Some people just won't listen!

Nonu - do you never go anywhere on your own? What would you do if your wonderful man couldn't take you somewhere? It could happen, you know. I think all adults should be able to take responsibility for themselves - surely women no longer want to be treated like children?

Thanks Merlot , Don"t we remember it well , bopping around our handbags !

G/NAN , em no no why would I go anywhere without him , holidaywise that is , I hate to burst your balloon , but I just Luurve being looked after , why on earth should I want it any other way?

you probably think me a daftie , but that is the way it is , AND I like it !!

Oh, are there words on maps?

I think there's a form of dyslexia that involves map reading; Judy Finnegan always used to say she couldn't read maps which made me feel a bit better. I've got no sense of direction and could only follow a map if it was a) going in the direction that I was pointing and b]the roads were actually painted the same colour as they are on the map.

Seriously Greatnan I am useless with L&R! My DGC are better than me and it drives DH mad when I try to give him directions!

It Think it is a well known fact that the majority of women cannot map read !

Perhaps it is a male / female thing !

Ahh! I do have a sense of direction! When we were on holiday in Morocco in Taroudant which has a maze of roads I could find my way around and back to B&B better than DH without a map!

It's a well known fact is it, Nonu? Who told you that - a man?
I have known lots of men who could not read maps and I have lots of women friends who can. I think the suggestion that some people have a type of dyslexia about maps, and also about right and left orientation, is probably correct.

You are correct Greatnan. I can read maps perfectly, but my son who is dyslexic has huge problems. Even when he knows the way he will tell me to turn right while pointing left. It's very frustrating.

If ou would have read my post properlyb G/Nan , I said the majority of women could not read a map .

it was not a man it is a well known fact , however, if it WAS a man does that make a difference ?

If I'm travelling south and looking at the map the proper way up [ie north at the top] and have to turn left [or right] I can't work out whether that's left or right. I also can't work out, when the clocks change if we're losing or gaining an hour.

I have NO sense of direction!
In the past, I've been known to try to exit the patients bedroom through the wardrobe!
I always used to catch the wrong tube in London.
I was ok on my boat as I can read a compass!

It's more likely that the majority of people can't/don't read maps because they have no need to practise the skill. Most young people now use GPS, if they need directions.

MiceElf your son and I would either never get anywhere or else 'understand ' each other perfectly..direction wise!

I'm another one who can't tell left from right instinctively - I have to pretend to myself that I am about to write something, and the other way is left. Can't read a map either. Or find my way around in a one way system - it's just like a game of Blind Man's Bluff.
There are lots of us!!

Nonu you are so 50s! you make me laugh!

I have absolutely no sense of direction. When I leave a shop in a mall I always walk in the wrong direction before I can get my bearings. I have never been able to read a map and navigate in the car, it used to end in rows and hours of not talking when we were on holiday.

Nanaej, his other trick is shout loudly 'over there' at a roundabout. I've tried so many times to explain that second or third exit or whatever would let me know where to go, but to no avail. He sets the table the wrong way round, but he's very good at anagrams as he says they look the same as normal spellings.

My ex taught me to drive when he realised I couldn't read maps but then I kept getting headaches at the thought of driving anywhere so he had to do both.

I now reort to your side/my side if directing DH or tell him to follow a particular car!

My sister has no sense of direction. We have just had a week's cruise and every day she started to go up to the viewing deck instead of down to our cabin. She doesn't drive, so usually says 'Turn left' when we are right on top of the junction. And it usually turns out she meant right.
It did make life more difficult, as I had to do all the driving and all the navigating as well on our way to Germany.
However, she has a phenomenal memory for domestic details and can recount conversations we had 50 years ago. Our brains work in completely different ways - I can remember lots of academic stuff, but very little of my childhood.
I have kept diaries since 1978 - not my feelings, just facts, but they have proved very useful in settling arguments, about who was living where at a particular date, for example.

Funny you should say that Nanaej , YOU make me laugh .

nonu I aim to please

North is at the top of the country so it makes perfect sense to me to put it at the top the map. Then the M6 M5 are on the west and the M1 on the East and all the big cities are roughly in their right places. I have such a mindset of this anything else seems wrong.

North at the top then East South West fall into place and if its not overcast and you know the time you can work out which direction you are going in by which side of the car the sun is on.

It is very hard to get a concept of how difficult is for others when you can easily do something yourself.

Given my dyslexic problems in writing I am lucky to find the spatial aspects of maps quite easy. The son of a friend has severe dyslexia which caused him a lot of problems in school but he has proved very able to read and interpret technical plans and has gone into engineering at college.