78: Show Me How You Drive, I tell You Who You Are

Rosie (00:00)
okay, Roula Press record. you are recording. Good. I'm being bossy. Because somebody forgot to press record earlier and we were so funny. You just can't recreate that kind of funniness. All right, cut it out.

Roula (00:09)
other time.

No.

Rosie (00:19)
And do you hear that anger? This takes me onto the next topic. Next question I have for you.

I have many questions for you. What kind of driver are you? Because I'm somebody who has a little bit of road rage, Rula. Bit of road rage comes out. But tell me about your driving style.

Roula (00:46)
Okay.

Yes, ha ha ha. Through the decades, my driving style changed so much. My driving style in Lebanon was so different than my driving style in the Netherlands. One thing I really like, it's so rude and I don't do it unless, unless I'm not thinking clearly, is to drive fast. I push the car in front of me to move away.

Rosie (00:58)
What? ⁓ okay. It's changed. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Roula (01:24)
This is so rude. My husband cannot stand it when I do this.

Rosie (01:26)
That is so rude. So annoying.

And you know what I say to those people? Get off my butt! That's what I shout out when people are tailgating me.

Roula (01:35)
Then you keep driving

on the first lane or you move to the other lane.

Rosie (01:40)
⁓ you mean for people who are in the fast lane driving slow. see. Well, yeah, that is annoying. They can move on over.

Yeah. If I'm in the fast lane and accidentally am driving slow, I will move over because don't be a dickhead.

Roula (01:54)
but

I'm even more cruel if someone has a fast car driving slow on the fast lane. I feel like I have no mercy towards them.

Rosie (01:59)
Yeah.

No

mercy!

Roula (02:08)
You

don't know why, I t's weird it's

Rosie (02:14)
So

do you drive fast?

Roula (02:17)
Sometimes, sometimes. Yeah. Well, it's hard in the Netherlands because we have a lot of camera on traffics. And there were times where I had many, many fines, but not so extreme that I can't drive anymore. ⁓ I only drive fast. there is ⁓ to get to the highway from where I live. There is a long road, empty road.

Rosie (02:18)
Hmm? No, do you speed?

Of course you did.

Roula (02:45)
and then I can go to the highway. And on this road, I like to drive very, very fast, like give my car maximum possible and then come down and go to the highway. And maybe you notice sometimes we're on the phone and I tell you, wait, wait, I want now to drive fast and I don't talk and just go for it. Yes, I like driving fast and I know the danger of it, so I don't do it.

Rosie (02:56)
So you gotta get it out of your system. Yeah.

You're in the zone.

Well you do do it. You just said you do it. Okay, sometimes. Sometimes. So do you like shout and swear when you're driving? When someone pisses you off? No? You just drive really close and pretend you're pushing them forward. That's your version of road rage.

Roula (03:17)
Sometimes,

No, no, no, no, I don't do this at all, no.

Yes, yes. That's that's my road rage.

In Lebanon, it was different. In Lebanon, you cannot drive and come back home without having had a whole. How can I say a book of swearing, getting angry, shouting? You can't because it's in the culture.

Rosie (03:41)
Mm.

You

Roula (04:00)
And you know, you don't drive fast in Lebanon, but you go like in between the cars and it's so dangerous, actually.

Rosie (04:05)
Yeah. ⁓

I'd be scared to drive somewhere like that. But even some places in Europe scare me even. Yeah, and France, yes, exactly. Yeah. Scares me.

Roula (04:10)
Yes. Yeah, it's not good. Italy and France. Yeah, they drive like like Lebanese.

You know, I learned here to let go of all my bad habits in driving, and I learned driving again here. So it's not I brought my my knowledge from driving in Lebanon to the Netherlands because it's so dangerous.

Rosie (04:35)
Your knowledge.

The one thing that remains is just a cheeky bit of speeding when you can.

Roula (04:39)
I didn't even know the rules! I didn't

even know what the signs on the road mean!

Rosie (04:45)
my

God. So did you have to do a test when you got to the Netherlands or you just claimed you knew how to drive? ⁓

Roula (04:49)
Oh, I had like 40 lessons and two,

three exams. Yeah. So what kind of driver are you? I still want, I mean, you give some hints.

Rosie (04:55)
Wow. Okay. All right. See, okay. You did it properly.

I'm generally a granny driver. I'm very safe and you know, I'm not someone who flaws it and takes off quickly and breaks suddenly or any of that. I like to stick to the speed limit. However, if someone cuts me off, if someone doesn't give way, if someone is, we call it tailgating here. I think it means something different in the US, but that means that like driving too close to you. Are you putting your hand up? Do you have a question?

Roula (05:27)
Yeah, because

that's what I do on the highway on the fast lane. I tailgate. Yeah, that's me.

Rosie (05:31)
What, you put your hand up? you tailgate, you.

Yeah, I'd be shouting at you. Get off my fucking butt. And I'll even do it if I'm on the phone to someone. I cannot hold it in. I'll swear to the driver and the person on the phone goes, huh, what? My friends are used to it now. But yeah, I got a bit of road rage. And every now and then, yeah, I'm guilty of some speeding. But that's not my usual behavior. I've got to say though, with fixing the van recently, it's not.

It's not fixed, but it wasn't accelerating properly and it's driving a little bit better now. But when it wasn't accelerating properly, I'd have to put the accelerator down all the way to the floor to even get it to move like all the way down. And it would just crawl forward. It wouldn't move very much. And maybe last week I took it for a test drive. I've done a few things on the van and under the guidance of a mechanic. And as I had been doing for several months, I floored the accelerator.

Roula (06:11)
⁓ yes.

Rosie (06:30)
I nearly got a whiplash because it actually took off properly and I went FUCK!

Roula (06:37)
Wow! And you fixed it yourself!

Rosie (06:39)
Yeah, but it's not driving properly again now. I don't know what I did. So anyway, but the point is, yeah, I've been flooring it lately and I got the fright of my life when it actually worked properly. That's not how I would usually drive. But for other people, they floor it and they're really jerky in their driving, especially if it's a manual car and they're changing gears and they won't break at the lights until they're really close at the last minute and you like jerk forward in your seats. I hate that. I'll start breaking like a hundred meters back.

Roula (06:42)
Okay, okay, okay.

⁓ yeah. I don't like that.

Rosie (07:09)
just really slowly and I'll shift down the gears and it just comes to a really gentle stop. It's beautiful.

Roula (07:15)
Yeah,

I like gentles. think when we gently stop, that's that's an expertise in driving. The gentler it stops, the more proud I am. I'm mastering the skill.

Rosie (07:22)
totally. Yeah.

Beautiful. Yeah! Yeah!

Totally agree.

Roula (07:32)
It's driving is such a such a social social behavior. And you know what? I if someone is tailgating, said. Tailgating me. Yeah, I'm not offended. No, no, no, I move because indeed, what am I doing? I need to give them space. It doesn't bother me. What bothers me are the ones that don't follow that they take really dangerous action like.

Rosie (07:54)
But what if it's just...

rules.

Roula (08:01)
in a place where they should not cross in front of you or they suddenly in front of you while you're in your speed. I don't like these behaviors, no.

Rosie (08:04)
Yeah. Yeah.

same. Let's go back to the tailgating thing. You don't get angry with people who are doing it to you. But what if it's a single lane and someone is tailgating you?

Then what?

Roula (08:20)
Oof, that must be a crazy person. Where would I go?

Rosie (08:25)
Well, exactly. Okay, good. So you

agree that it's shitty. And if you were, or if it was multiple lanes and you're in the slow lane and they're tailgating you, that too is shit. Yeah. Yeah. They can take the fast lane. Piss off. Piss off. Yeah. Piss off. Yeah. Is there a Dutch equivalent? What was it in the last episode? You said it was ant fucking. Yeah.

Roula (08:34)
no, I don't move. Come on. Take the first lane. Exactly. Yeah. Piss off. That's the right word in that moment. Yeah.

More than needed.

More than needed. Piss off. No! No! I don't know. I don't know.

Rosie (08:59)
Mmm. Mmm.

Hmm. Well.

Roula (09:04)
Driving, driving. So driving, I love driving and yeah, I wonder what the listener driving style is. Do they push, take it slow? ⁓ one more question. How do you behave when you're sitting next to a driver?

Rosie (09:14)
Yeah.

Yeah.

⁓

Roula (09:27)
What does it do to you?

Rosie (09:29)
do get anxious

if they're speeding or, you know, doing dangerous maneuvers. Like I get on edge, I'll grip. You know, in the, like in the door, there's a thing you grab, not the handle, but the, do you know what I mean? I don't know what it's called. Yeah. And sometimes there's one up on the ceiling, a handle there. I'll be gripping onto that. And if I feel like they're breaking too late, my foot will just automatically be pushing on an imaginary break. Like,

Roula (09:45)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rosie (09:58)
STOP!

Roula (10:00)
Would you say something or just accept it and keep scared? Why not?

Rosie (10:02)
I try not to, I try not to because

I know how annoying it is to have, we call it a backseat driver, somebody who's not the driver, who just feels they can control the situation.

Roula (10:07)
⁓

But

don't you think that the backseat driver has as much to say because their life depends on the driving skill of that person?

Rosie (10:15)
Okay.

going to use that as my

defense next time actually. I get accused of being a backseat driver. See, my safety is in your hands. True.

Roula (10:27)
Yeah. When I'm in a car and I don't feel safe, whether it's a taxi

driver, whether someone driving, I used to think I should not say anything. They're driving and I don't want to upset them more than anything. And then I came to realize for myself, my life is depending on this driver. So when I'm in the car, how can I not say anything?

Rosie (10:37)
Yeah.

Bye.

Speak

up. Mind you, what I was talking about before, like I agree with you. That's true. Speak up. That's just ridiculous otherwise, isn't it? But what if it's just you don't like their driving style?

Like it's not necessarily dangerous or unsafe, but you don't like it and it's irritating you.

Roula (11:09)
You don't... yeah... I don't know.

Rosie (11:14)
I try not to say anything in those situations.

Roula (11:14)
Okay, if you feel

safe and you don't like the driving style, don't say anything. Just try not to drive to go with them. It more it's about feeling safe. Especially I think of that all the time when I have kids in my car from school or when we're as family driving and going somewhere. I feel everyone in the car should feel safe. And if the driver is I'm driving.

Rosie (11:20)
Shut up.

Mmm.

Yeah!

Yeah. Yeah.

Roula (11:43)
recklessly, I think they should tell me. Yes.

Rosie (11:46)
they should say something, but

I'm just thinking to an occasion, kind of recently, a few months ago, I was in an Uber. This guy, I was feeling unsafe. This guy was speeding and cutting into traffic like so close to having multiple collisions. I was really uncomfortable. I didn't actually feel safe to say anything. So just sat there silently really anxious and I just got out as quickly as I could. As soon as I got to the destination, I'm like, yep, I'm out of here.

Roula (12:17)
This is the thing with Uber drivers.

I prefer to have black Uber or the official taxi Uber rather than the Uber that have a regular car and decided to work for Uber. No. They are cheaper, but the car mostly is dirty, smelly, and they just don't drive properly. I'm not judgmental. I'm looking for my comfort.

Rosie (12:26)
⁓

You were so judgmental. That's the only negative experience I've

had in an Uber. How many times have you used an Uber? Have you ever used one? really? Okay.

Roula (12:46)
a lot a lot more

than more than i can say a lot

Rosie (12:50)
Okay,

well, okay everybody, if you go to the Netherlands, do not use the Uber, use the official taxi service.

Roula (12:58)
no, no, use Uber, but choose the good Uber, not the cheap one because cheap one is well, the good Uber are the taxi driver. It's a taxi driver. He has a license. He did the course and everything. There was a time where Uber there were just people who have a car and work for Uber.

Rosie (12:59)
⁓ what's the good Uber?

⁓

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's what it's like here. I actually don't know though, I could be getting that wrong.

Roula (13:19)
No.

Yes. All right, this episode is 14 minutes and it's just about driving. Come on, let's wrap it up.

Rosie (13:22)
Okay, whatever. You've been talking too much! Shut up!

Right, stop tailgating.

Roula (13:32)
Okay, let us know what kind of driver are you?

Rosie (13:33)
What kind of driver are you?

You just had to fucking speak over me. Wow. Yeah, bye.

Roula (13:38)
Bye! ⁓ shut

up Rosie, it's not nice. Bye!