The Botanical Garden of Hobart in 15 pictures

I find flowers quite easy to photograph, they stand there pretty and still just awaiting your click.

How I survived the flipside (or how I panicked for nothing)

When I was in England, I was scared I’d look the wrong way and be run over by a car as I was trying to cross the street. That was because they drove on the opposite side. In Dublin, Ireland, I briefly thought about renting a car, but decided against it and opted for buses. While I was no longer afraid of being hit at a street crossing, I was not quite ready to drive on the flipside.

This time around, we decided to go on a road trip up the East Coast of Tasmania. While I was still very anxious at the thought, I decided to get behind the wheel. If we were to go on this road trip, I was not going to trust two strangers to drive the car registered under my friend’s name. As I have a lot of experience driving in all sorts of conditions, I figured it would be better if I at least took the wheel to get us out of the city. 

I was a bit anxious at first. The brake pedal of the new rental car was very sensitive, which didn’t help; the first time I applied the brake, I nearly hit my head on the steering wheel from the force of it. The French girl’s inconsiderate comments on my driving only increased my stress levels. It was already hard enough to drive on the flipside in a city I didn’t know with a new extremely sensitive car (which was automatic – I normally drive standard and I kept wanting to drive with both my feet). When the girls started commenting, I was ready to throw the keys out the window and run away very dramatically. But don’t worry, I didn’t turn out to be a nutcase.

Thankfully, things got better quickly and I realized that it really wasn’t that hard. In four days, I only managed to drift in the opposite lane once… But I did have to keep reminding myself that the middle lane had to be on my immediate right. 

Other difficulties included judging distances on the passenger side, avoiding activating the windshield washer blades when I wanted to signal and keep my left feet off the pedal (this one had more to do with just driving automatic). I thought roundabouts would be much harder to manoeuver than they actually were, it was all pretty straight forward in the end.

After 4 days of driving on the flipside, I must say I’m getting used to it. However, I would have needed more time to get used those crazy tassie’s roads… Snake-like highways with a limit of a 100 kms! Some of the unexpected curves were a nightmare as I didn’t have much time to bring down the speed before taking them on. Needless to say, there is no daydreaming while driving on Tasmanian roads.

How much would you be willing to pay to get rid of somebody?

We’ve heard it before “give him a 20$ and tell him to get lost”. But how far would you really go to get rid of somebody and regain your peace of mind? For me, the test happened during a road trip on the East Coast of Tasmania.

It sounded good at first. We met this French girl, M, who wanted to go on a road trip and she had a friend, A, who wanted to come as well. We were to share the fees for the adventure. Sounded like such a great deal, until it came back to bite us.

You know something is wrong when you see majestic sights and can’t appreciate them. We were willing to overlook the fact that she didn’t put on deodorant or wash her teeth. We could understand. In the grand scheme of things, it was pretty minor. Then she became a back seat driver, criticising without end how I drove or giving wrong directions about places she didn’t even know. But, I took a deep breath and let it slide.

The last straw came when she took the rental car and crashed it. I don’t know how she managed such a feat as we were in a small village, with very little traffic (her version of the events changed so many times I lost counts) and I suspect she went off road on a beach with it. How often in retrospect have I wished that she told us she wasn’t able to drive or wasn’t comfortable at it. I would have dropped her off and picked her back-up. I would have preferred that.

But the deed was done, she had crashed the car and we now had to pay the fees, good thing we had contracted the insurance. Now, somehow, she figured that, even if we were not in the car when she did whatever she did, we should all separate the costs of her little night adventure.

Needless to say, the road trip was ruined at that point. In the car, she kept going on about how she thought it was unfair she should pay for her own accident. Now don’t get me wrong, if we had been there in the car with her and a kangaroo had jumped on the road in front of her, I would have helped pay for that. Yet, I refused to pay for her careless used of rental property. Just like if I had gotten a speeding ticket, I would have taken full responsibility for it.

Now tension were running high and I realized that this girl would single-handedly destroy every single good memory of my stay in Tasmania. That’s when I took the decision to severe the link. I was ready to handle the final bill, which hopefully will be the insurance deductible of $350, just to have M and A out of my sight. I didn’t expect anything less from them : they took the bailout, left the full responsibility of their accident to me and headed out with a smile of relief on their face. To be honest, I am relieved as well, I would never count anyone of such poor character among my friends. 

There are a few principles in life I live by, one of them is to know when to cut your losses, and there was still too much for me to lose with them around. It was time for me to call it quit, even if I was going to be poorer during my trip because of it.

The girl didn’t have enough class to at least help pay for the fees or handle the insurance claim, she took the bailout and flew. At least I can console myself thinking she is no longer polluting my air, but I can’t help pity the poor chap who will encounter her next.

So, how much would I be willing to pay to get rid of somebody? $350.

Five Things I Will Not Miss

Not long ago I wrote about things I could foresee myself missing. Thinking some more on this, there are things I think that on the contrary I will not miss.

Fixed Schedule - The change of pace will do me good

Winter Snow Storms - Tricky roads and sky high snow banks

Phone Slavery - Expected response at all time

Mindless Everyday Rituals -  General cause of time flying by

Obligations - They pile up every day