I bet you know where Brixton is.

They were not told they had different yellow pages, but common sense to me would mean they would combine information and then state SE is closer to NW21 or is SW6 near to E8?

Oh no.

The thing is, if you're trying to drive around London, and starting from NW London (eg Cricklewood), it will take you longer to get to, say, Lewisham in SE London than it would to drive to Birmingham.

The Northern candidates in task three clearly failed to realise this, which is why the losing team secured only 6 items.

Having said that, I generally find that most people under 40 are complete numpties when it comes to UK geography, blindly following satnav instructions without a clue where anywhere is, or what direction they should be taking.

Well, the yellow pages have different titles on them and different maps within them.

So you don't need to be told they are different, you just need to look...

No! I always check a mapbook before setting off, or if I hit traffic. And if I'm going somewhere new I check it on google maps and if needs be print out a map for the journey.

And I'm only 35!

Eh? I've lived in London for 10 years.

I no longer have to look, I just know.

I'm a nightmare. I quadruple check any route I take and print off maps if I'm going somewhere I don't know. Saying that, I'm also one of these plonkers who has to read the map facing the direction I'm going. Perhaps there's a reason I don't drive very much

I found Gavin's surname quite funny, Winstanley?

123glasses.co.uk is funnier.

AoEIKu.canyouseeit.com would be better.

It's http://www.glasses123.co.uk

Fair enough people not knowing much about London geography.

But if you are going on the Apprentice which is set in London and always involves a task involving you travelling round London buying products you think you might try and get familiar beforehand.

If you have never lived in London, you are not going to know you way round. Maybe an unfair advantage to people who are from London.

It's funny how, in central London, you can go down the tube, go to the next stop, come back up again and be about 200 to 300 yards from where you were in the first place!

The iconic London Underground map can fool people into thinking that places are far apart when they are right next to each other.

BBC4 did an excellent documentary on this. The first version of the map showed how it looked in reality but in the centre, everything was too close together to make anything out.

I use the old '80s version of the SatNav.

I use a £1.99 AA road map (always reduced from £7.99!) to get roughly to the area then I wind down my window to get a good lock on at least three or four of the satellites (or, as we called them, locals) and then ask for directions.

It's amazing. It seems to work every time.

I've never seen a site that asks you for your eye size! (Left hand side near the bottom)

1) <50 mm
2) 51-53 mm
3) 54mm +

Let me just find my ruler...

Why would you smile at a tourist looking at a map?

Whats interesting is that the same mistakes are made year after year - they don't seem to watch previous shows or do any simple research like finding beforehand where things like books, meat, veg, clothes are. This year I am not sure if they were actually filmed before the last seies was shown - surely you wouldn't go shopping at Mayfair prices if you had seen the Truffle issue last year.

They are not allowed to use the internet to search (there's other things than google) but as someone above implied, they don't actually ask enough people (like taxi drivers) who might know either. They are seen asking some people, so its not ruled out, at least not all the time.

The whole task is a bit odd though. - it tests Sugarlike abilities to find and bargain, but the contestants don't start with the necessary knowledge young Sugar would have had .

But if you were chosen to be an Apprentice you would be smart enough to do some homework wouldn't you? Unlike the numpties who get selected each year and look as if they can hardly find their way to the front door.

I'm from North London and when I was younger and going to school all I really used was buses and I rarely ventured out of the North side unless for school trips. But years later I got a part-time job which required me going all over London so I used the tube much more and I know locations of places, but I completely fall back on the service of the tube and buses, I'd be lost without them (maps would only help a bit).

I suppose you could turn this thread on head this week, Southern people and their impressions of places outwith the M25

I've been to both more than once.