Welsh Wales

So I was visiting an IBM Lotus Domino customer in Wales today. I won't go into the details of how much they love Domino and consider the competition to be initially slick but lacking in real enterprize deliverables. Because what I wanted to comment on is actually about the return of my Tom Tom One Satalite Navigation system. My poor TomTom went wrong a couple of weeks ago and to put it mildly I have missed my little navigational friend whilst it was off being repaired. However, I didn't expect this journey to Wales to overly stressfull since the trip basically involved travelling down the M4 from London until just before Cardiff.

But a few miles into the journey the radio started reporting that the M4 was closed between Junction 18 and 19 because of a lorry fire. Doh! Obviously I'm going to be late for my meeting. Not at all - at junction 17 I told the TomTom that I wanted to avoid the M4 and low and behold it charted me a new route that missed all the trouble. Welcome home little TomTom. You have been missed.

The only way it could be improved is if it could find a route that doesn't involve being charged £4.90 to enter Wales whilst it is free to return to England. I can't help feeling that the Welsh did this to wind up the English.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I think you can go across the old bridge and it's free, but it takes you hideously out of your way (probably cost you more than £4.50 in fuel!).

I used to use TomTom on my PDA. Imagine my horror when I pulled up at this bridge only to find that I too had to pay £4.50 to get out - AND it didn't warn me.

I've since upgraded to a TomTom ONE and I subscribe to the traffic service by linking it to my phone via Bluetooth (the man in Curry's said it didn't do Bluetooth. It clearly does). Now I can phone up and tell the good Mrs Newton exactly when I'm going to be home and if there's a diversionette on the way home, I can update with my new ETA.

Shame it doesn't know about the short cut to our house, because I always get there a couple of minutes ahead of the ETA :)
Thu Jul 13, 04:37:00 pm BST
Anonymous said…
Of course we did it to wind the English up! Its our one real "ha ha" at them!!!

Its a privilege to be let in you know - but obviously that privilege that can be bought for £4.50!!! LOL
Mon Jul 17, 04:41:00 pm BST
Anonymous said…
The bridge is owned by a French company so unfortunately neither the Welsh nor the English controls it. The money goes to keep the bridge under repair and the rest goes to France!
Tue Mar 10, 09:48:00 pm GMT
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