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Beware of installing the voice of John Cleese on your satnav! Oh yes, it's amusing at first to hear the direction "Sharp right... Ouch!" and "Bear right... beaver left!" at first. And "Turn around when possible so that you are directing your vehicle in the opposite direction to the direction in which you are directing your vehicle" amuses once or twice. But... We went to Alford, which is a small town in Lincolnshire ( not, by the way, a title rejected by John le Carre for one of his novels) today. So I programmed the satnav for somewhere near the centre of town and headed off. The trouble was, we'd seen that there was a craft fair held in Alford every Tuesday during the summer, so when we saw signs pointing to "Euro and Craft Fair Car Park" we just assumed that the craft fair was quite big, and that this was the parking for it. The signs led us to a school playgroud, which was completely devoid of parked cars or any other kind of activity. Following some more signs led us up a cul-de-sac and to the same school playground from a different gate. And, of course, we weren't going in the "right" direction for the centre of town, so we heard the "turn around when possible ... " many times. Ad infinitum, you might say. Or even ad nauseum. It turned out that the signs were for a larger event held over the weekend... which had finished on Monday. The craft fare on Tuesday was, shall we say, much smaller! This on top of last Friday when we went to Kendal and similarly aimed first for the centre of town then followed signs for car parks instead of Mr Cleese's instructions. I swear that the "turn around ... " messages were getting more and more short tempered. We eventually found a small car park and had to circle a couple of times before spotting a space. When the time came to leave Kendal and head over towards Windermere, we dutifully followed the instructions until being told to go left and then being led round a circular loop back to the same junction. Arrrrrgh! At which point I gave up on the satnav and started guessing which of the destinations on the road signs were likely to be in the same direction as Windermere. Of course, the signs that said "Windermere" were a fairly heavy hint. ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) cass64d swore that the reason was that John Cleese was p***ed off that we'd been ignoring his orders and was taking his revenge. There might be something in that! I really wish I'd gone for a voice activated model. I'd make the command to turn off the voice "Shut up, John!" Shouted. Very loudly. Now, that would be really satisfying! Tags: annoyances, holidays, navigation
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I woke up this morning, feeling... hopeful. Then looked out of the window. Normally, it's possible to see the village on the other side of the valley, about a mile or so away. This morning, it isn't. Low cloud, fog, and general mist have put paid to that. So, it was with a certain degree of trepidation that I phoned the airport. They confirmed what I'd feared. They can't even see the other side of the airfield - and legally, visibility needs to be at least 5 miles if I'm to be allowed to fly. So, the flight is rescheduled for 3pm on Monday 25th August. Which might not be a good choice, as Monday is a public holiday, and the weather on public holidays is always bad (or so it seems. Tags: aviation, experiences, weather
Current Mood:  disappointed
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Because this is an update! With Real Life, work, and other interests having taken priority over the last few months, it's been a long time since I last updated these pages (although I might cheat and fill in the gaps later!) Still, things happening at the wrong time seem to be a theme at the moment, because I've just "opened" a Christmas present. From last year, that is! Well, not quite opened. It was one of those "experience" vouchers, so I'd opened it at Christmas, but couldn't take it up straight away, because it was an introductory flying lesson. Which means that I'm going to be let loose in a plane. All right, so I'll be closely supervised, but all the same... do they know how I approach runways in Flight Simulator? There's even been a game view included especially for me, which shows the passenger cabin with everybody trembling in terror and firmly strapped in their seats (with the exception of a lawyer going from row to row handing out business cards). So, on the principle that it's best to take a first flight in good weather conditions, I've left booking the flight itself until the summer, so as to catch the good weather. Assuming we get any this year, considering that I had the heating on well into May, and the last few weeks have been rather... wet. But - fingers crossed. The lesson is booked, and at 10:30 on Monday 18 August (exactly one month from now!) I take to the skies. So, the answer to the question at the head of this post is: No. It was me! (Or will be) Tags: aviation, christmas, experiences
Current Mood:  excited
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