idiocy and stupidity. Words can’t express my disgust.
LikeLike
congratulations. Did they make you parallel park when you took the driver’s license test?
LikeLike
Thank you! There is no parallel parking on the test because if we started looking for a place with enough cats to parallel park in this area, the exam would last a month. 🙂
LikeLike
They’re too lazy to section off an area with hazard cones?
Even more shocking. 🙂
LikeLike