Knowing the left from the right

Left-hand, Right-hand, Male, Female, Nearside, Offside, Driver-side, Passenger-side, it all gets a little confusing.

Recent work on replacing the seats, the switch-packs and associated wiring has thrown up issues about orientation when thinking about component location.

I personally tend to favour the designation 'nearside' and 'offside' in relation to a vehicle parked legally on the roadside. Big trouble here is that those labels relate to whether the vehicle is right-hand drive or left-hand drive.

Rave mostly talks about 'Left-hand' and 'Right-hand' and for clarification it states at the very beginning of the Rave manual that... 

"References to the LH or RH side given in this Manual are made when viewing the vehicle from the rear...".

This makes a lot of sense as it can be used for all markets whether they be right or left hand drive. There are still references to 'drivers side'  and 'passenger side' to be found and I guess they are hard to shift psychologically from whatever market you are in. It doesn't help my case that one of my Rave manuals is North American Spec. (NAS) or that some of the illustrations, usually for the interior components, are drawn from that perspective. ...

Recent work on the electric seat components highlighted the issue of orientation like never before! Given that a lot of work was done with the seats upside down, it was handy to see 'LH' or 'RH" stamped onto the bottom rail of the relevant seat frame.