Turns out I’ve lived in three (bright green) and
stayed at least one night in 46 others (orange). That leaves 78 (pale green) where
I haven’t slept but I’ve probably visited most of them on the mainland except
for the very north of Scotland.
Three
places doesn’t sound like a lot of places to have lived in nearly fifty years,
especially compared to a modern family who are more inclined to move for
education and work. In actual fact I’ve lived in five places – two in CF, two
in KT and BD where I grew up.
Mark
provides an interesting fact for each post code area he visits but I’m not sure
I can provide the same levity of choices for the ones I’ve lived in – they are
more nostalgic than humorous.
Bradford
(BD) was the home to England’s first IMAX cinema screen in 1983 when the National
Museum of Photography, Film and Television opened (now the National Media
Museum). All I ever remember seeing were Discovery style information films,
nothing like the spectacular Batman film The Dark Knight.
Pontypridd
(CF) where I went to Polytechnic used to have the world’s longest island
platform railway station. A bit excessive for today’s short trains. We once travelled on the train to Cardiff on
Five Nations day when Wales were playing France with some North Wales friends
of ours who had the annoying habit of talking to each other in Welsh. Half way
there some local South Wales passengers got on and one of them asked me if our
friends were French!
After
graduating I followed the work and ended up living in the South East. Hampton
Wick (KT) was the first place we lived. This was the home of George &
Mildred from the TV sitcom of the same name. It was a real surprise to discover
that the place they lived was not fictional as I’d always assumed. And even more
of a surprise that a few miles away in the same post code area was Surbiton
where the Good family lived in The Good Life, another favourite sitcom of my
teenage years. I was sure that was a fictional place in London’s suburbia.
We
also discovered that the list of railway stations where Reggie is delayed on
his way to work in The Fall and Rise of Reggie Perrin are real and pass through
the KT post code area – Norbiton, Berrylands and Chessington North.
I
don’t think we are likely to live in any more post code areas but there’s
plenty of scope to stay the night in others, however, our next staycation is in
Alnwick which is in the already slept in Newcastle (NE) post code area.
