Tuesday 13 January 2009

No Sense of Direction

OMG! I am so angry and embarrassed. All I wanted to do was buy a book of stamps and a chip cob, but for some reason I have to make hard work of everything.

I haven’t done the route to the post office and chippy for about 3 months now, but only because the weather has been awful and obviously I was at work. I’ve lived in my village all of my life and knew exactly where I was going in my head.

My first mistake was coming out of my road, as I must have gone round a car the wrong way and then somehow ended up on the opposite side of the road and I was baffled why the cars were now on my left. I crossed back over and knew where I was, but maybe I should have gone home at that point!

When walking up the main road the pavement dipped for someone’s drive and I got confused and thought it was the dip to indicate I should cross. The road was pretty dead and I waited for a car to drive by and figured that I needed to carry on walking up.

After that I was fairly ok, found the two crossings and walked straight up, crossed again, went past the Newsagents and slowly followed the houses round. I was going to the post office first, but had to pass the chippy on the way. I couldn’t’ smell the chips, but assumed they had the door shut as it’s cold. I walked passed the post office by one step and then went in and bought my stamps. I walked back to the chippy and it was only closed! God I was cursing!

I then started my route home and thought I was doing ok. Crossed over after the Newsagents and was just waiting to hit the grass verge to find the crossing. However, I hit a grass verge and then tried to go around it, but it was like a dead end! I paced up and down, but just couldn’t figure out where I was.

It’s a bit pants when you live in a quiet village and you need help, but thankfully an old man came to ask me if I was ok. I asked where about I was and where the crossing was, but didn’t realise I was miles from it! He offered to drive me up to the library, which was the direction I was aiming for, and I had no choice, but to say yes, as I was so lost. I don’t generally get in cars with strangers and have never done it before! Somehow I had managed to get on a road completely opposite to where I wanted to go and was a long way from where I needed to be.

He dropped me off at the library and I thought I would be fine from there. I had done that route a million times! I went over the crossing fine and crossed the next road ok and found the turning to my street.

Again the cars must have caught me out as I ended up on the opposite side of the road and a lady said I was going into the primary school! She walked me around the corner and I knew where I was again. By this point my hand and wrist were aching and I was so tired.

I finally reached my house after wrecking part of my neighbour’s garden and was so glad to be home! I have never been that bad at mobility! How I managed to cross over to the other side of the road twice I don’t know. I’ve never done that in my life! There are just so many cars down there; one must have caught me out both times.

My inability to walk in a straight line cannot have helped the situation, but if I had a Guide Dog I would have been fine. I know exactly where to cross, which corners to turn and all that jazz, but obstacles just put me off. There’s no point in having mobility training, as I know the route, I know I do.

9 months since I’ve been on the waiting list for a Guide Dog now and I just can’t wait until I get one in order to make life soooooo much easier!

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