just popping by to say I love your tone and humour! There was this one time I got lost in France, when a 30 minutes trip in the north turned into 90 embarrassing minutes. I still shudder.
Sounds terrifying! Round these parts we drive on the left - so I'd be more than lost trying to drive on the other side of the car on the other side of the road on the other side of the Channel.....!
this is wonderful, and i feel it very personally. i used to have a decent sense of direction and then, for reasons i can't entirely explain, it just abandoned me. now i get lost all the time. walking a town or city, driving, hiking, in large stores, wherever. and i enjoy solo travel and long-distance hikes, so my terrible sense of direction can be really frustrating, because often the trails aren't marked well, and i'm always vaguely worried that whatever way i've chosen is the wrong one and i'll be doubling back at some point. it's amazing i get anywhere. an ex boyfriend of mine used to jokingly navigate by asking me which way i thought was the correct direction and then going the other way. it never failed. i am the opposite of a compass :-(
no, i don't want a euphemism either. tell it to me like it is. if i'm afraid of the mere word, what chance do i have against the actual thing?
Gosh, you sound exactly like me, except that rather than lose my sense of direction I didn’t seem to grow one in the first place! I can identify with what your ex used to say (harsh!) - my husband tries to test me, and our standing ‘joke’ (although for me it’s frustrating rather than funny) is that I’m usually 90 degrees out!
I love your line ‘I am the opposite of a compass’! I’ve noted it down. I’d love to use it somewhere. :D
Often, I would walk out of a shop I've been frequenting in my home town of the last 10 years, and still walk out and have to pause for a good minute to re-asses the environs, to work out if I need to go left or right. 50% of the time, I take the wrong direction. So really, my pause does nothing at all other than create the illusion that I know how to think about directions - an illusion that nobody buys into, other than myself.
I've been taking the same 100-mile drive (mostly on a straight motorway) for the last 4 years at least once a week. And I still need to put on sat nav. And I still frequently take the wrong turn.
I also follow the sat nav home, and I often am astonished that 'oh, we're here!' about 2 km away from my house.
My partner sometimes finds it amusing. Sometimes he thinks I'm just acting, because nobody could possibly be this inept. After 8 years of being together, he has finally relented that I'm a terrible actress and liar, and I am just in fact, lost.
Thanks so much for your reply - we sound really similar!
Knowing which direction to turn to leave a place that is already familiar is one of my biggest sticking points too. If I drive to a town I know very well I start to get that spin in my stomach as soon as I'm beyond the outskirts and heading for a car park or a particular shop - it seems my brain misses those details in my route recollection, and that's the point that I'll already be feeling lost.
I call myself 'road blind', or 'path blind'. It's on roads and paths that I know I KNOW where my struggles frustrate me most!
Sometimes - often - a familiar journey feels as if I'm making it for the first time because I recognise neither the landscape nor the landmarks.
I love how your pause technique gives the impression - even if only to yourself - that you know where you're going. That in itself must be a huge confidence boost - and gosh, I'm going to try it!
This does not sound funny, Rebecca. It sounds scary! I am not entirely sure it can be over come, but surely there are "self-help" books that offer handy tips for building the skills to manage the syndrome. Thank heavens for sat nav and cell phones.
I have no sense of direction myself so I totally feel you. My worst ever experience was driving to Birmingham instead of Hull. I had to stay overnight in a hotel as I had been driving for 11 hours trying to find my way. To be fair to myself, I was using a sat nav and it directed me there because the road had the same name - it just hadn’t picked up the postcode and I hadn’t ‘sensed’ I was going the right way!
I can’t say I get quite as lost when I’m in familiar surroundings but I often don’t recognise where I am when the seasons change and everything looks different. I think sometimes I get lost because I zone out - I’m on autopilot or if walking a long way, I’m either busy thinking too much or in a nice meditative state and just not paying enough attention. I’ve tried a map reading/compass course all to no avail. I hope you find a solution and if you do, please share.
Tracy, although of course I'm not happy about your frustrations, I'm happy that they don't make me the only one out there with navigational issues!
You're so right - it's that 'sense' thing, isn't it, that's really missing? I mean, we can have all the tools in the world to help us find our way, but if we can't engage with the world itself in a navigational context, hey, what can we do?
I'm with you too with the seasons changing aspect - come October I was getting lost EVERY TIME I went for a walk in a VERY LOCAL wood - the fallen leaves hid the worn paths, and then once they started tree felling, well, I was stuffed......!
I've done a couple of courses now - the second of the two is something I'm still REALLY embarrassed about. We got back to our starting point and I didn't even know we'd got there. Cringe!!!
just popping by to say I love your tone and humour! There was this one time I got lost in France, when a 30 minutes trip in the north turned into 90 embarrassing minutes. I still shudder.
Oh that’s so kind - thank you! My mind is reeling thinking about what might have happened to you in France.....! 🤣
Thanks fortunately I was just stuck orbiting some towns in a car, couldn't get the right exits of the highways...
Sounds terrifying! Round these parts we drive on the left - so I'd be more than lost trying to drive on the other side of the car on the other side of the road on the other side of the Channel.....!
Ah yes, I've driven in both England and Australia, it's an experience.
this is wonderful, and i feel it very personally. i used to have a decent sense of direction and then, for reasons i can't entirely explain, it just abandoned me. now i get lost all the time. walking a town or city, driving, hiking, in large stores, wherever. and i enjoy solo travel and long-distance hikes, so my terrible sense of direction can be really frustrating, because often the trails aren't marked well, and i'm always vaguely worried that whatever way i've chosen is the wrong one and i'll be doubling back at some point. it's amazing i get anywhere. an ex boyfriend of mine used to jokingly navigate by asking me which way i thought was the correct direction and then going the other way. it never failed. i am the opposite of a compass :-(
no, i don't want a euphemism either. tell it to me like it is. if i'm afraid of the mere word, what chance do i have against the actual thing?
Gosh, you sound exactly like me, except that rather than lose my sense of direction I didn’t seem to grow one in the first place! I can identify with what your ex used to say (harsh!) - my husband tries to test me, and our standing ‘joke’ (although for me it’s frustrating rather than funny) is that I’m usually 90 degrees out!
I love your line ‘I am the opposite of a compass’! I’ve noted it down. I’d love to use it somewhere. :D
I hear you, I might as well be you.
Often, I would walk out of a shop I've been frequenting in my home town of the last 10 years, and still walk out and have to pause for a good minute to re-asses the environs, to work out if I need to go left or right. 50% of the time, I take the wrong direction. So really, my pause does nothing at all other than create the illusion that I know how to think about directions - an illusion that nobody buys into, other than myself.
I've been taking the same 100-mile drive (mostly on a straight motorway) for the last 4 years at least once a week. And I still need to put on sat nav. And I still frequently take the wrong turn.
I also follow the sat nav home, and I often am astonished that 'oh, we're here!' about 2 km away from my house.
My partner sometimes finds it amusing. Sometimes he thinks I'm just acting, because nobody could possibly be this inept. After 8 years of being together, he has finally relented that I'm a terrible actress and liar, and I am just in fact, lost.
Thanks so much for your reply - we sound really similar!
Knowing which direction to turn to leave a place that is already familiar is one of my biggest sticking points too. If I drive to a town I know very well I start to get that spin in my stomach as soon as I'm beyond the outskirts and heading for a car park or a particular shop - it seems my brain misses those details in my route recollection, and that's the point that I'll already be feeling lost.
I call myself 'road blind', or 'path blind'. It's on roads and paths that I know I KNOW where my struggles frustrate me most!
Sometimes - often - a familiar journey feels as if I'm making it for the first time because I recognise neither the landscape nor the landmarks.
I love how your pause technique gives the impression - even if only to yourself - that you know where you're going. That in itself must be a huge confidence boost - and gosh, I'm going to try it!
This does not sound funny, Rebecca. It sounds scary! I am not entirely sure it can be over come, but surely there are "self-help" books that offer handy tips for building the skills to manage the syndrome. Thank heavens for sat nav and cell phones.
I'm doing a lot of practice! I'm getting caught out ALL the time, but I'm learning as I go....
I have no sense of direction myself so I totally feel you. My worst ever experience was driving to Birmingham instead of Hull. I had to stay overnight in a hotel as I had been driving for 11 hours trying to find my way. To be fair to myself, I was using a sat nav and it directed me there because the road had the same name - it just hadn’t picked up the postcode and I hadn’t ‘sensed’ I was going the right way!
I can’t say I get quite as lost when I’m in familiar surroundings but I often don’t recognise where I am when the seasons change and everything looks different. I think sometimes I get lost because I zone out - I’m on autopilot or if walking a long way, I’m either busy thinking too much or in a nice meditative state and just not paying enough attention. I’ve tried a map reading/compass course all to no avail. I hope you find a solution and if you do, please share.
Tracy, although of course I'm not happy about your frustrations, I'm happy that they don't make me the only one out there with navigational issues!
You're so right - it's that 'sense' thing, isn't it, that's really missing? I mean, we can have all the tools in the world to help us find our way, but if we can't engage with the world itself in a navigational context, hey, what can we do?
I'm with you too with the seasons changing aspect - come October I was getting lost EVERY TIME I went for a walk in a VERY LOCAL wood - the fallen leaves hid the worn paths, and then once they started tree felling, well, I was stuffed......!
I've done a couple of courses now - the second of the two is something I'm still REALLY embarrassed about. We got back to our starting point and I didn't even know we'd got there. Cringe!!!
Have a read about it here - and you ARE allowed to laugh!!! 😉 https://rebeccaholden.substack.com/p/14-a-problem-with-programming