Another postcard home

Now here's a funny story...And it could only happen to us...

Having arranged to visit our daughter in Reading, my husband and I decided to call in on his aunt on the way there. We had a lovely day with his aunt and left her about 5.30pm for the 40 minute journey on the M4 to our daughter's home.

As we didn't know the road well we used the Sat Nav, or 'The Silly Lady' as Aunty calls it. Now, I have become accustomed to listening to her instructions and acting on them after a short pause. I do this because when she says 'Turn left', she doesn't mean 'Turn left now'. She is giving advance warning of a turn which needs to be made shortly. I've been caught out so many times before, and it's usually a right turn across horrific traffic, only to find I have turned into a cul-de-sac. I have also now learned that there is a difference between 'Turn left' and 'Keep left'.

Unfortunately, at the Handy Cross roundabout, The Silly Lady said 'keep left' and my husband took the left lane onto - as we now know - the M40 instead  of staying on the roundabout until the A404 which would have taken us down to the M4. The Silly Lady kept saying 'Turn around' or 'Take the next exit' but that didn't seem right to us, as that would have taken back into High Wycombe.

From the outset, The Silly Lady added time to our estimated time of arrival and this continued until it said the journey would take over 2 hours. At this point, my husband asked me to look in the map and see which junction we come off for Theale. I did. It's junction 12, so we motored on towards junction 12, but The Silly Lady still kept adding time to the ETA.

Thank goodness for technology and that I have finally worked out how to use Whatsapp on my phone. I contacted my daughter who quickly ascertained we were on the wrong motorway and told us to turn around - Where have I heard that phrase before?

We came off at junction 11 on the M40 and followed The Silly Lady's instructions back to Theale without any more problems. Our 40 minute journey took just over 3 hours!

I am reminded of Morecambe & Wise's brilliant Grieg sketch with Andre Previn where Eric was playing all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order. I  our case, we were looking for the right junction, but not necessarily on the right motorway!