Wrong Decisions

Have you ever done anything that's just really stupid? Well this is my latest really stupid, can't believe I did that, just thankful it wasn't as bad as it could have been, deed.

J had to retake his piano exam - the examiner described the last one as 'deteriorating as it went on'. These things happen. In fact once a music exam has begun to deteriorate it's very hard to get it back on track.

Anyway the retake was at a different centre, in someone's private house where we hadn't been before. This was in a town about half an hour away at the most. We left early because you never know with journeys and it was important to get there in good time - we actually allowed nearly an hour and a quarter. P said he knew the way, off we went.

As we went along I read the directions they'd sent out to all the parents and it gave instructions for how to get there from the motorway. At this point my brain completely shut down.

"They're saying we should go on the motorway," I said.

(NO THEY WEREN'T, THEY SAID HOW TO GET THERE IF YOU WERE COMING OFF THE MOTORWAY, THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHERE WE LIVED, THEY WEREN'T SAYING WE HAD TO TAKE THE MOTORWAY)

"Are you sure?" asked P.
"Yes."
"Well ok."
So he headed towards the motorway, he turned off, we got to a roundabout - turn left to go South on the motorway, turn right to go North on the motorway.

P:    "Which way?"
Me: "Don't you know?"
P:    "No! Don't you?"
Me: "No!"
P:     "We have to decide now!"
E:     "Turn right."

A few minutes of driving North.

Me: "We got it wrong didn't we?"
P :   "Yep. What's the best thing to do?"
Me: "Turn round at the next junction."
P:    "How far to the next junction?" 
Me: "Er quite a long way." (Like 8 miles).
P:    "Look how the traffic's building up on the other side, there's been an accident or something, if we turn round at the junction we'll get stuck." 

Sooo... we turned off and headed into the outskirts of a city with the satnav navigating and we went through what seemed like endless traffic lights and got stuck in traffic jam after traffic jam and we were horribly conscious that we could be late for the exam and he might even miss it altogether and last time we trusted the satnav it all went horribly wrong and this was all my fault and at any moment P could lose the admirable restraint he was showing and point out that it was all my fault and I might just say that seeing as he'd lived round here all his life he could have just told me I was wrong from the start and gone the way he'd planned all along which would have been a bit unreasonable really and a conversation like that wouldn't help J to stay calm.

Anyway we made it with three minutes to spare and the lady of the house said we could wait outside and there we were in one of the most beautiful gardens I've ever seen with lovely lilies and a water feature and birds singing and a studio where her husband was painting and a walkway under trees to a summer house and it was all so restful and calming which was just as well really.

 I could have stayed there forever but J had to go in and do his exam and came out again and said it went ok apart from sight reading and singing and it was a lovely piano to play and a nice examiner.

 Then we all went and got ice-cream.