I don't feel so bad about the torture I had to go frough to get fose sounds down wight now. Franks Zen!

BTW...I'm the youngest, what are you tryin to say about me?

(Oh and I'm not making fun of your friend, just reflecting on how much worse off I could have been)

Hey, I am a youngest too. My friend could get her way by asking childishly, so the behaviour was reinforced. Her two older sisters would set her up to ask for anything they wanted.

I was. She was nice and fairly bright but occasionally would fall into stupidity. One April first someone sent her a link to the Bonsai kittens website. She was well into organising a petition against the practice before someone explained... :lol:

She is now director of scientific and medical research at a major university institution. Probably getting paid twice what I am ... hmmmm...

Scatology?

Actually, I have a downunda/far east translation request for ZenGum (or casi, or Ali, or fishhook, or DN, etc.)

Was watching a program recently and the camera's point of view was from behind the front seats of a car being driven in Japan. This car had a manual transmission. The driver's side was on the right side, of course. My question is this: What is the shifting pattern for a right hand drive car? In America, first gear is (usually) at the upper left in the "H" pattern, and then it works its way to the right as you row through the gears.

Any help?

Old. It's called scatomancy. I don't think there are a lot of practitioners of the art these days, though.

Unless you count proctologists and GI specialists.

It's the same, although where reverse is depends on the car. also, the pedals do not change order.

Really? Driving a car like that must be really awkward - having to reach over the transmission hump to push the gas pedal.

I don't think I could do it.

order, not side

If you get the two confused, you're either fat or skinflint.

"Eingrish" reminds me of my days in Hong Kong with the British Military. What a great experience.

sounds like something the Brits would all be speaking now if it wasn't for the yanks in WWII ;)

Hell, we are all going to be saying it in Spanish in a few years....

<searching for my Roseta tapes>

What was great abotu the experience?

Post from the Department of Redundancy Department.

Gears are:
1st - top left
2nd - bottom left
3rd - top centre (yes, centRE)
4th - bottom centre
5th - top right
Reverse - usually bottom right.

Pedals:
Clutch - left
Brake - centre
Accelerator - right

We don't have a "gas" pedal because our cars run on "petrol".

The tricky thing is, the indicator is (usually) on the right of the steering column, and the windscreen wiper control is on the left. With imported cars, especially European models, this is often reversed, which can mess you up if you change from one car to another.

The real challenge, though, is the steering wheel. Because we're in the southern hemisphere, gyroscopic forces are reversed. So it is necessary to reverse the connection on the steering wheel, and turn it clockwise to go left and anti-clockwise to go right. This does confuse a lot of visiting tourists, but it is easy to remember if you think of it this way: in the northern hemisphere, the car goes the way the upper (i.e. northern) part of the steering wheel goes, and in the southern hemisphere, the car goes the way the lower (southern part of h wheel goes. Simple really.

:driving:

Don't listen to these jokers. I rented a stick shift in New Zealand, and it took about 10 seconds to adjust to the different layout, and after the first hour of driving, it was perfectly normal.

understandable. it's a shitty job