What's new since last time?
Not much really.
Commute home last night was clear sailing aside from a couple of missed gear changes and a tricky right turn near my memorized landmark that was not as simple as I had anticipated. A little improvised bumper car action allowed me to head the way I needed to head.
Had a great dinner in the City Center last night at a small Indian restaurant. I was pretty amazed that the food service ritual (presentation, wiping of the plates, etc.) was precisely the same as our little Indian place in the strip mall down the street. My dish - Chilli (it kills me to spell it that way) Masala was very tasty.
I was once again in nodding eyelid mode when I returned to the hotel so I decided lights out was in order. The Demons of Jet Lag though had different ideas for me. I forgot to follow my ritual and failed to take my nightly dose of melatonin. Not sure if that contributed, but I was raring to go after a nice night's sleep of 1 hour. Finally I cashed in my chips at 2:30 and took the pills, finally managing to doze off sometime thereafter. When the alarm stuck at 6:45 I decided to take a bit more rest, trading off against the possibility of a more frantic commute. But no more sleep was available and so I dragged myself out of bed 30 minutes later and headed out the door.
My 15-March goal was an error free commute. For those not paying close attention, the litany of previous errors includes being in the wrong lane at a critical juncture, trying to accelerate away from a light in 3rd gear, missing turns entirely, being on the wrong side of roundabouts and hitting things along the passenger side of the road. Today was going to be different, and not even a night with three hours sleep was going to get in the way of my triumph.
Leaving the car park this morning was greatly aided by having an exit ticket that actually caused the gate to open. So far, so good. I took a lot of time merging out onto Sussex Road hoping to not ruin my clean commute with my very first traffic action. No problem, not even the bus driver with the terrified look as I pulled out and made it across 3 lanes. The turn onto Leeson was clean and without danger. Making it to Grand Canal I instantly comprehended the cars on the wrong side of the road and executed a textbook left turn. From here it was clear sailing, now being one with the ebb and flow of the traffic. Did well all the way to the oblique right hand turn that is required to move north up to the N4. Here, I found myself sort of in the wrong lane, sort of because I simply chose to block both of them. The right turn received an arrow where the straight-through remained red so I simply exercised my Ignorant Foreign Driver Perogative and merged aptly in front of the unspecting others. No problem, not even a single sounding of the outraged car horn (like yesterday's dawn chorus.)
From there - I could have done it blindfolded. In fact, many of my fellow drivers were probably under the assumption that I was driving blindfolded. Onto the motorway, off at the exit, around two roundabouts (on the correct side) and into the lot. A 99% morning drive in with no mention of me on the radio traffic reports.
A simple breafast of Strawberry Yogurt (electing to eschew the Rhubarb flavor), Cranberry juice and Pain au Chocolate consumed with a knife and fork and I'm now ready for another day as a productive member of society.
Commute home last night was clear sailing aside from a couple of missed gear changes and a tricky right turn near my memorized landmark that was not as simple as I had anticipated. A little improvised bumper car action allowed me to head the way I needed to head.
Had a great dinner in the City Center last night at a small Indian restaurant. I was pretty amazed that the food service ritual (presentation, wiping of the plates, etc.) was precisely the same as our little Indian place in the strip mall down the street. My dish - Chilli (it kills me to spell it that way) Masala was very tasty.
I was once again in nodding eyelid mode when I returned to the hotel so I decided lights out was in order. The Demons of Jet Lag though had different ideas for me. I forgot to follow my ritual and failed to take my nightly dose of melatonin. Not sure if that contributed, but I was raring to go after a nice night's sleep of 1 hour. Finally I cashed in my chips at 2:30 and took the pills, finally managing to doze off sometime thereafter. When the alarm stuck at 6:45 I decided to take a bit more rest, trading off against the possibility of a more frantic commute. But no more sleep was available and so I dragged myself out of bed 30 minutes later and headed out the door.
My 15-March goal was an error free commute. For those not paying close attention, the litany of previous errors includes being in the wrong lane at a critical juncture, trying to accelerate away from a light in 3rd gear, missing turns entirely, being on the wrong side of roundabouts and hitting things along the passenger side of the road. Today was going to be different, and not even a night with three hours sleep was going to get in the way of my triumph.
Leaving the car park this morning was greatly aided by having an exit ticket that actually caused the gate to open. So far, so good. I took a lot of time merging out onto Sussex Road hoping to not ruin my clean commute with my very first traffic action. No problem, not even the bus driver with the terrified look as I pulled out and made it across 3 lanes. The turn onto Leeson was clean and without danger. Making it to Grand Canal I instantly comprehended the cars on the wrong side of the road and executed a textbook left turn. From here it was clear sailing, now being one with the ebb and flow of the traffic. Did well all the way to the oblique right hand turn that is required to move north up to the N4. Here, I found myself sort of in the wrong lane, sort of because I simply chose to block both of them. The right turn received an arrow where the straight-through remained red so I simply exercised my Ignorant Foreign Driver Perogative and merged aptly in front of the unspecting others. No problem, not even a single sounding of the outraged car horn (like yesterday's dawn chorus.)
From there - I could have done it blindfolded. In fact, many of my fellow drivers were probably under the assumption that I was driving blindfolded. Onto the motorway, off at the exit, around two roundabouts (on the correct side) and into the lot. A 99% morning drive in with no mention of me on the radio traffic reports.
A simple breafast of Strawberry Yogurt (electing to eschew the Rhubarb flavor), Cranberry juice and Pain au Chocolate consumed with a knife and fork and I'm now ready for another day as a productive member of society.
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