Hold on for your Life!

I've already told you about the 4th car of my host parents: the Triumph (a British Oldtimer from 1973, I think). Tommi had offered to me to drive it and the first time he offered it I was very sceptical. But since I'll be working in New Zealand for a year in 2010 I though that I should at least try to drive a car which has the steering wheel on the right side. So, when he offered me to drive it for the third time, I was finally brave and sober enough to do it. (The second time he had asked I had just had a big glass of wine and didn't want to risk anything.)
So, after finding out that the order of the clutch, break and gas pedal was the same, but the turn signal was on the other side, I tried to leave the drive way. I killed the engine twice because I forgot that it was a sports car and that you actually have to use the gas pedal quite a lot. Changing gears with my left hand would not have been so bad if the gears would have been easy to change like in a new car, but they were kind of stiff and hard to find. Finally on the road, Tommi asked me if I wanted to go to Nummela which is 15 km away. However, I suggested that we'd just turn around in Ojakkala which is only 6 km away. Tommi didn't like this idea and made me turn onto a bigger street where I could drive a bit faster. It was quite a good feeling driving a convertible, but driving it cost me more concentration than I needed in my final oral English exam for my Master's degree. (And no, this 60-minute oral exam was not easy at all!!!) And I held on to the steering wheel so tightly that my index finger hurt for the next two days. When we were back at the house and I out of the car, I had continued to shake for another half an hour. I just hope that the car I will get to drive in New Zealand will be a modern one!!!