directions

been doing a lot of walking recently. in and out of the west end.
i have several routes to take, sometimes i might deviate off a route just to explore.
i have a great capacity to get lost, so i try to stay pretty close to the routes i know. it makes life easier.
what i hate is being asked directions, especially by drivers as roads never quite go the same way as a walker can.

so today there i was walking to the tate modern.
start off down commercial road and then down one of the side streets in order to start cutting across towards tower hill and from there just a nice walk along the river to the tate. simple. done it lots of times.

honk! honk!
i look around (unusual for me as normally i am lost in my own little world, but traffic was quiet).
"can you tell us how to get to cable street?'
the simple answer would have been "yes - simple just keep going down here and it is the main road in front of you." easy peasey.
i went blank.
i looked around. took my bearings. tried to work out where i was and where cable street would be from there (not that you would know but cable street is not only very famous in the area, it is not only a few hundred metres from where i live, but i was walking down there just the other week).
i was blank.
blankety blank.
i was a veritable nobo board waiting for a business plan.

an "er" amd an "um" followed by a "you are close" with a caveat of "it is just over there." in the end i gave them directions that would have gotten them to cable street, more by chance than design.

as i walked off a little crestfallen that i could not help them in their time of need in my own manor i had to chuckle to myself as they had ignored my directions and gone in the opposite direction (can't blame them) but when i walked the hundred or so metres down the road that took me into cable street i couldn't help but chuckle to myself.
if only they had listened to me...

i hate giving directions.