Tomorrow I am mostly cycling to Leyton – I know, why would I? I do actually have a good reason. Thing is, how do I get there without getting hopelessly lost? I have considered the possibility of looking at a map, but it usually has little effect because I can only ever remember one page at a time and I reckon it’s probably many pages of my A-Z from here. I know half of the way, ie to Kings Cross. I might try doing one of my ‘brilliant’ hand drawn line maps, but this time on an A4 piece of paper instead of the back of an envelope. The last time I used the back of an envelope method I ended up riding up and down that hill at Archway Station twice, in other words I became hopelessly confused.
It’s taken a number of years to admit this to myself, but I am no longer in denial. My name is Kirses and I have no sense of direction. My eyesight is extremely good and I can see street signs from 100 metres away (I think), so as long as I have a reasonable map I can usually get there. It’s when I’ve assumed i’ll know the last bit cos it’s so easy and have omitted to add it to the line drawn map that I get in trouble.
Mapping the route is such a boring job though, and my main source of route planning – the interweb, is running horribly slowly, (can all you people doing silly things like accessing work files, just get the hell off please?).
Oooh I’ve just had a thought, instead of an expensive GPS device on my handlebars, how bout I buy a compass. Surely in situations like this I could just make sure I head East until I get there? Hmm something to ponder, but for tomorrow, tfl.gov.uk cycle routes, here I come.
