Bookwork and that Driving in Huge Circles Thing

Ok...  Yes.. I am trying to find excuses not to concentrate.  Ah ha!  You've guessed correctly, it must be because I am doing bookwork and data entry, and you are absolutely right, it is again boring me stupid.  And it's providing the usual little reminders, some pleasant, some not so pleasant, of where we've been and what we've been doing.  

I am, again, reminded that it is Northland, NOT Northlands..  And entering the receipt from the Croydon Hotel where we had the Christmas in July lunch made me pause to smile wryly about getting lost on the way home due to that completely non-existent internal compass.  

I'd stayed talking to my cousin Tim, and promptly forgotten to ask how I got home.  It was pouring rain and my iPhone had run completely flat by using Apple Maps on the way there with the kids using the power port for their DVD player.  I sat in the car for 5 minutes waiting patiently (ok, that's a complete lie because I don't really ever do anything patiently.....) for it to charge up enough to turn on, so that I could use my Apple Maps to tell me which way to turn out of the Hotel's front entrance so that I was kind of sort of heading the right way.  

The iPhone seemed to be taking forever and the kids were getting impatient about getting to their cousins' house, so in the end I drove off thinking 'how hard can it be, left or right??' I paused, then hopefully turned left and kept heading up the Maroondah Highway thinking I was heading in the right direction, and that I'd see a sign soon for a suburb I recognised and I could wing it...  Wrong.....

I didn't see a single suburb name that was even remotely familiar.  It was still pouring with rain, and getting late.  Finally my iPhone lurched back to life, and so I pulled over into these cool service off road side streety things, entered the iPhone's security code thingy, and launched Apple Maps.  I then discovered I was heading completely in the wrong direction, absolutely all upside down and back the front.  Are you surprised????????  Probably not a bit... So I did my allowable 1 u-Turn, and followed Apple Maps back to my sister's house.

Incidentally, you'll also probably laugh out loud, like Lyn did, when I admitted to driving back from Rosebud to Main Ridge not via the suggested Apple Maps route, but by insisting on going back to the freeway, and then back around the White Hill Road way as if I was coming from Melbourne.  Because that's the way I know, right????  A great big circle???? You bet it was....

Speaking of big trips and driving in circles, I'm again in the planning process for the Stallion Parade Weekend at the end of August.  As usual it makes my head hurt a little bit in the planning, but one the plus side, at least I know my way there and I know my way back, and that should mean no big circles and no u-turns..  Good plan?  It will be really great to see all my friends at Darley's Kelvinside Stud.  They are great people, and I'm sure they will be buoyed by the visit of The Famous Pony.  It's 2 months since I've seen her. There are times I miss her so much that it makes me ache.   I don't like counting how many days or months it's been between seeing people or animals that mean a lot to me.

I'm thinking of running a little competition, with a great photo of The Famous Pony as the prize, for the best (ie nicest and funniest) comment and guess of how many extra kms the Famous Dan has had to do as a result of my Huge Circles bad habit.  But they can only be nice or funny comments. Because I am really very nice..  No mean ones that say 'stupid!'  It should be a bit like guessing how many jelly beans are in the jar, right????

Here's the maths..  Dan joined me in May 2003, with only 81,000km on his Speed-O-Meter thingy.  Ten years on, he's up to about 344,000 (give or take a little bit!).  I do lots of kms chasing Ponies.  How many did I add through unnecessary big circles?  It's tricky, v tricky???  Humm..  maybe I should post it on my FB page too...

The lovely Dan during our travels.  He's nearing 350,000kms.  I'm sure I can hear him mutter mutinously under his breath 'wrong way stupid' when my non-existent compass mucks me up utterly.

Comments

  1. Anne SJuly 25, 2013 at 8:55 PM

    I'll guess 21,000 kms and quote you a wonderful poem by C P Cavafy called Ithaca which seems appropriate for the occasion:

    "When you set sail for Ithaca,
    wish for the road to be long,
    full of adventures, full of knowledge.
    The Lestrygonians and the Cyclopes,
    an angry Poseidon — do not fear.
    You will never find such on your path,
    if your thoughts remain lofty, and your spirit
    and body are touched by a fine emotion.
    The Lestrygonians and the Cyclopes,
    a savage Poseidon you will not encounter,
    if you do not carry them within your spirit,
    if your spirit does not place them before you.
    Wish for the road to be long.
    Many the summer mornings to be when
    with what pleasure, what joy
    you will enter ports seen for the first time.
    Stop at Phoenician markets,
    and purchase the fine goods,
    nacre and coral, amber and ebony,
    and exquisite perfumes of all sorts,
    the most delicate fragrances you can find.
    To many Egyptian cities you must go,
    to learn and learn from the cultivated.
    Always keep Ithaca in your mind.
    To arrive there is your final destination.
    But do not hurry the voyage at all.
    It is better for it to last many years,
    and when old to rest in the island,
    rich with all you have gained on the way,
    not expecting Ithaca to offer you wealth.
    Ithaca has given you the beautiful journey.
    Without her you would not have set out on the road.
    Nothing more does she have to give you.
    And if you find her poor, Ithaca has not deceived you.
    Wise as you have become, with so much experience,
    you must already have understood what Ithacas mean"

    ReplyDelete

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