Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A boy with a new toy!...

Yesterday I finally succumbed to the temptation of something that has been bugging me for over a year. I started off as a complete cynic, went to the what's all the fuss about stage, then to the maybe they'd be useful if I was lost stage and finally, after much shopping around and gathering research and information, to the oh sod it I'll have one point, which was yesterday. Now I know the truth beyond any doubt: Satellite Navigation GPS devices are fabulous inventions. After making my purchase at Halfords, I took my Tom Tom XL for a test drive yesterday across the length and breadth of Tonbridge, shortly after being baffled by the instruction leaflet. I tried to fool "Jane" (that's the voice I've selected on the machine) by turning alternative directions to the instructions she was giving me. But Jane was not to be messed with. Everytime I attempted to deceive her she calmly and politely simply issued me with new instructions in order for me to complete my journey home. Jane will accompany me on many a journey from now on and save me the bother of having to crane my neck to see the map and risk life and limb to get to an appointment on time with hastily scribbled down directions balancing on my knee. She doesn't know it yet, but my new cyber friend, Jane, will also save many a bad tempered argument towards the end of a long journey on holidays, finding camp sites in the middle of the Cornish countryside. No more maps thrown at me on country lanes just a calm "At the next junction in 60 yards turn sharp right and then left. I'm easily pleased and like a boy with a new toy....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would still take a map as SAVNAVs are often wrong and can even take you through a ford!

Anonymous said...

Fabulous invention, mine's taken me accross fields in Spain and mistook the Golden Gate Bridge for a car park but all in all they're wonderful.

My new mobile has got GPS that you can use whilst walking! How useful will that be when I'm trying to find somewhere in London?

Tonbridge blogger said...

Well ladeedaa Mr. Neil Faraday. Some of us only ever get as far as the town bridge in Tonbridge, let alone the Golden Gate in, presumeably, San Fran. Stop showing off and go and get the latest GPS Garmin mountaineering/hiking watch. Most people who have them get about as far as running around Barden Lake and the Hayesden Country Park. Give us a plug on your morning show again will you. The poetry nights are on hold at the moment awaiting the rebuilding of the delapidated Ivy House. When they resume I expect a team of reporters to go live from the heart of the new look open mic poetry evenings! PS where's that cup of tea you promised me?...