On 18 Sep, 12:30, Tom Anderson wrote:
On Tue, 18 Sep 2007, Alex Ingram wrote:
John Rowland wrote:
alex_t wrote:
OK, I can say to myself that I'm not really a trainspotter. I mean, I
can appreciate nice wooden interior of the train, but the real goal of
my participation was to have a glimpse at the running tunnels*
[snip]

But still - it is scary to realize such things about myself!

It's okay, you're just a trackbasher. Them trainspotters are the weird
ones...

Having watched at least one person follow their folder of specially printed
LU track diagrams in preference to looking out of the window I may have to
disagree!

My instant reaction to that was, "ooh, i want those".

I mean, when you're in an unlit tunnel, how much does looking out of the
window tell you? A good map is like a pair of X-ray specs!

Or is there yet another designation for such folk?

I don't know a specific term, but they come under the map loony
(diagrammatic) classification. Mapspotters? Map nerds? You know, despite
being one, i don't know what it's called.


A cartoholic?

And if you're trying to rid yourself of your obsession perhaps you
need to attend sessions of Cartoholics Planonymous?

Would a good session down in the map room be referred to as getting
grid-faced? Probably not.

I have to say that, as someone who's a map lover too and has a pretty
solid sense of direction, I actually find it pretty liberating to
occasionally be thrown into a location with no map and no idea of
where the various compass points are. Not really something that
happens to me much in London town though.