Thread by @swardley

Heading to Reading this evening. The usual thoughts ... train (slow, very slow, black line ... google reckons about 5hrs) or drive (much faster, red line) or "sod it, lets go to Calais" (blue line, much much faster, doesn't actually help in getting to Reading).

X : Why don't you live in London?
Me : I have a pleasant 4 bed detached house with a garden in delightful village. For that, I could probably get a one bed run down flat in a shit heap in London. Nah ... not happening. I was born in London. I'm not going back.

Escaping London was the best thing that happened to me. It gives you a completely different outlook on life, to travel and live in other places. I find much more contentment, a different pace of life outside of London. I'd hate to go back.

I found my vision became very closed living in London. It's something about the city, it all becomes about the "me". I am not surprised that many are oblivious to the rest of the country. I personally found scales of ignorance in London that I found staggering ...

i.e. I kid you not, I have met many who were well "travelled" having been to the same Swiss or French Alps skiing resorts, same tropical island destinations, same exotic or feature destinations but in half a century having never been to the North of England. Not once.

It's like the sleeper to Edinburgh ... chatting away with some chap who tells me all about their exotic travel - or the usual places you hear of. First time on a sleeper, that I find surprising ... but also, first time to Edinburgh. In fact, first time to Scotland. In 50 years?

Me : Hawaii, Maldives, Whistler, Chamonix, Bali, San Francisco, New Zealand, Pompeii, Sorrento, New York, Antigua, Dubai, Hong Kong?
X: Oh yes, many times.
Me : Sunderland, Wigan, Durham, Preston, Bolton, Yorkshire Dales?
X : No. Is there really a place called Bolton?

X : We need to go somewhere exotic this year.
Me : Svalbard?
X : I was thinking more Madagascar
Me : Do you really want to get off the beaten track, go somewhere truly authentic and far from the madding crowd?
X : Yes
Me : Try Staithes
X : Where's that?
Me : I give up.