A tale of a lost woman

What you are about to read is a true story. I will never get tired to show off my sense of direction, or better the lack of it.
Yesterday I was invited to a birthday dinner party. That's not so special, I know. Still, I went to get my bike fixed as the back tyre was rather worn and as the result it was flat, even flatter after placing my fat backside on the saddle. (It's not fat, I added it for the laugh.)
Right. Bike fixed I sat on it at around 7.20pm as the table was booked at 7.30pm. Luckily it wasn't too far away; fifteen minutes the most. Since I know my habit of getting lost on, I consulted google maps and was delighted when I saw a street I've been in before and would find again easily. The tricky part, which I learned later, was to find my way from there. So I remembered the main points from there and it was really only forth street right, straight through and again right and I should be there. Filled me confidence.

There I was, merrily cycling away, listening to music, looking forward to a nice evening. I found the forth street and almost run over a guy. Not my fault, he just stopped walking, when I've calculated that, by the time I got there, I could easily cycle around him. He obviously didn't trust my calculation. Mistake. After a 'Sorry', I carried on.
Now my problem was I couldn't remember the names of the main roads. All I remembered was Victoria -- not helpful. I knew the road where the restaurant is started with Lau or something. And because I'm very smart, I didn't even write it down, neither the main roads, nor the name of the restaurant. But then it looked so simple on the map, there was almost no chance of getting that wrong.
I recalled Grove Rd, but it wasn't one of the main points I had memorised, sort of. I stopped at a pub and asked a few guys outside if they knew a road with L or at least an Italian restaurant -- they didn't.
I tried to call the restaurant (I had the number because I needed to find out when the party started as the birthday boy forgot to tell me and I don't have his number), but they either didn't pick up or the line was busy. I even tried Kate who was invited, too and she didn't pick up either.

After a few tries, I gave up and cycled back, of course getting lost again. Had to ask for directions to get to Mare Street. I was rather happy when I arrived back home at 20.50pm. Great evening exercise, but a huge shame I missed the birthday.