How Do You "Do" Directions??

[erin-x]

I've got an interview at a new school tomorrow and I had no idea where it was. After asking a few people and getting a list of turn left here, turn right here, take the third exit at this roundabout, blah, blah, blah... I decided to go on google maps and go along the streetview. My directions now consist of turn left at the big conifers, turn right at the house with the red garage door etc etc... I need visual clues as to where I am or else i'm completely stumped! Anyone else like this?? I can't be the only one surely! Haha :)

[welshlibranr]

I use the AA route planner erin, I find it very easy to follow, maybe have a look on the AA website!........

[sherrardk]

I just don't go anywhere new! I have no sense of direction and get lost easily. When I lived in Aylesbury and worked in Dunstable they closed the main road and I had to stop and ask someone how to get home.

[erin-x]

Thanks Welsh.. i'll have a gander :)

That's what i'm like Sher! I'm only going out of necessity haha! :)

[Buenchico]

Conifers? Are those the big Leylandii which the new house owner has cut down? Red garage doors? Don't they have paint brushes in your area then?

I can normally just look at a map, think through the directions in my head (e.g. "left at the roundabout, third right, second left, straight on for half a mile, 4th exit at the next roundabout, etc" and then 'internalise' them. So that, even if there are 30 or 40 steps in the journey I can simply drive straight to my destination without even consciously thinking about how many junctions I've passed or how far I've driven between junctions.

[Jan1957]

If locally I direct by pubs but if I have to go out of town I'm the same as you erin.

[sherrardk]

When I was working I used to go on courses in London and the tube was a nightmare for me. If I have to go anywhere new these days (just in town, usually something to do with the children) I have to ask a friend where it is (directions involve well known shops and pubs (not that I go to pubs these days)) and then I do a reccee a couple of days before - have to time it and work out where I am going to park my stupid car.

[welshlibranr]

Chris!.......you're a male!............it's well known that males have a better sense of direction than us females!......but we are better at so many other things!........lol..........

[erin-x]

Oh Chris don't! Haha! I wish I could do that... i've never been good with things like that. :|

[sunny-dave]

I'm with Buenchico - especially if out on the motorbike, need to have a good visualisation of the journey from a decent map & then it just sort of flows ...

[welshlibranr]

Do what I do erin, print out the directions, memorise the first few bits, and then stop now and then to check the next bit!.....works for me!........good luck!.........

[erin-x]

Oh I wish Dave...

My dad has never been good at directions either and he's been a bus driver for 20 odd years! He ends up following buses when were out in the car and even followed an ice cream van and got us lost one day!! haha :)

[Buenchico]

I think that I inherited my sense of direction from my father. In 1990 we were driving into a town in Lincolnshire when I told my Dad that I's stop the car for a moment, so that I'd look at a map to find out where a particular pub was. My father told me not to both as all I had to do was to turn right at the next crossroads, take the second left, fork right and then the 4th turning on the right. I asked him how he knew. He told me that he'd passed the pub on his only previous visit to the town in 1940.

[erin-x]

My friend's like that Chris.. I love it when he's in the car.. just a pity he can't come to the interview with me! lol

[sherrardk]

Ps - good luck with your interview, what's it for?

[welshlibranr]

Chris, your dad had a good memory for places, as does my OH, I am not so blessed!.............I can't remember anywhere I visited last year!.....

[erin-x]

Thanks Sher :) It's for an Early Years Officer post (nursery nurse). I had one today, got two tomorrow and two next week. :|

[cazzz1975]

its natural to use landmarks to assist in getting to somewhere, I dont think that is unusual at all.

I am excellent at reading maps so I dont think its a male only skill ;)

[sunny-dave]

^---^ like :)

[welshlibranr]

cazzz, I have to admit that I have a female friend who is good at map reading, I, sadly am rubbish, as are most of my other friends!......

[Buenchico]

When I was delivering car parts I worked as a relief driver, so I had to cover over a dozen drivers different routes. One afternoon I had to deliver to a small garage, with an incomplete address on the docket, so I asked if any of the other drivers knew where it was. Several of them told me, in chorus, that all I had to do was to look for the big red gates. Some of the drivers had been delivering there for over a quarter of a century, and the gates had always been bright red. So I set off to look for those big red gates. Can you guess which morning that garage had had their gates painted grey?