I thought it might be interesting to return to blogging with something a bit more visual, namely a comparison of the places I've lived in. Let's get started with the first place I remember.
Cornwall: Although I wasn't born there my first memories were of village life in Cornwall. Take a look at this - just the one street really! To be honest, I think at the ages I lived there I don't think I was ever old enough to go up and down the street by myself. The road was pretty busy and cars didn't waste time getting through there. I don't really remember any of the shops there. I do remember the local restaurant, which I'm pretty sure was run by friends of my parents. I also remember the local chippy, if only for the colourful bottles of Corona which used to fascinate me.
Somerset: I zoomed out a bit on this one. Take a look at all the green space! I don't think I used the streets much when I lived in Somerset either, although to all intents and purposes the fields were our streets. I was outside a lot doing one thing or another. It provided independence but in somewhere where it was completely safe to do so. The village school (centre) was a matter of minutes away, which was both a blessing (you didn't have to leave home until literally the last minute) and a curse (it was always there, if that makes sense).
Somewhere in life I became more of city person, but I really appreciated the outdoors and being able to get outside and play while we lived in Somerset. We left Somerset when I was eleven, at which point the housing estate at the top of the picture was also just a field.
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Hampshire: Ah, Hampshire suburbia. It looks a lot more urban, but the look is somewhat deceiving. Most homes, the ones that I visited at least, had back gardens. There were a lot more houses closely together. I was older and enjoyed the freedom of walking further to school and also to friends' houses. As I got older buses would take me to college and friends that were even further afield. It was the ideal way to transition to the independence a young adult enjoys. The house of my best friend's parents is in this photo (no, I'm not telling you where), the scene of many a happy Friday night.
University: After my A levels university took me to North London. Although within this area there has been one very significant change (one easily spotted by football fans), the overall theme hasn't changed. Look how packed in everything is, the volume of grey for either roads or buildings is astonishing. You were always aware of the concentration and busyness of London.
What I've forgotten in nearly a quarter of a century of being away is just how often I walked between places. For my last two years at university I was in Lower Edmonton, and I typically wouldn't think much about walking the 45 minutes to or from campus. Ahh, to have that kind of free time again.
Southern California: To conclude I thought I'd include the area of Southern California I visited for two months after my graduation from university. It felt as if Southern California had a suburbia of their very own while I was out there, but there were a mass of options for things to do when I wasn't seeing friends. Again I would typically walk here, there and everywhere, and get funny looks and questions for doing so. (Not shown: the infamous 5 freeway with the nightmarish, smog-creating traffic jams that would take commuters to and from Los Angeles, approximately an hour or so northwest from where I stayed.)
