I have never been particularly good with distances.

“It’s only a couple of hundred yards away” generally means it’s more likely to be half a mile or so. “A couple of miles” will invariably mean at least ten, and “I’ve really no idea” equates to a really really long way.

This is why clear road signage has always been extremely helpful to me, as I can normally perform some rudimentary calculation to figure out how far away I am from my ultimate destination.

“The last sign said 72 miles. I’ve been driving for about 15 minutes so I guess I’m only a couple of hundred yards away now.”

Nowadays you can get these helpful distance markers from other numerous sources. For example, did you know that British Airways helpfully categorises it’s destinations based on how many airmiles away they are.

Of course, I have now learned that an airmile is actually pretty similar to an Angrymile, in that it is a fairly fluid concept and bears no relation to the actual distance to be traveled.

I have tried to get a flight to New York using my airmiles, of which I have 27,072. Unfortunately I was told by the online computer that this is an insufficient number to get me to the US. Now, as we have already shown, my estimation of distances isn’t great at the best of times, but surely 27,072 miles is enough to get me to the Sun and back? In Business Class? Well no, it isn’t. New York is actually 50,000 airmiles from Heathrow, and for some bizarre reason it is 100,000 if you want to fly in Business Class (I guess they follow the scenic route).

No wonder we are so rubbish at Geography and GPS systems are so popular.  Someone needs to buy British Airways a Tom Tom navigator.

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