I left my brain at home today

I left my brain at home today! FACT.

I am usually extremely organised if I’m going somewhere – I know exactly how to get there, where I can park (this is always major stress for me as I can’t parallel or reverse park at all – life is now too short to stress learning), how long the journey will take, make sure I have contact numbers etc etc etc.

Today, that all went out of the window, today was not a good day.

My son and I had been invited to the London HQ of Egmont for a new APP launch (more to follow on that in a separate post.  I’d checked if there was on-site parking – no, ok, how could I do this without stressing about parking as I really wanted to go.

I looked on the internet and saw that they are actually very close to the Westfield Shopping Centre – so I checked again if I parked there (no stress) was the office really as close as it looked (walking with a 3 and half-year-old etc) – yes, just across the road.  Lovely – sorted!

We needed to be in London at 1.30, so I picked my son up from pre-school at 11.30, got him changed there, and put him in the car.  I decided we could drive down, park, have a sandwich and still have plenty of time to walk to the office.  I set the Sat Nav going and off we went.

All was going rather well until I realised that the Sat Nav seemed to be jammed!  Ok, don’t panic, I roughly knew where Westfield was so kept going, and luckily came to some traffic lights on Red so managed to quickly re-set the Sat Nav and it jumped back into life – phew.

We got parked at Westfield (easily – thank you god) – rather larger shopping centre than a country bumpkin had appreciated., ate our lunch, still had loads of time to get to the office.

Perhaps I should point out – that I don’t do LATE, I am obsessive about being on time, which normally means I’m everywhere much earlier than I need to be!

I did have a little niggle in the back of my head, hope I get out at the right side of the Centre, no, it’ll be fine.  Oh dear – a fatal mistake.  I found the Concierge Desk and asked a lovely man if he could point me in the right direction – how do I get out of the Centre, and I need to be here – showed him the address.  Uum, I’m not sure, I don’t live locally.  He looked on his computer, got the Centre map out and told me to go up 2 flights, right across the Centre and out the other side and I’d find it.

So we end up at the other end of the Centre, outside, I can’t see the road I need to be at, and NO-ONE knows where it is, I’m in the wrong postcode – I know, I live in the Shires, this is a big deal in London.

At this point I have 25 minutes to get to the office, I don’t know where I am anymore, I upgraded my phone at the weekend and it doesn’t have the email with contact telephone number, the invitation I have in my hand doesn’t have a telephone number either.  I’m lost, I’m going to be late, and I have my little boy with me. Nightmare!!

I should have been meeting Anna from In the Playroom blog at the event, but she couldn’t make it.  Bright idea – ring Anna for the office telephone number, ring the office, shout HELP – where am I!!!  So rang Anna, I was in a state of panic, no telephone number on the email.  Where are you?  Not sure, I can see a tube sign for Wood Lane.  Ok, get on the tube, one-stop to Latimer Street and you are there.

My son loved being on the tube – one happy boy, even if only one stop.  Got out of the tube, by this time I had 5 minutes to get to the office.  Came out of the station, no sight of the elusive road, asked a number of people, they all looked at me blankly, walk down there maybe was the best response I got.  Rang Anna again, can you email them and say I’m lost and will be late, I’m really panicking, He is being wonderful, I feel like an idiot.  Anna pointed me in the right direction, and with the help of a delivery driver and a passing Aussie, we made it to the event.

We were not alone in being late, everyone was lovely.  When I explained what had happened to one of the team, they pointed out of the window – there is Westfield!  He very kindly explained how to walk back to the centre.

It was a SHORT walk, it was just across the road when we walked back and found our way back to the car I realised that the Concierge should have pointed me in totally the opposite direction than he did.

But I can’t blame him at all. I was the idiot who left her brain at home today, along with a map, contact details and the ability to see my phone screen in the sunlight!  What a prat.  Thankfully, during all of my madness, my 3 and half year old son, remained calm and did everything I told him  – he made a bad situation so much easier to deal with!

19 thoughts on “I left my brain at home today

  1. Fab story Mary, I do enjoy your blogs! Hope you had a good time when you finally got there! Xx

  2. lol, you are so like me on the planning to the nth degree front. I drive Neil mad stressing about being on time for things. And he drives me mad cos he NEVER plans properly.

    Glad Monkey remained unflappable. Isla pointed out to me this morning in sainsburys that I had left my card in the pin machine as we left checkout…..what clever 3yr old’s we are raising!!!

    1. What a nightmare, I truly thought we’d never get there, thank god Monkey was so good – the tube train probably saved the day! We do have amazing little people in our lives 🙂

  3. Glad you made it in the end! You aren’t the only one to have this sort of thing happen to you. I am another one who really panics about parking as I suck at it. Seriously I would rather pay £5 to park in a car park ten minutes walk away than have a stressful/awkward park at my destination!!

  4. we were the first ones there yesterday and did loads of sitting around, so don’t worry about being late 🙂 It was good, wasn’t it?

  5. This sounds so like me – I HATE being late for anything so totally understand your stress. Glad it all worked out though. Popping over from #PoCoLo

  6. Okay so I’m sweating just reading this! I don’t do ‘late’ either and try to make sure that I’m organised to the nth degree because I get in such a panic if I don’t know where I’m going! Well done on making it….eventually….and with a 3 year old in tow. High five! Popping over from pocolo 🙂

  7. I’m a massive planner – lists of lists of lists of lists! Being late makes me anxious and I panic when I dont know exactly where I’m going! Glad I’m not the only one…. 🙂 And did you enjoy yourself when you got there? Popping over from PoCoLo! x

  8. That sounds horrible and it’s 10x worse when you have children with you isn’t it. We have all been there are done it! Glad you made it in the end 🙂

  9. Got really stressed reading it – I get lost all the time and hate being late so know the feeling- glad you made it and well done Monkey 🙂 x

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