Author Topic: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?  (Read 14600 times)

Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #50 on: 09 May, 2017, 09:47:32 am »
DPD had a delivery for me yesterday.  I downloaded their app, which gave me the option of adding directions, other instructions, etc., and gave me updates as to the time to delivery.

Admittedly it was showing 15mins to delivery for 5mins after he'd been and gone, but it was generally helpful in reducing the window for waiting.

I expect other carriers will have similar—more-or-less—apps.

Mr Larrington

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #51 on: 09 May, 2017, 10:58:11 am »
The old Duke frequently had problems with Amazon deliveries1 whe he lived at Apsley House.

1:Lie.
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ElyDave

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #52 on: 09 May, 2017, 11:21:56 am »
our road has one name at one end and another name at the other.  GPS can bring you the house, down a neighbouring fen road, or to the nearby sewage pumping station.

We have a nameplate with house number and name - 17 California.  However we also have a California House and a California Farm in the road.  The number of couriers that see our name plate and try to deliver anything with that tag to us  ::-).  We have developed a mutual postage service up and down the road.
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Kim

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #53 on: 09 May, 2017, 11:43:48 am »
We have developed a mutual postage service up and down the road.

I think that happens everywhere.  Posties putting your immediate neighbour's letters through your letterbox is an understandable (and easily rectified) common mistake.

And then there are the handwriting issues.  Brits are rubbish at disambiguating 1s and 7s.  We regularly receive confidential medical information (and on one occasion a massive bulk order of stationery) for the GP surgery at the end of the road, because given sufficiently girly handwriting "1a" looks a lot like "12".

And then there's general sloppiness by experienced locals who aren't using the postcodes.  We used to get taxis and pizza for n Cambridge Way when we lived at n Cambridge Road.  Because obviously only the 'Cambridge' bit is salient.   :facepalm:

Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #54 on: 09 May, 2017, 11:54:57 am »
...because given sufficiently girly handwriting "1a" looks a lot like "12".


Next door to us is number "8 and a half".

hellymedic

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #55 on: 09 May, 2017, 12:00:36 pm »
...because given sufficiently girly handwriting "1a" looks a lot like "12".


Next door to us is number "8 and a half".

Next door to 2, The Vale, NW11 is 0... I think it's named Zero but I suppose that's OT for this thread...

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #56 on: 09 May, 2017, 12:02:25 pm »
A new house a couple of streets away from us is number zero. It's beyond, or before, number 1, so what else could it be? Luckily there's no room for any more buildings, unless they build over the side road, otherwise we'd be into negative numbers.

Edit: X-post with Heli: As per hers, it's actually written Zero, rather than 0.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #57 on: 09 May, 2017, 12:03:23 pm »
The side road, presumably, would have imaginary numbers...

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #58 on: 09 May, 2017, 12:05:15 pm »
I think you're into a higher level of mathematics there, Kim, which I have certainly forgotten if I ever learnt it (all numbers are in a sense imaginary) and I wouldn't expect the postie to cope with either.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Kim

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #59 on: 09 May, 2017, 12:17:00 pm »
Imaginary numbers are extra-imaginary, thobut, on account of being multiples of the square root of -1 (yes, that is a bit of a leap).  They're frequently combined with real numbers to make complex numbers, often thought of as representing points on a plane with reals on one axis and imaginary numbers on the other.  Hence the side road...

(It all seems a bit wanky, except they turn out to be useful for modelling real-world things like electricity.  Which you could argue is itself imaginary.)

Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #60 on: 09 May, 2017, 12:42:38 pm »
Imaginary numbers are extra-imaginary, thobut, on account of being multiples of the square root of -1 (yes, that is a bit of a leap).  They're frequently combined with real numbers to make complex numbers, often thought of as representing points on a plane with reals on one axis and imaginary numbers on the other.  Hence the side road...

(It all seems a bit wanky, except they turn out to be useful for modelling real-world things like electricity.  Which you could argue is itself imaginary.)
Electricity is entirely imaginary until you touch live and earth or neutral at the same time.
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hellymedic

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #61 on: 09 May, 2017, 12:50:54 pm »
[OT] I wish negative numbers were imaginary when they referred to a bank balance...
... or maybe not!

clarion

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #62 on: 09 May, 2017, 02:29:39 pm »
The side road, presumably, would have imaginary numbers...
Aye ;D
Getting there...

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #63 on: 09 May, 2017, 07:21:23 pm »
Imaginary numbers are extra-imaginary, thobut, on account of being multiples of the square root of -1 (yes, that is a bit of a leap).  They're frequently combined with real numbers to make complex numbers, often thought of as representing points on a plane with reals on one axis and imaginary numbers on the other.  Hence the side road...

(It all seems a bit wanky, except they turn out to be useful for modelling real-world things like electricity.  Which you could argue is itself imaginary.)
Things like this make me think that in mathematics there is nothing that could not exist but an awful lot that should not.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Jaded

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #64 on: 09 May, 2017, 10:32:14 pm »
I can usually cope when finding my house, which has no number nor visible name.
It is simpler than it looks.

contango

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #65 on: 10 May, 2017, 05:37:15 am »
We have developed a mutual postage service up and down the road.

I think that happens everywhere.  Posties putting your immediate neighbour's letters through your letterbox is an understandable (and easily rectified) common mistake.

And then there are the handwriting issues.  Brits are rubbish at disambiguating 1s and 7s.  We regularly receive confidential medical information (and on one occasion a massive bulk order of stationery) for the GP surgery at the end of the road, because given sufficiently girly handwriting "1a" looks a lot like "12".

And then there's general sloppiness by experienced locals who aren't using the postcodes.  We used to get taxis and pizza for n Cambridge Way when we lived at n Cambridge Road.  Because obviously only the 'Cambridge' bit is salient.   :facepalm:

It's really fun when there's someone with a similar name to you nearby.

A while back I got a phone call from my local medical centre. It's a big place, with everything from routine checkups to major surgery. Anyway, I had a routine appointment a couple of days later so it wasn't a surprise for them to call to confirm, but it was a surprise for the voice to ask "is this the family of (my name)?". When I told them I was (my name) they got confused and realised something wasn't right. Apparently my namesake was in the hospital and, presumably, not doing very well. It nearly cost me my appointment because our records were muddled and the doctor I was seeing figured my namesake wasn't going to show up (given he was in a bad way in hospital), but in the end decided to leave the appointment on the books so she would have some free time. She was quite surprised when I showed up.

For good measure my mysterious namesake also appeared to be the same age as me, give or take a couple of months.
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contango

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #66 on: 10 May, 2017, 05:38:58 am »
Going back to addresses, in my part of rural Pennsylvania the house numbering is, well, interesting. It's far from rare for two adjacent houses to have house numbers 6-8 apart and sometimes you get a road with old and new numbering schemes. A friend of mine used to live at number 3807 (street) which was, as expected, just a few houses from another friend at 3847 (street). But half a dozen houses further up was number 168.
Always carry a small flask of whisky in case of snakebite. And, furthermore, always carry a small snake.

Wowbagger

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #67 on: 10 May, 2017, 08:21:32 am »
I think we should use decimal points for newly-built houses.
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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #68 on: 10 May, 2017, 08:46:52 am »
While old ones should be numbered on a system of twelfths, sixteenths and twentieths.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Wombat

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #69 on: 10 May, 2017, 12:14:44 pm »
We have developed a mutual postage service up and down the road.

I think that happens everywhere.  Posties putting your immediate neighbour's letters through your letterbox is an understandable (and easily rectified) common mistake.

And then there are the handwriting issues.  Brits are rubbish at disambiguating 1s and 7s.  We regularly receive confidential medical information (and on one occasion a massive bulk order of stationery) for the GP surgery at the end of the road, because given sufficiently girly handwriting "1a" looks a lot like "12".

And then there's general sloppiness by experienced locals who aren't using the postcodes.  We used to get taxis and pizza for n Cambridge Way when we lived at n Cambridge Road.  Because obviously only the 'Cambridge' bit is salient.   :facepalm:

It's really fun when there's someone with a similar name to you nearby.

A while back I got a phone call from my local medical centre. It's a big place, with everything from routine checkups to major surgery. Anyway, I had a routine appointment a couple of days later so it wasn't a surprise for them to call to confirm, but it was a surprise for the voice to ask "is this the family of (my name)?". When I told them I was (my name) they got confused and realised something wasn't right. Apparently my namesake was in the hospital and, presumably, not doing very well. It nearly cost me my appointment because our records were muddled and the doctor I was seeing figured my namesake wasn't going to show up (given he was in a bad way in hospital), but in the end decided to leave the appointment on the books so she would have some free time. She was quite surprised when I showed up.

For good measure my mysterious namesake also appeared to be the same age as me, give or take a couple of months.

At least I won't get that problem.  As far as I can tell, I'm the only male with my surname in the world, and the only female with that surname is Mrs W.  Negative aspect is that it makes it harder to avoid folk by saying, "oh no, you've got the wrong Mr Wombat, you must need the other one, sorry I've heard of him but don't know where he lives."
Wombat

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #70 on: 10 May, 2017, 12:29:33 pm »
I can usually cope when finding my house, which has no number nor visible name.
Usually?
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #71 on: 10 May, 2017, 12:31:53 pm »
I can usually cope when finding my house, which has no number nor visible name.
Usually?
Depends on what state he's in, obs. After 12 pints at the Red Lion, it's easy. After a winter 300, it isn't.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #72 on: 10 May, 2017, 01:51:30 pm »
It's really fun when there's someone with a similar name to you nearby.
<stuff>
For good measure my mysterious namesake also appeared to be the same age as me, give or take a couple of months.

I faced severe embarrassment as a student when I examined a patient and discovered I had the wrong case notes.
The surname was a popular one, the age was similar but the medical notes suggested previous surgery from which no scars were evident.

Easily done, very dangerous.

This is not a lesson you might expect to learn as a medical student but the sooner the better in many ways, I suppose.

But 'Never Events' do occur.

Zipperhead

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #73 on: 10 May, 2017, 02:55:23 pm »
It's really fun when there's someone with a similar name to you nearby.
<stuff>
For good measure my mysterious namesake also appeared to be the same age as me, give or take a couple of months.

I faced severe embarrassment as a student when I examined a patient and discovered I had the wrong case notes.
The surname was a popular one, the age was similar but the medical notes suggested previous surgery from which no scars were evident.

Easily done, very dangerous.

This is not a lesson you might expect to learn as a medical student but the sooner the better in many ways, I suppose.

But 'Never Events' do occur.

Indeedy. My wife and my mother both have the same surname and they both have similar first names, such that the short version of one is the same as the other.

My mother visited the doctor (she would have been late 50's or early 60's' at the time) and the doctor pulled "her" notes which said that she was pregnant.
Won't somebody think of the hamsters!

hellymedic

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Re: Unhelpful addresses, how do folk cope?
« Reply #74 on: 10 May, 2017, 03:49:11 pm »
One would hope that the dopiest of doctors might spot a date of birth inconsistent with a patient's appearance...

One would hope!