location, location, location

Well it’s been a couple of days since I had a bit of a rant so I’d better make amends or folks will think I’ve shed the grumpiness. I haven’t really don’t a posting yet on our recent move to Teddington. We love it here; it’s got everything we want as  a location to stay when we’re in the UK – closeness to one daughter and son-in-law (and others on the way hopefully), access to some fine shops, great transport links into C London, closeness to C’s workplace, fabulous location between the Thames and ancient Bushey park, some great restaurants and bars and a friendly villagey atmosphere. In fact everything that Buckingham wasn’t. The only thing I dislike about it is that it is the capital city for junk mail. We get bloody tons of it popped through the letterbox virtually everyday. This lot arrived just this morning:

Now when we first moved in, we were strangers to the area and it was actually quite useful to get details on all the local take-aways, cab firms, plumbers etc. But it never stops arriving. If you’ve lived here all your life it must be sooo frigging annoying to be constantly reminded that the bins are collected on Fridays and that there’s a restaurant called ‘Red Peppers’ on the main street.  Even I feel like screaming…    I ALREADY KNOWWW!!! And we’ve only been here a few months. I religiously re-cycle the damn stuff in one of the many re-cycling boxes/bins we have here and I just feel that I’m only perpetuating the cycle of unwanted junk that lands through the letter-box. I’d get one of those little signs that miserable folks put on their front door saying NO JUNK MAIL, but people might start to think I’m a grumpy bugger. Heaven forbid.

Just to prove that I do like to smile occasionally, this morning I was amused by two other location-related items. Firstly I was slightly bemused to learn that a UK town has been the first to be twinned with Walt Disney World in Florida. I could understand if they’d selected Alton Towers or some other large theme park or even Buckingham because its facilities and amenities are so Mickey Mouse but no they’ve gone for a regular large-sized town. Can you guess where? It’s Swindon. SWINDON! What on earth does Swindon have in common with Walt Disney World? Doesn’t that strike you as an odd choice? I wonder if any of the wise councillors of Orlando have actually visited the UK town famous for its old rail works and er… not a lot else. If I’m missing something I’d be delighted to here from any Swindonians about its many charms and attributes. I shalln’t be holding my breath.

Secondly I did a posting back on 28 July about places where I wouldn’t choose to live (it didn’t include the west country’s very own Orlando). I’d visited Peacehaven near my daughter’s home in Rottingdean and had a bit of blogging fun because the place seemed to have an exceptionally aged population. Anyway somebody who puts together the Rottingdean village website has attached my posting about their neighbouring location suggesting that folks check it out – I suspect there may be a rival village thing going on. Ah ha. Anyway check it out if you’re interested by going to the ‘places not to live’ posting and clicking on the pingback link in the comments section or go directly to the website at http://rottingdeanvillage.co.uk/latest-rottingdean-village-news-class-timetable-summer-2009.

I guess I won’t have many fans in E.Sussex and the wilds of Wiltshire now.

pp

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