SA deficiency (SAD?)

I was told by brother many years ago that my SA (short for 'situational awareness', some army term I presume) is very poor, and since I'm sort of staying alone overseas, I made a conscious effort to pay more attention to my surroundings to improve my SA level.

I thought I was doing a pretty good job until recently, I was told something that most of my colleagues figured out long ago. After sitting beside my charming singing friend in the office, THE PHONE, for 2 years and 7 months, I finally learnt how it communicates the source of the call. Apparently, if it is an internal call, the ringtone will be longer than the calls coming from an external source. I experimented with it and true enough, the ringtone was not only longer for internal calls, it was painfully, obviously, distinctly, ridiculously twice longer!! I have no idea how I failed to notice something THAT obvious in the past. :P

Well, well, well. I admit defeat. My brother has been right all along. (Oooohh.... I see someone grinning away!!) My SA is indeed hopeless. Maybe it is something that just comes naturally to some people. I was always impressed (I still am actually) with my brother's ability to remember routes, roads, junctions, locations, that sort of thing from a very young age. On our road trips to Malaysia, he could tell my mom if he has passed a certain place before, or if we have taken a detour at some junction before, etc etc, at the tender age of 4, while I, being much older and have taken more trips than him, still remember those roads simply as hours of never ending drive with either rubber, durian, palm oil or pineapple plantations on either side of the road. Now, that's REALLY pathetic huh?

What to do? I guess I will always be hopelessly ignorant about my surroundings... *LOL* It's just me. =)