Byegate!
I have been without internet access for a couple of days due to the house move to London, but all that remains is to do this:
Things I'll miss about living in Reigate
The deer
The green woodpeckers pecking the grass in the garden
The fact that it's pitch black at night
Ten-minute drive to Gatwick Airport
The rose-ringed parakeets
The heron that used to fly over
The bat that used to flutter around at dusk (I'm sure there was more than one bat in the area, but he's the one I knew)
Reigate Screen cinema (it's the only time in my life when I've known the manager of my local cinema by name - Toby!)
The twenty-minute walk to Redhill Station via Wray Common
The taxi drivers at Redhill Station
The staff at Toni & Guy, especially Laura and Mel.
Things, with the greatest of respect, I won't miss about living in Reigate
The quiet
Developers tearing down perfectly nice houses and building "luxury gated apartment blocks"
The bonfires (the people round there are pyromaniacs!)
Morrisons (or at least, the dominant supermarket in the town being Morrisons - what a waste of a prime piece of what I believe the Americans call real estate)
Planned engineering works in the Thornton Heath area
Getting the "regional" edition of the Guardian Guide (like I care what's showing at the Bath Odeon!)
I can't think of any more. It's time to move on!
posted by Andrew Collins @ 6:39 PM
18 Comments
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18 Comments:
Hope the move wasn't too stressful! I'm sort of doing the opposite and starting a new job based in Lingfield/Reigate/Oxted areas... probably nice to spend the day in but I still like living fairly close to London and all that involves.
So long as you have a garden in your new place it's all good.
I'm sure the local birds will miss you (and your bird food) terribly. How's your pussy cat adapting to London life?
It's a small London garden, Peter, but there's somewhere to hang at least one decent sized feeder, which is on my to-do list. Pepper has adapted to the new place already. Cats are amazing. (Once she realised most of the smells she knows had come with us.)
Pepper will settle quite happily as long as she knows she's still at home, if you know what I mean. Did you do the old "butter on paws" trick? Anyway, hope you all settle into your new home quickly, and have many happy years there.
Why did you move back to London, if you don't mind me asking?
Glad to hear that Pepper is happy. I guess the journey to work is shorter now which is environmentally good, but I hope the pollution doesn't upset your asthma.
Spending the first six months of the year commuting into Central London five, six and sometimes seven days a week was the decider. Even though the sitcom is finished now, and I'm back to two days a week, I have to travel into London a lot for my work, and knowing I can just hop on a train that comes every couple of minutes rather than every half an hour (engineering works notwithstanding) is already bliss.
Reigate, a lovely town, is just too quiet. I had to go and live there to find out I prefer voices and noise. I can adapt to the birds.
Are we allowed some clue as to which area of London you've moved to? (South West would be my guess.) I moved to London from Guildford a couple of months ago after 18 months of commuting, and all your reasons for moving match mine. It makes me feel more alive!
Talking of the sitcom, I've been on holiday and just before I left its scheduled broadcast date was moved. Sorry if I'm well behind the times - but what's the latest? DJ
October 6, Friday, 9.30, BBC1, Dave. Yippee.
Andrew
I hope you don't miss the obvious wildlife haven that was Reigate. Do small London gardens get many bird species? Bill Oddie sees a lot on Hampstead Heath - including some rarities apparently - but not far away, in Crouch End, chaffinches, robins, blue tits, house sparrows and starlings seem to be the norm. It will be interesting to see whether your well stocked feeders continue to attract parakeets and nuthatches. I hope so, but if not, at least you'll save a few quid on bird food!
Here's hoping, Chris ...
Didn't think you'd be moving somewhere quieter, my guess was Wimbledon. Ironically Reigate might have been less quiet before Redhill came along and there was countryside on all sides - it's not as quiet as luxury gated apartment blocks and multi-storey car parks. Developers eh, did you know that if they build next to you and deprive you of your view and reduce the value of your property you get fuck all in return. And that under-pressure (bribed?) councillors are ignoring rules that should stop many developments. And that gardens are catagorized by the government as 'brown-field sites'. And that derelict sites outside towns aren't developed because the rules make it less profitable for the developers. The trains into London used to be faster, they've actually slowed them down... Anyway, enjoy the noise etc.
What a shame that you have left Reigate and all it's wildlife! Best wishes for the new house though!
I moved from Edinburgh to Dunfermline three years ago. I miss: the Cameo Cinema, some reasonable venues (and decent bands), decent record shops and the public transport system. Dunfermline has: one Odeon multiplex showing bland mainstream films, only one real venue (the sort of place where Barbara Dickson and Tony Christie play), two record shops (both crap) and a public transport system that I'm finally getting whipped into shape!! The local press are a joke too. Anyone who watched "Dead Man Weds" will know exactly what the Dunfermline Press is like.
Good luck in your new home.
London gardens can be great for wildlife - we live out on the edges near H'row and our species list includes gt spotted woodpecker, sparrowhawk, fieldfare, redwing, at least 2 species of bat, foxes and, on one special bleak winters day, a flock of lapwing visited the muddy rugby pitch at the back of the house. This summer after 8 years of waiting house martins raised a brood in the purpose built nest box under the eaves. If you build it they will come. Enjoy your garden.
Hi Andrew, It's Tim here who found you your palatial London residence. I hope you are settling in comfortably and the property is delivering it's goods to you. Thank you both for putting your trust in me to find you a home and I trust you will all settle into your pad and be able to continue your fine work in what I, as a local employee may describe as a delightful period property, moments from the local station and shops of the area, situated within a short walk of the leisure facilities of the area. It is truley a house one would love to live in.....
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