Personal

The east/west dimension

We spend so much time talking about the north/south divide in this country that I think we sometimes forget about there's an east/west dimension too.

Out here I live almost as far east as you can, and driving to the farm near Cirencester (not even half-way across the country!) took three and a half hours on Saturday.

It's at times like this that you really appreciate family. After an hour's driving yesterday I stopped off with my brother and sister-in-law, and an hour and a half beyond them I popped in on my sister and brother-in-law.

(My other sister lives way too far west to ever be "just passing". The same reason holds for why folk rarely visit me out in East Anglia. Suffolk isn't really on the way to anywhere.)

So my three hour return journey elongated into a five hour tour. I dropped off packets I've had by the door for ages, and collected CDs I'd forgotten I owned. The next time we'll see each other will probably be Christmas.