Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Midlander

The issue is this: I spent the first 20 years of my life a two-hour drive to the sea, and then the first 12 years of working as a clergyhuman in the Midlands, including 8 in Coventry, which is nearly as far from the sea as you can get in the UK. As a child, I saw the sea maybe twice a year - once during our main summer holidays (usually in the West Country) and probably another short break/day trip to the East coast. The first glimpse of the sea was always an exciting moment.

So there is something hard-wired in my system that says that having the view at the top of this blog a few hundred yards from where I live is all wrong. Not wrong in the sense that I don't like it or don't want it; more that I always feel a bit surprised and excited that the seaside is there. If you have lost that feeling (or never had it) I can only prescribe living in Meriden for 10 years and then coming back!

3 comments:

Revsimmy said...

I moved to the Midlands when I was 5, having been born near Plymouth. When we went back to visit once or twice a year, my Dad always insisted we go to the sea as one of the first things we did.

I was privileged to live in Liverpool for 16 years, with the sea less than a mile from our house. Now I've been back in the Midlands for over 10 years, I really miss it.

Glad you are enjoying it, though.

Anonymous said...

I spent 18 years living just down the road from Meriden, in Balsall Common... just as well I moved to Plymouth for a few years. I miss it, and I miss Lancaster too, especially for that closeness to the waves! And now I'm back in the land-locked Middle Lands....

Emma said...

Conversely, I lived the first 18 years of my life a 5 minute walk from the sea and very, very rarely actually went to the beach. Only now when I visit the parentals do I appreciate the beach, and then mostly as a convenient place to take a walk. Perhaps I take it rather too much for granted!