They Needn't Mind The Gap

So there is one thing I am certain of about my life - I can never be a London cabbie.

Apparently in order to drive a taxi in London, you have to have an enlarged hippocampus. (Heck, that means I don't even have that.) For the uninitiated, the hippocampus is that portion in the centre of the brain, rather the cerebral cortex, that affects memory and facilitates navigation. Cabbie wannabes in London are put through rigorous training and tests before they can acquire a license - so much so that in the course of the four or more years this process takes (!!!), they have filled their heads with so many cognitive maps of the Heaven-knows-how-many-thousand streets of the city that their hippocampus actually enlarges. Hmm. Gotta check for big heads on my next sojourn.

That reminds me of this funny scientist we studied about in psycho this year. I forget his name, but he was also this Brit who thought he had the most amazing ideas. Well one of his 'intelligent' hypotheses was that you are as intelligent as the size of your head...yeah, no kidding. He actually tested this out at this symposium where there were a lot of scientists and others with extra grey matter. He tested each of their head size and width and stuff to check whether his measurments correlated with high intelligence. Of course, there was no correlation, so our man was mighty disappointed. You see, his idea wasn't all that brilliant...lol...maybe his fault was that he didn't have an enlarged hippocampus.

Anyway.

Now, i know my memory, at least my LTM, is to die for, but my navigation skills...errr..ahem...nevermind. So i guess i'd be one in the 95% who don't make it to the driver's seat in a London cab...and as for the back seat, fuggetaboutit, i'd rather treat myself to overpriced lingerie from the Harrods than shell out an unspeakable amount of pounds for a taxiride in that city (because that's how much it costs).

Even if it means passing up the opportunity to be exploited by one with an enlarged hippocampus.