A famous Australian body language expert has written a book titled, "Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps". Now whilst I have never read this book, its title always amused me as I just want to beg to differ everytime I read it! You see, I have a man here who definitely can't read maps! Hmmmmm....or maybe I should say.....he thinks he knows every exact route without having to read a map! Does this sound familiar to anyone out there?
Now while I admit that he is good at other things (he cooks a mighty mean bbq, for example!) his sense of direction seems to have been completely lost on its own! He always seems to want to drive around some destination and then back-track to get there.....in effect, taking the long route to get anywhere. His theory is that if you avoid 'all the traffic' then distance shouldn't matter. This theory, needless to say, has been the cause of many in-car arguments between the two of us over the years and has meant that in our family, I am the expert map reader!
So with that in mind, you would think that I would have known better when we set off for our jaunt to Toowoomba. For a number of reasons, it was decided that I would drive. Dear Husband sat in the passenger seat and proudly announced that he knew which way to go as he'd traveled along this road on a work mission so I should take heed of his expert navigational advice. Ok, I admit it....I should have tuned out then and there, but when he insisted that it was fine to pass the sign that said 'Toowoomba next right' as the way he was directing me to was 'much quicker as it is a new road' I really should have done a U-turn and followed my own instincts. I started to get suspicious, of course, when his fantastic quick route ended up detouring past a shopping centre (Springfield, for all you Brissie people playing at home!) and even though I kept asking him if he was sure that he knew where he was going, his response was that this way was bypassing Ipswich!
Now for those of you who don't know the area, it is suffice to say that we were supposed to take the Warrego Highway, which is north of Ipswich. Of course, we ended up motoring along the Cunningham Highway, which is south of Ipswich. And you can imagine my reaction when we ended up having to back track through the city of Ipswich to get back onto the correct road. And yes, it was me who ended up having to pull over and pull out the referdex (map) to study it and work out where on earth he'd taken us to....all this making our trip a good half hour longer!
So now, everytime I see that book about '....Women Can't Read Maps', I know that in this house anyway, it is all a load of rubbish. In fact, I think it should read, 'Women Can Read Maps - Especially When Their Husbands Have Gotten Them Lost!'
