Highway to Nowhereville

A street number, doing what it does best.

I had an appointment this week and I decided, most irregularly, to drive.

It should have been easy enough to get to, my online map-thing said it was only 9.1km and 16 minutes away, but by the time I finally reached my destination I felt like Burke and/or Wills and was ready to eat my camels (if only I had thought to bring some).

So after a significant period of time and a rather unpleasant detour that involved rain and walking in it, I arrived, almost an hour late, sputtering and stammering to the receptionist about the stupidity of town planners everywhere.

She laughed good naturedly and said, with nowhere near enough sympathy for my wrong turns, lost hours and wet socks, "oh yes yes, it's the darndest thing, the numbers on this road restart every time it hits a new suburb".

What? Whose crazy-arsed idea was that? Street numbers are supposed to go up! And they're supposed to go up in order! It's their thing! It's what they do!

What kind of roads-based policy maker would come up with the idea of restarting the numbering in every suburb? An evil one, that's who. Next they'll be handing out addresses like 'Over the Hill and Far Away,' 'The Bridge at the End of the World,' or 'Earth', none of which are going to help me get from A to B.

I can't wait until the robots take over the world; they'll sort this shit out.

Mappy goodness

The 'Maris Pacifici' is believed to be the first Pacific-dedicated map to be printed anywhere ever.

How awesome are old maps? Very, according to this page and the 9,270,647 people who have clicked on it.

There's so much to love about this map:

1. It was drawn by a chappy called Abraham Ortelius (I'm a big fan of 'O' names, especially 'Ormerod'. 'Ortelius' comes a close second);

2. It was drawn in 1589 (I couldn't even hold a pencil then);

3. It contains the word 'qvod' (high up in the 'blurst' poetry family tree); and

4. According to the map, giant ships (about half the size of a small continent) used to inhabit the waters around South American. I wonder when they died out?

Wouldn't you like to travel the Pacific Ocean with Ortelius and his giant ships? GPS is for chumps.