Heimat...

[TheGreenAnger]

I was sitting here thinking about where one's heart lies. I have lived (as opposed to visited) in a number of cities/towns (ranging in residence periods from 1.5 years to 22 years) in a slightly (but not extraordinarily) peripatetic life which started for me in Pretoria and thence in the following order:

Johannesburg
Cape Town
Leicester
Cardiff
London
New York
Cardiff
Dallas

and then back to London and onto, where I suddenly, for the first time in almost 61 years, now realize has become "home"...

God help me!




I am sure that a lot of folks here have left fascinating, very interesting trails, and tales to speak off. Please feel free to elucidate.

Periods in prison, behind enemy lines, mad houses, places you would like to keep private (like the Karl Lagerfeld Bondage Dungeons in Bremehaven, for example), and places like Scunthorpe etc. can be depersonalized with XXX's...

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I had to give a lifetime list of addresses ( at least 3 months residence) for my emigration to Canada, there were 51.
I have had 9 since.
And that doesn't include totals of over a year at sea, two months airborne as pilot, a month underwater, and an hour in freefall.
I became a shellback aged 4.

I've been at my current address for over 5 years, which is the longest by a fair margin as an adult, and I have no intention of moving.

I know practically nothing of Asia (2 months in the Middle East), South America (2 weeks on the Falklands), or Africa (day trip to Tangier).

[llondel]

I started in East London, headed west, generally along the M4 corridor, over many years, got to the Welsh border and went north instead. Then back east to the Greenwich meridian before heading over to California. I think it comes to twelve different addresses in that period, although some were always going to be temporary.

[OFSO]

I see Leicester mentioned. I grew up there: as Londoners, my parents were exiled to the Midlands. As a teenager I moved back to Kensington and Wimbledon, then 25 years in Darmstadt Germany (although travelling for work and pleasure while there) and finally to Catalunia 30 years ago. And now we also have the place in Teddington, not that far from my grandmother's house in Hounslow where I used to stay just after the war. Germans say the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree. It did in my case but with no help from me, almost eighty years later it's rolled back to the tree. I've walked to Nana's house to see the garden I played in: I've walked again in Bushy Park and past Sion House. Almost can see the ghost of four-year-old me in those places.

[TheGreenAnger]

I see Leicester mentioned. I grew up there: as Londoners, my parents were exiled to the Midlands. As a teenager I moved back to Kensington and Wimbledon, then 25 years in Darmstadt Germany (although travelling for work and pleasure while there) and finally to Catalunia 30 years ago. And now we also have the place in Teddington, not that far from my grandmother's house in Hounslow where I used to stay just after the war. Germans say the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree. It did in my case but with no help from me, almost eighty years later it's rolled back to the tree. I've walked to Nana's house to see the garden I played in: I've walked again in Bushy Park and past Sion House. Almost can see the ghost of four-year-old me in those places.

"Die appel val nie ver van die boom af nie!"

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Leicester.
6 months living in Oadby. Worked mostly in pubs, with a month as a milkman. I liked the rural pubs of south Leicestershire.

We have a common heritage!

Did you ever live in Bath or Wiltshire, Llondel?

[TheGreenAnger]

Leicester.
6 months living in Oadby. Worked mostly in pubs, with a month as a milkman. I liked the rural pubs of south Leicestershire.

We have a common heritage!

Did you ever live in Bath or Wiltshire, Llondel?

Oadby! Mein Liebe Gott!

What years?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

1995

[llondel]

Leicester.
6 months living in Oadby. Worked mostly in pubs, with a month as a milkman. I liked the rural pubs of south Leicestershire.

We have a common heritage!

Did you ever live in Bath or Wiltshire, Llondel?

I went to university in Bath, does that count? Although I was living outside the city at the time. Some years ago I was quite pleased with myself for navigating through Bath after many years absence without needing maps or GPS. Unlike Bristol, where the area at the bottom of the M32 was totally rearranged. Can't do that if all the buildings are historical and can't be demolished.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Sure does!
I've lived there twice, including on Widcombe Hill, which you must have been up and down a fair few times.

Urban renewal quite straightfoward in Brizzle, if you have contacts in the Luftwaffe.

[TheGreenAnger]

1995

1985-1987...

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

The RAF was shuffling me round Wales at that time, training me as a Barely Acceptable Public Nuisance, and learning how to bomb the dams that the Viet Taff used to create chemical weapons (aka Welsh "beer").

[TheGreenAnger]

The RAF was shuffling me round Wales at that time, training me as a Barely Acceptable Public Nuisance, and learning how to bomb the dams that the Viet Taff used to create chemical weapons (aka Welsh "beer").

But enough of that!

My father, absent as he was, was a tenured statistician at De Monfort Hall.

Leaving me, a bastard, in Pretoria

[llondel]

Sure does!
I've lived there twice, including on Widcombe Hill, which you must have been up and down a fair few times.

Urban renewal quite straightfoward in Brizzle, if you have contacts in the Luftwaffe.

82-86, and yes, Widcombe Hill was my preferred route home, usually at insane speed, heading out to Saltford.

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I bimbled out to Saltford a few times. I taught at Monkton Combe School, and one of my tutees was a rower. Normally, the school trained on a bit of the Avon, but they had to go to Saltford to get a full 2,000 metres.

[G~Man]

Many addresses here.....

Born in Accra, Ghana, lived in Takoradi for first 2 years. Father was born & raised in the Aberdeen tenements till he joined the RAF at 14, Mother was from Bexley Heath, daughter of a RAF Group Captain.

Did time in RAF Wittering-England, Kinloss-Scotland, Bruggen-Germany, then Ruskington, Lincs before being shipped off to Boarding School in Grimsby at age 10. Parents continued to move with the RAF then the International Red Cross.

Left school at 16, worked for NATO as a civilian laborer at 2 ATAF in Rheindahlen till I joined the RAF at 18.

Swinderby, Finningly, St. Mawgan then Kinloss for 6 years. Traveled extensively over the world on the kipper fleet, (Nimrods).

Emigrated to the US, lived in San Francisco East Bay for 8 years, Hawaii for 7 years, Florida for a year, then did long fire contracts and lived in hotels for about 9 years fighting fires, (Obviously I was between wives...lol).

Married again and lived in Salt Lake City, Utah, (still doing fires going home once a month), for about 6 years and now live in Redding, California.

I have flown helicopters in almost every State apart from the far North East and Alaska. Also crossed the equator between boats on either side at W 154 by helicopter launching satellites with Sea Launch.

Been in Jail many times, but never spent the night. (I flew for a sheriff department for a while....lol).

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

the kipper fleet

From my one trip in a Nimrod - we did exchanges to see MPA vs fighter from the other side's view - Dairy Cream Sponge Cake Fleet would be more accurate

The thing I particularly like about these kind of threads is people describing all the bits of life you haven't seen.
It's not that I regret what I did, quite the opposite, but life's too short to do many things properly, and things should be done properly.
And everyone here has done their things properly, which is our common language.

[OFSO]

Oadby! I was at school near there, 1955-1961. My school was said to have been founded by Warwick the Kingmaker but was actually in existence much earlier. Possibly some of the staff also...

[Smeagol]

Well, where do I start? At the beginning I suppose.

Born in a village some 10 miles east of Exeter in the county of Devon. Moved to a smaller village in west Cornwall at the age of 9 and lived there until I went to university (it was actually a polytech then, the original Polytech, but I digress) in London. Stayed in London 4 years, 3 at the aforementioned educational establishment then a year working as a plasterer's labourer before beginning my career as an engineer.
That started when I was offered and accepted a job in Cape Town so emigrated there. Stayed three and a bit years and then someone offered me a better job back in the UK which is when the moving really took off. The job was technically based in London, Wimbledon to be precise, but I was only there for two days before I was sent to Oslo, Norway. Commuted there for several months before being assigned to a project in Newcastle where we, wife and two children, lived for the next year. Project sailed down the river (gas compression module for southern north sea) and I was assigned to the next project in Holland so lived in The Hague for the next year driving to Dordrecht every day where the fabrication yard was located. When that job was completed moved back to the UK and to Great Yarmouth where the installation and hook-up of the platforms built in Holland was based. Stayed for a year and was asked to move to the next project in Ardersier, Scotland but fancied a change so took a job in the oilfields of Sumatra, Indonesia first to Rumbai for a year and then Duri for 3 years. Had a bit of a falling out with my employer so returned to the UK and Great Yarmouth to quickly get a job in Kuwait. Stayed there a year before realizing I was wasting my time there, plus it was a sh1t hole (a short spell in a gaol cell did not improve that opinion)and so returned to the UK again.
1986 by now and the oil & gas business was in a slump so no work in the industry readily available so for the next 9 months worked in a bar and later as a waiter in a restaurant before getting a contract writing a debrief report on a gas platform project that was coming to an end based in Lowestoft just down the road from Great Yarmouth. Took 9 months to write that report by which time things had picked up in the business so got a contract for a year in Doha, Qatar, a very different place from the one we see in World Cup coverage now. Then a quick contract in Sharjah that did not work out at all and so, after only a few weeks, back to the UK and Great Yarmouth to secure a position with the company I had the report writing contract with a year before where I stayed for the next 10 years and worked primarily on southern north sea gas platform projects but had one trip to Sri Lanka for 3 months seconded to the Gas Company in Columbo. Just the name opened many doors and provided easy passage through the (many) road blocks present at the time. After 10 years the company closed so back to the market and after a short interlude commuting to Wolverhampton to work a contract in Bahrain came up so moved there for 2 years which was followed immediately by a move to Abu Dhabi for a further 3 years.
Then a final move back to the UK where I worked for 13 years sometimes in oil & gas but more in offshore wind farm projects. Whilst not moving base location again work projects did mean commuting weekly to places such as Ijmuiden (Holland) and Liverpool for some 6 months each place.
In all the major work moves above Mrs S was with me and also my sons until the eldest reached secondary school age and went to boarding school in the UK so we actually 'moved house' at least 16 times in the 30 years we were 'travelling'.

[k3k3]

Dictionary definition of peripatetic: Smeagol