I'm tired. I've had a run of bad nights and then I was out of the house driving bear to Leeds University at 6am. Bear has a trip today with college. It's an all expenses paid trip to Oxford University for an Open Day. I had to provide lunch and that was all. I got bear safely there, but I'm worried about my driving on the way back. I was so lost that I should invent a new word to describe it and wandered all over North West Leeds before getting onto Kirkstall Road. It was a path full of bus lanes and speed cameras and while I would normally describe myself as incredibly law abiding, I'm worried that I'll end up with so many penalty points that I'll lose the license because I missed something or clipped the bus lane on unfamiliar roads. I got home around 7.30am and I was flattened. Part of it was the stress of driving through Leeds Centre. Fortunately DH is brave enough to go to pick bear up around 8pm. I'll update anything interesting tomorrow.
There are a few of these trips coming up, and I am fascinated to hear about it. He's also really enthusiastic about the studying and what's happening. He keeps explaining things to me and I love hearing it, even if I don't understand it.
I spent a significant part of today sorting out our broadband. I'm getting rid of the landline and upgrading the speed of the broadband which will be brilliant for DH and bear.
Writing stuff - nothing that I've written, but Hazardous To Your Sanity has a couple of posts, including a nice retelling of a fairy tale about the moon caught in a pond.
Hugs and good health to all.
Sounds like a wonderful opportunity for bear, but, poor you having to find your way on unfamiliar roads!
ReplyDeleteBear had a wonderful time, I'm so happy for him.
DeleteI no longer drive due to my health/eyesight but I was renowned for getting lost - even with a satnav! Most of the time, when it was just me going to a garden centre or something, it was mildly amusing but once I was sent on a course for work some 90-odd miles from where I live. On top of that I had to use a hire car because of insurance conditions. I did try to prepare - I looked up the route and wrote down the instructions in large type to keep on the front passenger seat (just in case). So off I went, very early as I wanted to give myself plenty of time and with the sat nav plugged in I spent the first half hour or so telling myself "you can do this". 4 hours later (and already late for the course) I was sitting in a layby sobbing down the phone to my workplace that I was lost as the satnav had suddenly stopped working on the motorway. I had managed to get to the town I was meant to be in but seemed to have got myself onto a magical ring-road that I couldn't get off (not the M25). The person I spoke to, after much laughter, said to tell him where I was and he would try to direct me. "No", I said "You don't understand. I'm really lost and don't even know where I am, let alone how to get to where I should be". Luckily, just then a taxi pulled in and the driver started to eat a sandwich so I scuttled over to him and asked for help. He was lovely and put his sandwich down and told me to follow him and led me straight to where I was meant to be. I offered to pay him but he refused - what a lovely man, although I suspect it became an amusing story at the taxi rank for a while. got into so much trouble the next day at work as my manager didn't believe anyone could be so inept at navigation, and the course was about £850 for the day - of which I'd missed nearly half. I no longer work now either but as a pensioner I do get a free bus pass. Bus journeys are a whole different story though involving multiple checking of timetables, position of bus stops etc., but I have found bus stations great places for people-watching. I swear one of the Blues Brothers was in there the other week - complete with tight suit, hat, dark glasses, and the shiniest shoes I have ever seen!
ReplyDeleteHugs - there are a lot of ring roads that are a nightmare to get off, including Leeds and Huddersfield. Both are nightmares. Chester is another nightmare, and when I was little we once got stuck on a set of roundabouts at Telford that took ages for my usually amazing parents to navigate away from. Sometimes directions just don't stick if you don't have that sort of mind. I think it depends - small roads aren't too bad for me, but I have literally got lost in the car park at the White Rose Centre because I couldn't work out where I was or how to get out of it. I just kept going round and round and round. So sending heartfelt hugs because that helpless feeling is awful.
DeleteI've got weird buses before now, but I love the people watching too. I wish I had seen the Blues Brother!
Thank you for the hugs - much better than the telling-off I received at work as if I had done it deliberately. I agree that some brains (mine) don't take in things like that. I am not a pictorial person so maps are quite puzzling, and I don't always take in things which are spoken - so it's useless for people to tell me turn left then right then straight on, etc. Give me written words though, or better still, a list and I am happy. I actually think in words rather than pictures, which apparently most people don't do, according to a friend who has studied psychology to a high level. I find it fascinating how people do think (rather than what they think) as there is a tendency to believe everyone thinks in the same way as you do and it was quite a shock when I realised they don't, which explained a lot of the misunderstanding I often had with others.
DeleteI was told that there are a lot of different learning styles. Some people can't take in verbal instructions but need written lists. I think it's amazing how so many different ways of thinking can exist and I wish it could be celebrated more.
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