Has anybody on here got a terrible sense of direction? And does it embarrass you?

[Wisteriabloom]

Just wondering if I'm the only one, or if there are others too! Here are some examples -

If I get up from where we're sitting, in an airport, large restaurant etc to go to the loo/my turn to get the drinks etc, I have trouble finding my way back unless I literally make notes of landmarks - (ie, turn right by statue, past huge mirror, turn left by the bar etc). I now know to do this and it REALLY helps, after embarrassing experiences of panicking and being completely lost on the way back and whoever I'm with coming to look for me, incredulous that I couldn't remember the way!😳

Also, I'm not a driver and recently had some friends staying. We were going to a restaurant one evening, (it's one that dh & I have been to fairly often). But have walked or bussed there, as both non drivers.

This time our friends were driving and I was in the car trying to direct, (dh was meeting us there as had been somewhere else). There was a diversion in place and I just couldn't think of any other route to direct them, other than my 'normal route' that we now couldn't use! We got there eventually (a bit late!🤔) and I could tell my friends were a bit confused I was struggling to direct, as I'm a Local, and have lived here years!

I do have Dyspraxia btw, however i manage to hold down a responsible job, am talented in music & languages, and a great cook, but my navigation skills are embarrassingly close to zero!

Even at school I can remember it taking months before I confidently knew my way around (new secondary school) whereas my classmates, even the less academic ones had cracked it in the first week!

I can also struggle to recognise places if I'm travelling to them from another angle, ie, I can get from A to B easily, but to get from A to C I'd have to go via B, even though it takes twice as long!😳

As I've got older I've developed coping strategies, ie, noting landmarks and practising routes if I know I'll be expected to direct but it can be debilitating! Dh just can't understand it, I reckon he was born with an inbuilt SatNav! He deliberately walks behind me for amusement if we're staying in a hotel, as he knows it will easily be a couple of days before I can get from our room to Reception without making a wrong turn, so frustrating!! Just wondered if anybody else has this issue!

I have a very poor sense of direction. I have to do a journey loads of times before I 'know' it.
I also think of the world in a linear fashion - it always surprises me when places are close together because I think of them as being in a long line.
For example I live near Newark. To get to Nottingham I drive to Newark and turn right which, in my mind, is North. It blows my mind when I look at a map to see that Nottingham is, in fact, South of Newark.......... Obviously the road bends round to bypass Newark but my brain cannot compute this.
I have to think VERY hard in new places about which way to turn.

I am not NT. I don't know what kind of not NT I am but I am definitely not! I also cannot see a picture 'in my minds eye'

DH, on the other hand, has a map in his head and can find his way anywhere.

mostly fine with directions though if I am tired it takes ages for the sat nav in my head to load.

time on the other hand... i lose the date, month, season even if weather is not very summery or very wintery. not sure of the year, or how old I or the children are and can I remember their birth months/year combo I can not work ourt how many days away somehthing is, I do not have a sense of how many days away the 14th is say or how many months away something is...

ex can't do directions either... if you see someone standing on the sill of the car door waving madly, it will be me trying to attract ex's attention when he is navigating back to the car and in restaurants, and anywhere really.