Wrong Turn

There's a way to get from the Tivoli to West End that everyone knows. And by "everyone" I mean a reasonable percentage of the people who live in Brisbane. It takes you up along St Pauls Tce, around the Roma St Parklands and then along some street or other with a royal man's name (which every good Brisbanite knows means your heading vertical), then you turn left onto the William Jolly Bridge and that'll take you to West End. Kapish?

I was never taught this way. I never bothered with a map. I just followed my nose...because the nose KNOWS my friend.

Problem is, it's never as easy as I think it is. Every single time I travel this road I mess it up at this one set of lights where all the traffic heads straight through.

Not I.

No, I alone sit at the arrow, nose confidently assuring me we're on track and not to fret about our deviance from the flow. Then I turn into a school, whose grounds I've now toured several times and whose round-about I've often made good use of. One would think by this point in my life I would know that this is a wrong turn. One would think as I'm sitting at the same set of traffic lights about to make the same mistake at the same random school....one would THINK I would have got an education.

Alas.

I'm a "follow my gut" kinda girl, but lately I've been wondering if a little intentional navigation might save me some of my troubles. Like maybe if I took a little more time to figure things out, I wouldn't end up being schooled by the same freaking school.

I have good instincts...most of the time. Just like I can nose my way around any semi-familiar or well organised surroundings...most of the time. Is the let down of the one-off compensated for by the pay-off of "most of the time"?

Have your instincts ever let you down? Have you ever been sure you're onto a good thing and then caught a wet fish slap to the face as you realised you assed it up royally?

What does this mean? Do we stop trusting our instincts? What about all those times our gut steered us right?

These questions are rhetorical. I hope you weren't expecting me to answer them....cause I don't have an answer...which could really make things awkward.

J xxxo