Gggrrr, stressed out already and the days hardly started

Try AA route planner.

Yes, well it's Holyhead, normal things like maps don't work properly as half the streets aren't named or is they are it's to far down the road to see when you're driving, roads peter out into random dead ends or single tracks, then they're digging up half the place and there are loads of diversions that take you round in circles.

I did find a map and memorised the route, or so I thought, but when I got there, nothing was as it had been on the map, or certainly not once I got off the main road and into the maze of winding streets. Now my friends all fed up with me as I couldn't find him and he missed his hospital appt and he dosen't believe I couldn't find him. He wasn't answering his phone, so I couldn't ring him, I couldn't even find a safe place to stop, I was nearly in the sea before I found a safe place to turn around, I ended up driving right round Holyhead in a loop and as I say nearly ended up in the sea. 

I drove about 7 miles around Holyhead and took 35 mins doing it.

When I got Mum to the hospital just in time for her appt, it was like the Zombie Apocalypse, in the hospital car parks, abandoned vehicles everywhere and people parked in stupid places, double parked and parked across exits and entrances.She got seen and we managed to escape, but not escape all the craziness, because it's half term and everyones decided to go shopping because it's wet and they're bored, so the roads were really busy and full of tourists not knowing where they were going  and I had an aggressive Toyota Hilux up my bum, hooting and reving every time I had to stop for traffic jams and to let people out at roundabouts. Then when we got to the bridge there was a huge queue, which thankfully quickly cleared and then we saw the cause of it, a numpty trying to take a small boat on a trailer across the bridge in near gale conditions.

 I'm home and safe now and I'm not going out for the rest of the day and I may not answer the phone either! 

I did try AA maps, but they're tiny online and when I looked just now for paper maps of Holyhead I got a few images but nowhere to buy them as they all seemed to be vintage!

Hugs. If your friend doesn't believe you and didn't have his phone on, it's his fault and he's being unreasonable to blame you. You did your best.

Thanks for that info Iain, the map stuff is when delivery drivers are already in my street, just down the other end of it, I just stand outside my house and wave at them, its quicker than booting up the pooter and finding all that stuff.

I think the last time I tried using google maps, I asked for a location and ended up with a pin in the middle of the sea somewhere near the Great Orme. I'm honestly not making this stuff up, this sort of random weirdness happens to me all the time

TheCatWoman said:

I wouldn't know how to do GPS co-ordinates.

This one is easy - find the place on the map that you want the GPS co-ordinate for, right click on it and it will show them. For example here is the hospital:

The long, 2 part number shown as the first entry is what you want.

When the other people put this number into their mapping app, it will show them exactly where to go, within about 10 feet.

As for printers, I always went with Brother laser printers as the cheaper models have a really low cost per page and I found the toner (not ink) lasted for years of light use and was cheap to replace.

So far it has not needed any software installed to get my (now 10 year old) laser to work on Windows 7, 10 or 11, or even Linux when I was testing it.

Let us know if you are thinking seriously about it and we can research options that work for your budget and preferences.

I have problems using google maps and I wouldn't know how to do GPS co-ordinates.

I still don't want a smart phone, there's still bit of the island where they don't work well and Holyhead is one of them, it's very hilly and signal is likely to dip in and out, so if you miss your turning because of no signal, you'll be told to turn around which is no good if the streets are to narrow to do so. 

Thanks for replying Iain, but I think this is another case of my lack of tech skills and geography conspire against me. I think I would be trading one sort of aggravation for another, I'd probably end up being aggravated with my Mum as she's the only person I usually have with me in the car and she's even worse with tech than I am, she can't navigate a web page she's already on, even though I've explained and shown her how to use the arrow keys, she can't use a mouse or track pad. The only person who's in the car with me is Fearn and however much of a clever dog she is, using a smart phone isn't in her skill set, in fact, if I asked her she'd probably give me a look that said, 'what do you think I am, A labrador?' I've not got a printer, I've been thinking about it, but not done anything about it yet, priinters are something else I don't get on with, the last one I had was killed by a kitten who pounced on the paper chute and then walloped the ink thingy and it refused to work any more. The only other thing I know about printers is don't get an HP one, because they don't let you use generic ink and theirs costs more than a new printer and it wastes ink spewing out rubbish nobody needs or asked for. Also HP stuff worms it way into everything and is really difficult to get rid of.

TheCatWoman said:

It dosen't help that sat navs don't recognise my house

If you can locate the GPS co-ordinates of your house then you can give these to people to put into their maps application of choice and it will bring them to your doorstep.

If you can use the map site of Google at home then you can use the <directions> option to get detailed instructions on how to get there, then print off parts of the map you are not familiar with.

This means you get to zoom into the fiddly bits and print these off too, although being able to stop to look at the map is going to be a problem.

Clicking on the details part of each leg of the journey will give detailed instructions that any passenger should be able to read to you.

With all this hassle, do you still not want to consider getting a smart phone just for the maps thing? A cheap second hand phone should do the trick if you can get someone to set it up for you with just the apps you want.

I think it is against the law to use a mobile phone now while driving unless it is dashboard mounted and not obstructing your view, so there is this to consider.

Just a thought as you would be trading one hassle for another.

Thanks Alexa, its not as though he would of been able to give me directions, he's terrible at them I used to take the phone off him to tell delivery drivers where to come, if anyone tried to follow his directions they'd end up on the moon or somewhere. It dosen't help that sat navs don't recognise my house, I get people phoning up from the oter end of the post code trying to find out if we exist and at our old place people were left to choose between fields?

Thanks Alexa, its not as though he would of been able to give me directions, he's terrible at them I used to take the phone off him to tell delivery drivers where to come, if anyone tried to follow his directions they'd end up on the moon or somewhere. It dosen't help that sat navs don't recognise my house, I get people phoning up from the oter end of the post code trying to find out if we exist and at our old place people were left to choose between fields?

Thanks for that info Iain, the map stuff is when delivery drivers are already in my street, just down the other end of it, I just stand outside my house and wave at them, its quicker than booting up the pooter and finding all that stuff.

I think the last time I tried using google maps, I asked for a location and ended up with a pin in the middle of the sea somewhere near the Great Orme. I'm honestly not making this stuff up, this sort of random weirdness happens to me all the time

TheCatWoman said:

I wouldn't know how to do GPS co-ordinates.

This one is easy - find the place on the map that you want the GPS co-ordinate for, right click on it and it will show them. For example here is the hospital:

The long, 2 part number shown as the first entry is what you want.

When the other people put this number into their mapping app, it will show them exactly where to go, within about 10 feet.

As for printers, I always went with Brother laser printers as the cheaper models have a really low cost per page and I found the toner (not ink) lasted for years of light use and was cheap to replace.

So far it has not needed any software installed to get my (now 10 year old) laser to work on Windows 7, 10 or 11, or even Linux when I was testing it.

Let us know if you are thinking seriously about it and we can research options that work for your budget and preferences.

I have problems using google maps and I wouldn't know how to do GPS co-ordinates.

I still don't want a smart phone, there's still bit of the island where they don't work well and Holyhead is one of them, it's very hilly and signal is likely to dip in and out, so if you miss your turning because of no signal, you'll be told to turn around which is no good if the streets are to narrow to do so. 

Thanks for replying Iain, but I think this is another case of my lack of tech skills and geography conspire against me. I think I would be trading one sort of aggravation for another, I'd probably end up being aggravated with my Mum as she's the only person I usually have with me in the car and she's even worse with tech than I am, she can't navigate a web page she's already on, even though I've explained and shown her how to use the arrow keys, she can't use a mouse or track pad. The only person who's in the car with me is Fearn and however much of a clever dog she is, using a smart phone isn't in her skill set, in fact, if I asked her she'd probably give me a look that said, 'what do you think I am, A labrador?' I've not got a printer, I've been thinking about it, but not done anything about it yet, priinters are something else I don't get on with, the last one I had was killed by a kitten who pounced on the paper chute and then walloped the ink thingy and it refused to work any more. The only other thing I know about printers is don't get an HP one, because they don't let you use generic ink and theirs costs more than a new printer and it wastes ink spewing out rubbish nobody needs or asked for. Also HP stuff worms it way into everything and is really difficult to get rid of.

TheCatWoman said:

It dosen't help that sat navs don't recognise my house

If you can locate the GPS co-ordinates of your house then you can give these to people to put into their maps application of choice and it will bring them to your doorstep.

If you can use the map site of Google at home then you can use the <directions> option to get detailed instructions on how to get there, then print off parts of the map you are not familiar with.

This means you get to zoom into the fiddly bits and print these off too, although being able to stop to look at the map is going to be a problem.

Clicking on the details part of each leg of the journey will give detailed instructions that any passenger should be able to read to you.

With all this hassle, do you still not want to consider getting a smart phone just for the maps thing? A cheap second hand phone should do the trick if you can get someone to set it up for you with just the apps you want.

I think it is against the law to use a mobile phone now while driving unless it is dashboard mounted and not obstructing your view, so there is this to consider.

Just a thought as you would be trading one hassle for another.