Box UK: BBC Innovation Labs Blog

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about Dan’s favourite subjects of journeys and serendipity. I found myself in Newport last night, not the most exotic of locations but I was there for a gig (the awesome Kooks to be precise). The doors opened at 7pm so leaving Cardiff at 5:45 I thought I’d have plenty of time to get myself in before the first support act came on.

For a change I was organised, before leaving the house I checked driving directions, traffic reports and parking facilities. Making good progress in rush hour traffic I found myself in Newport by 6:30, however what Google maps hasn’t told me is that half of the roads that I need to use are closed due to road works! Mild panic sets in but it’s OK because I’ve got half an hour until doors open and my trusty Cardiff and Newport road map which I never leave the house without, is at hand.

6:45pm – Making my way around the back streets and one-way systems of Newport, I decide to drop my boyfriend off at the venue so we at least get a decent place in the line, you see I can see the venue, but due to a couple of core road closures I can’t figure out how to get there, but it’s OK, I spot a tour bus with the support band still in it so I still feel positive I can still get there in time…

7:00pm – Doors are open and I have finally found my way to the venue, where the website tells me I can park for 50p… bargain! So I pull up, only to find the car park is closed as they are resurfacing it! But it’s OK, there’s a car park down the road so I set off back through the maze of back roads…

7:25pm – Five car parks later (all of which were full or closed) and I pull over (in a rather flustered state) to take a call from my boyfriend who is wondering where I am, I can hear music in the background and I’m cursing the promptness of sober bands, if I were going to see Amy Winehouse I’d be guaranteed that the gig would be delayed by at least an hour!

7:35pm – I finally find a free, legal parking space outside a chip shop and spend ten minutes stuffing anything that might resemble anything valuable into the boot… iPod, bag, empty McDonalds wrappers (well you can never be too careful). I then realise that having been driving in very odd circles for the best part of an hour that I actually have no idea where I am in relation to the venue, so I spend another ten minutes running around Newport feeling a bit like an unfit Anneka Rice in an episode of Treasure Hunt. Finally getting to the gig at about 8:00!

11:00pm – Upon leaving the gig I realise that I have absolutely no idea where the car is and spend another half an hour wandering around the streets of Newport looking for familiar chip shops…

As the only piece of technology that I carried around with me the whole night was my mobile phone I find myself thinking how much easier my journey would have been had my phone been able to tell me where the nearest car park was that had spaces, what roads were closed and alternative routes and used GPS to show my location (and indeed the location of my car). When I got to the venue it could tell me where my boyfriend was and if anyone else that was in my phone book was also at the gig, it could have warned me that it was going to be raining when the gig finished or the crime levels of the area that I’d parked in…

So, with the labs starting on Monday, I’m hoping for a relatively uneventful journey, with plenty of free parking spaces and hopefully a successful week!

*** Claire