Location Location Location
Gerald Gee typed his address into Google IMAGES and got this nice surprise.
So I gave it a go - but I didn't so do well.
First I tried the house where Kev and I enjoyed 8 years of uninterrupted, blissful cohabitation during the eighties.
FIRST picture on the list is shown above ....
...and this was the second.
So then I tried my previous house. I typed in Westbourne Grove Manchester and this was FIRST.
And this:
So I typed Manchester, Westbourne Grove - same thing. Why is Google so metropolis centred?
But when I tried ordinary (not images) Google, I discovered that the house (or one very similar) is up for sale for an obscene sum of money. I wasn't too bothered - I refuse to see a home as an investment opportunity. I moved when I moved because I wanted to move. I never regretted it.
Finally, I tried my old house in Cheadle Hulme. The Jazz fan and I moved here by mistake thinking we were on the doorstep of the city. I had moved straight from student flat to an aspirational suburb and hated it.
Here's the FIRST pic. Shabby chic?
But no 1 pic for my childhood home looks rather idyllic and Enid Blyton.
(N.B. That's the lock keeper's cottage - I lived up t'road.)I actually remember when those barges carried coal. It wasn't until a few years ago that the area had a facelift and became the destination for Sunday trippers and narrowboat holiday makers.
I might make a sentimental journey - but probably not.
KAZ
posted by KAZ at 1:20 pm
28 Comments:
Are the bins semi detached and do you and Dawn pop round the shops alot?
Your childhood home certainly does look idyllic now, I can hear Timmy the dog barking, how spiffing.
My only experience of narrow boats comes, as usual, from Coronation Street.
Ken's fancy piece lives on one.
I lived on a type of narrow boat (destroyer) for four years and was seasick the entire time!
Oh Hai MJ!
the link and quite a few of those pictures remind me of places that I've lived in
not Dawn tho, haven't lived in her - would be quite roomy tho; on the other hand, if you went on a narrow boat holiday with her, there wouldn't be much room would there?
did you ever read the piece about the first time she went to a teenagey kind of disco thang, and her dad took her to one side to have a quiet word before she left. . .
. . .and he whispered in her ear "you look absolutely fabulous, darling" or someting of that ilk
she's never looked back - g*d bless her!
My childhood house has a restaurant named after it. No, it's not The Ivy.
I tried that on some old addresses and nothing relevant came up at all - putting in my last old address though came up with a photo of a local councillor (or maybe she was just a Conservative canditate) whilst all the rest that followed on the next two pages were mine off my blogs.
I tried this. I found pictures of the Bishop of Leicester and Christopher Walken. My memory is not what it was, but I recall neither of them forming a significant part of my life during the period in question. I shall check with Theodore and Evadne Google to make sure that they are not overdoing it.
Sentimental journey? Astounding ... that's something I would not have connected with you. I refuse to visit the town of my childhood, bomb it.
Kerrie:
I often go shopping with Dawn - for pies.
I didn't actually live in that house - just down the road a bit.
But I craved the bright lights and the big city.
MJ:
It's a bit of a Bohemian thing.
xl:
I don't think anyone ever got seasick on the Leeds - Liverpool canal - but there's always a first time.
View:
Yes - she has a lovely face.
I wonder why she's so fat. Perhaps that's why she couldn't have a little Lenny.
Geoff:
Kentucky Fried Chicken?
Gerald:
Googling Kaz doesn't find my blog - it has to be prefaced by something rude.
I can't think why.
Vicus:
I believe Christopher Walken is to play the role of the Bishop of Leicester in the latest 'Nuns on the Run' movie.
We are wondering where you come in?
Mago:
As I said I probably won't bother. But it was a nice place to grow up - until the age of 9.
When I typed my first address (upper hill street leamington) into Google I got a nice picture of a stained glass window - Christ being crucified. I'm not entirely sure how to take that...
Spooky synchronicity: we discovered this afternoon that, according to Google Maps, the only places of interest near our library are a knocking shop and a station that was cut by Dr. Beeching.
I tried it, too and found Westbourne Grove,London. Looks much like your version.(And there's a link on my blog for the first of my London haunts.)
I love narrow boats! So much more civilised than air travel.
You've certainly BIN some places. Slightly more shabby than chic though.....
Steve:
He died for your sins.
Kevin:
Knocking shop?
I'll have to have a word with Google.
Dinah:
As a young person living in a village, I used to long to live in London.
Rog:
There's a museum in Ellesmere Port.
Since moving to Manchester I've been getting closer and closer to Piccadilly.
Agee's "How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. You can never go home again" instantly came to mind.
I am a sucker for nostalgia but I know all too well that I am not the same person who lived there back then.
I would attempt to find other suitable high brow responses to impress you but I've learned from experience that Theodore and Evadne Google are unavailable because Scurra is needlessly pestering them with his relentless queries on the Large Hadron Collider thingamabob.
The First Image Looks Like The Place I'm Looking At In Italy!
A bigger house would have been better...
Mine came up with me auld Nan's terraced redbrick on the Shankill Road, Belfast. Manys the day she shoved a two shilling piece into me grimy little hand while the eggs and bacon sizzled.
Actually it didn't. Comes of being born in Acacia Avenue probably.
Donn:
The trouble with nostalgia is, as soon as you start to wallow in it the bad memories sneak in as well.
Did you see Kevin's comment about Mr and Mrs Google and the knocking shop?
Tsk!
Tony:
When will we see you on 'A Place in the Sun'?
Steve:
Or even a big bar of chocolate.
Garfer:
Yes.
Two bob was a week's wages on the Shankill Road when you were a lad.
I shall try this in a minute. I am running low on ideas for blog posts.
I too lived in Westbourne grove over a shop that looked just like your one but in London and that is the one that our Dawn walketh by.
Wow , I used to live on westbourne Grove in London and did once see Dawn French shopping round the corner in Queensway AND we used to go on narrow boat holidays when we were kids so this post brings back happy memories for me :-)
Dave:
Me too - glad I saw this at Gerald's place.
Gerald:
The only celebs we see walking by in Manchester are the cast of Coronation st.
Beast:
I love coincidences.
I don't suppose you came as far north as the Leeds Liverpool canal - or I could have waved when I took the dog for a walk on the canal bank.
Oh blimey! Not only did Mr.Beast have experience of the "dolls'eye" board, he lived in Westbourne Grove!
But I think he (and Mr. Gee) would be much too young to have been my neighbours. Unless...were you the chaps who caused our front door to broken down by the Fuzz, chasing a drug lord, at 5am one day?
Dinah:
Beasty is just a babe - but Gerald has been around for a while. And I'll wager he was no stranger to the boys in blue.
These places all look suitably fab in their own ways. Really. I shall have to try this and see what wonders emerge for my various addresses. I dread to think. Love the canal one. Very chic.
I'm not big into sentimental journeys.
If the Good Old Days, were that good, I think we'd still be there.
Madame:
Chic?
It is now.
Funny how areas always go up in the world as soon as I leave.
Roses:
Me neither.
I never go back. I even try to avoid revisiting places where I've had a good holiday.
They never live up to expectations.
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