I found the list of postcodes, so will start off with EX6, B14 and W7. Ex is Exeter and B is Birmingham. I expect W is London, but will have to check.
EX6 includes a number of wonderfully named villages, but for some reason I’m drawn to Cockwood. It seems unfair that schoolboy humour takes over, but that’s just the way I am.
As Wilde said, “we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” Apart from my sense of humour, that’s in the gutter and showing no signs of leaving.
I can’t actually find much to say about the place but after reading this I want to go there. In fact, I want to live there. There’s just one paragraph and a picture of Cockwood, but it’s enough.
And if you want a fact – one cubic metre of mud from the Exe estuary has the same calorific value as 14 Mars bars. As a metre of mud weighs 1.7 tonnes and tastes of mud, 14 Mars bars weigh 615 grams and are therefore a lot more convenient as a quick snack. They also taste of caramel and chocolate which is a lot better than mud. (Please note that if I’d done these calculations in 2008 the weight would have been 937 grams – another reason modern life is not as good as the old days). That’s 1.35 lbs and 2 lbs for those of you who don’t do metric. A ton of mud is near enough a tonne of mud for me not to bother converting.
B14 is Birmingham and includesย Kings Heath, Yardley Wood, Druids Heath, Highter’s Heath,Warstock. I’ll be honest with you, my knowledge of Birmingham is sketchy and Wiki’s knowledge appears to be the same. Only King’s Heath gets much of a write up and that, to be honest, isn’t rivetting.
The report on the tornado of 2005 might amuse those of you who live in countries which are prone to tornadoes.
And then it’s W7. As I suspected, this is London. If Birmingham is an unknown land, London is even more unknown. I believe I’m right in saying I’ve only been to London nine times in my life.
Four ย of them were for work and one was because I took a wrong turn. One saw me wake up on the floor clutching a sign that said “Danger – Guard Dogs – Keep Out“. Drink, I admit, had been taken the night before. I lost my wallet another time and British Rail officials let me travel home for nothing, though I did catch the newspaper train which took six hours instead of the normal one and a bit. However, I promised interesting facts…
Hanwell, which is what W7 is, the subject of an extensive and interesting write-up on Wiki. It was the scene of filming for several early Carry On films, the parish where Harry Secombe’s brother Fred served as a priest and it has a flight of locks. Plus a lot more – carnival, music festival, beer festival and a Saxon past.
The interesting fact I have selected is that when they added a second parish to the expanding suburb in the early 20th century the new church was the first in the Anglican Communion to be given the name St Mellitus,
So that’s it – just the three. I will do some more later.
Picture is a gratuitous cute bird. No connection with any of this.
Alas, as we age, the forgetting seems to happen with a depressing regularity. Time was when I could rattle of the names of books and authors even if I hadn’t read them. Nowadays, I can hardly remember what I’ve read. This is probably why I keep a book diary.
Sounds like a good thing to do. In a hundred years time it will be the basis of a doctoral thesis on “Literary influences on acclaimed children’s author Laurie Graves”. ๐
Oh, this made me smile!
I’m looking forward to your autobiography – a project for all that spare time you have. ๐
My autobiography? I’m afraid it would be rather dull. ๐
Author, blogger, mother, editor, wife of a Yankee, gourmet, gardener and a French woman trapped in an American’s body – plenty to go at and I suppose there is much I don’t know…
Well, when you put that way…
๐ Exactly!
The Puffin appears to be giving a good look back at you, Quercus. ๐
They can be quite funny at times. It could be the little down-turned clown mouths, or it could just be that I’m going soft in my old age. ๐
I am confounded by the extra knowledge that I have acquired by reading this post. My head may well burst.
It’s unlikely to have a lasting harmful effect as you’ll probably forget it fairly soon. I do.