Battle Against the Bishop

I have never been the most confident person and because of this I have never had the courage to drive very far on my own. PP has always been there to drive me to most places I needed to go and I was happy to let him drive, particularly to somewhere I didn't know.

In the past couple of years I have tried to make myself drive to places I didn't know and to have confidence in my own driving and map reading ability, although I have still not ventured too far out of my comfort zone.

However, when I started Supply teaching in October, I found that I had to get a grip. No one was there to take me where I needed to go. I soon got used to driving all over the place (not as in "you should have seen her - she was all over the place!), and now find that I can hop in the car with a map and having checked the directions on Google Maps and go.

Last week I went to visit a school called "Bishops Waltham Infants" in Bishops Waltham. The directions looked straight forward and despite PP suggesting I go down the M3 and come off at Winchester as that is the simplest route, I was determined that I did not need to be patronised and go 25 miles out of my way to take a simple route. I was now an experienced & confident driver used to driving to unknown places and would go the quickest(!)way.

It took me almost 1½ hours to reach the school and I had eventually, after getting lost so many times, stopped and asked for directions.

The crazy thing is, that it only took the headteacher 10 minutes to show me around the school! However, the school was lovely. The headteacher was very friendly and welcoming and I decided that although it is a bit further away than I had hoped to work, I would apply for the job as it is only for the summer term initially although there is a possibility of an extension for 1 more year.

After getting so lost on my first trip to the school, I thought it would be a good idea to deliver the application myself on Thursday this week, so that I could give myself the opportunity to find the school first time and to find out how long a normal journey to the school from home would take. I looked at Google for a bit longer this time, wrote out the instructions, ignored PPs advice of going the simple route and set off on Thursday afternoon. I had 2 hours before I had to collect Little Z from school, which meant I had plenty of time, even if I took a wrong turning.

I got back to Little Z's school with 5 mins to spare after collecting Big J on the way. Unfortunately, as well as having Big J in the car, I also still had my application. I had not found the school. In fact, I had not even found Bishops Waltham! Eventually I'd had to abort the trip and come back as I was running out of time.

Okay. I decided to use the simple route (stupid bloody simple route!). So, Friday I set off after again looking at Google and keeping in mind what PP had said: "Just follow the brown signs for 'Marwell Zoo' all the way and then you are there." Actually that seems like it can't fail, doesn't it? Why then, did I end up outside the gates of Marwell Zoo? (Stupid bloody Zoo!)

I did actually find the school this time. It just turned out that I had turned off the road sooner than I should have done and was, at least, heading in the right direction this time.

As the weather was so nice, I had decided to take Big J with me for a drive in the countryside and we took his new Scooby Doo bike along so we could stop on the way back for him to have a ride about before I dropped him off for lunch at nursery. Unfortunately, as it had taken longer than intended to get to Bishops Waltham, there was not a lot of time to get him back to nursery for lunch, so I thought I might actually risk looking after my own son for the day. (what a thought!). We stopped at a shop and bought some food, plastic cutlery and plastic cups for a picnic and looked for a place where we could stop to eat and where Big J could ride his bike. I was surprised to find that there was nowhere obvious between Bishops Waltham and Southampton to stop for a picnic and so we ended up on Southampton Common.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Southampton Sports Centre and how lucky we were to have it on our doorstep. Less than half a mile from the Sports Centre we have Southampton Common.





We had a lovely afternoon next to the lake. We ate our picnic lunch, Big J rode his bike, ran around and fed the ducks. If I don't get the job or even an interview at Bishops Waltham Infants, it will still have been worth it, as we had a lovely afternoon.