I didn’t write a post yesterday because I was tired, cold, disorganised and lazy. Today, being merely cold and disorganised I’ve written 300 words and discarded them as unsuitable.

So, instead of my jaundiced view on life, I’m going to revert to a postcode safari. We did 25 parcels yesterday, so I have plenty to work with. I won’t select, I will just start at the top of the list and work my way down.

The first four are DD2, PE10, WS8 and BT71. That’s Dundee, Peterborough, Walsall and Belfast, so there is quite a spread. Well, it’s approximately Peterborough. I used to live in PE10 and it’s really about 25 miles from Peterborough. I also lived in PE2 and PE15. Even PE2, which sounds as if it should be in the city centre is quite rural. Same for BT71 – all of Northern Ireland has a Belfast postcode, so. if anything, BT is even less precise than PE. It is certainly bigger.

There are 121 postcode areas. Peterborough is 11th in terms of population and Belfast is 2nd, with only Birmingham being larger. In case you were wondering, London is cut into smaller districts. There are six districts with London in their name and other towns which have bits of London in their postcode area.This is the list, ranked by population.

DD2 is next to DD1, which contains one of then most notable of all ships – RRS Discovery.

However, I’m not sure it’s in the spirit of the tour to look at the postcode next door. This does, however, present me with a problem – my normal reference site merely says that DD2 is Dundee. D. C. Thomson, the comic company, are in DD1, Keillers no longer exist and Dundee FC are in DD3. As Dundee is host to the two closest football stadia in the UK, I suppose Dundee United are also in DD3. According to a website that knows this sort of thing they are only 0.2 of a mile apart – or 300 yards/metres if you prefer. Next on the list is Nottingham, at 0.7 for Forest and County and Liverpool/Everton, which are only 0.8 miles apart.

But so far I’m drawing a blank with DD2.

Ah! One last try and it paid off. The Camperdown Works were in Lochee, which is DD2. At one time they were the largest jute mill in the world. It was worth looking a second time because another site I checked implied they were in DD1. Jute was vitally important to Dundee at one time, and this fact alone is the basis for one of the less interesting museums I’ve been to. It’s great in parts but they made us sit through a rather dull film before we were allowed in and with two lively kids it was a bit of a trial.

That’s enough for now = Part Two will follow later.