Wacky agile zealots are at it again
This post reminded me of a long drive around Eastern Scotland at the start of this weekend.
I had a printout of the route from Aberdeen to Boat-Of-Garten from the AA website. Matt had his TomTom. Rather than shuffling papers, I agreed to use the gadget, so Matt tapped in Boat Of Garten, and off we went.
Despite knowing that Aberdeen airport is northwest of the city, and that we would be driving further northwest still, I didn’t complain when the TomTom took us around Aberdeen and southward down the coast – after all, there was bound to be a good reason, wasn’t there.
We were also extremely hungry and looking for food as much as roadsigns. (Incidentally, we found the first ever chippy that’s asked me which of a selection of batters I’d like – how good is that?).
The mileage remaining got less and less, and we were still driving along a large clear road in a fairly low-lying area, but my suspicions were rising. When we found ourselves on the Dundee bypass, I knew something was up. The TomTom was taking us to a non-existent destination, which had added two hours to our journey.
Finally, we got onto the main road north, and hammered along in the gloaming. Fantastically for a southerner, the sky remained light until 11pm, so the driving wasn’t that painful. But, even so, we had a deadline: the B&B owner wanted us there by 10pm, so we made a series of grovelling phone calls as we got closer and closer.
It stuck in my memory as just another random irritating drive until reading Those wacky agile zealots are at it again, when the greater implications became clear.
Even when the route, timings, are as clear and as well-defined as they can possibly be, we still need to keep our eyes on the road, not just for rabbits and corners, but also to check that the route is correct (or, in this case, the destination).
Stuff | jamesk, November 22, 2008 11:11 pm | 
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