Please don't ask Island Mouse for directions. Island Mouse is a nice mouse. He was brought up to be a nice, kind and helpful mouse. This includes giving directions to other mice. Unfortunately Island Mouse only knows how to give Island Style directions. This is because Island Mouse is ... well an Island Mouse, a mouse from the islands, where they do not have street addresses and many streets do not even have names.
Island Mouse knows how to give direction if the place you are looking for is a Big Green Two Story House with a Huge Mango tree, or the House next to the House with the Fierce Dogs on the Road where the High School is.
If you are looking for the Store That Sell Cheese Cake flavored Ice Cream, Island Mouse will tell you to go down this road till you come to the corner where there is a Store painted in red and turn left. Then when you see the Big Glass Office Building on the other side of the street there is a narrow alley and if you go down that alley you will find the Store That Sells Cheese Cake flavored Ice Cream right at the end.
But if you ask Island Mouse how to get to 895 Cat's Tail Road from 55 Milk Pail Street, Island Mouse will not be able to help you. This is because Island Mouse has no idea where Cat's Tail Road is let alone the fact that you are with him on Milk Pail Street. He will probably know some really important roads, streets and avenues but to Island Mouse, Cat's Tail Road is The Road with all the Fancy Shops, and Milk Pail Street is the Street where the really Cute Hunky Mouse that Island Mouse sometimes sees at the Gym lives. Of course Island Mouse will not tell you that. He will probably call it The Street with all the Nice Trees. This is one Island Mouse's favorite streets because it has nice trees trees with beautiful flowers and Island Mouse loves trees almost as much as he likes the Cute Hunky Mouse from the Gym who he sometimes sees on that street as well.
In the Islands, Island Mouse's directions might include advice like, be careful because the Yellow House has vicious dogs and the Mice that live there never close their gate, so the dogs hide and wait for mice to walk past then they will jump out and try and bite you. In the city, Island Mouse will give advice like you can get there faster by taking Stinky Poo Street but be careful because there is lots of dog poo everywhere.
The problem is that when Island Mouse give those kinds of direction to City Mice they look at him as if he is crazy and are not able to follow his very straight forward descriptive directions because they are not used to receiving let alone processing those kinds of directions. Sometimes they will get mad when they recognize a street from the description and say something like "That is such and such street! Why don't you know the street names. You should know the street names. Everybody knows the street names."
But this is not true, other wise why would people ask for directions? Also for those that know the street names, they have had a lifetime of walking those streets. Island Mouse could probably tell you how to get around his island also without street names which is much more difficult, especially when the scenery changes over time. When a building is torn own and a new one in a completely different style and colour is built that can cause confusion as can be the case when a previously empty lot is developed.
