Sat-Nav is for wimps

By El Cid
The commercial bombardment is ceaseless and already we have a strong candidate for the must-have gadget for dads this Christmas -- Satellite Navigation for the car.
But mum and kids take note: thanks, but no thanks.
Call me a luddite but there is something distinctly ignoble about Sat-Nav.
It's not just an ubersexual male thing; I'm sure many women agree with me.
But any-self-respecting man prides himself on his mastery of routes.
We can't all be London cabbies but all true Londoners must have a bit of knowledge. And the older we get the more knowledge we accumulate.
That knowledge includes a flexible array of ready alternatives, which take into account such imponderables as traffic, time of day, mood, and include a capacity for some intelligent second-guessing. I'm still learning even now and I take pleasure in that fact.
'Cool, so if I turn right off The Highway up Cannon Street I can bypass the traffic around Tower Bridge. On the other hand, I tried that last Sunday afternoon and the junction with Commercial Road was a bit sticky, so maybe not.'
'So you wanna go to Muswell Hill from Manor House? This might sound odd but you need to head off in completely the wrong direction in order to avoid the horrendous traffic on Green Lanes and around Finsbury Park. Go east into Tottenham, cut up St Anns, up Black Boy, Downhills, then back west over the top of Wood Green and around the back of Ally Pally. You'll be there in half the time.'
'The Camberwell route to Tulse Hill is good coz you can by-pass Brixton. But the high road is chocka on a Saturday during the day so it's often better to veer left at the Oval as if heading towards Brixton and then turning left at the petrol station, twisting around the back of Loughborough Junction, Herne Hill and Brockwell Park.'
And so on and so on.
I recall hundreds of conversations with friends and family -- sometimes jovial, sometimes heated, but always gratifying -- over the best way to get somewhere.
You think a Tom-Tom sitting on the dashboard is good for the soul or for that part of the brain dealing with spacial awareness? I think not. Like pizza or foie-gras, you can have too much of good thing.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-technology. I do believe in progress.
For example, there's no way that I could ever part with my trusty power drill and go back to screwing by hand -- my office-nancy palms struggle with the blisters.
I also see the benefits of Sat-Nav for newcomers to our big city, including migrant mini-cabbers, and when travelling long distances or abroad.
But just as we lament the passing of basic maths skills because of the advent of the calculator, we may one day come to regret the passing of other ancient problem-solving skills, such as getting from A to B.
Still, if it means luddites like me can retain a competitive advantage because all the Sat-Nav lemmings are following the most obvious route, then bully for us.