6th October.It must be this way, (otherwise I'd be wrong).

I'd got the direction right, it was just that the City of Boston had been rotated around in a perfect mapping of 180 degrees. Possibly something mentally reversed on the way up the escalator from Copley Square Station. Isabelle expressed strong doubts as to the direction we were taking, but we carried on walking in the cold wind, me clutching the tourist map, to the next block, and then the next...

Isabelle threatened: "If the next street isn't Newbury, I'll hit you"! The next street transpired to be Columbus, Isabelle took the matter up with some fellow pedestrians then heeled around abruptly. I was left on the pavement shouting "Come back! Look at the map"!...

I stood squinting at the map under the pale light of the Victorian-style lighting, then continued on self-righteously...

After walking for another couple of blocks I fumbled for my reading glasses under another dim street light. An elderly passer-by offered his assistance: "...Beacon Street?... err... oh yes... Beacon...ah! that's the other way...yes...yes, about fifteen minutes walk...last street before the Charles River...you're walking in the wrong direction"...

Reluctantly I had to accept this new city plan and retrace my steps...