Another quiet week, working Monday to Friday, a distinct lack of excerise, so no weight loast again, although my shopping this week should help me a bit.
So again I digress, what is life like living on the borders of Surrey, Middlesex, and Berkshore? Well to me it seems normal, since apart from my two visits to University I have always lived here.
My town was blessed to have two university campuses, one of them has now left, but the other has taken over its buildings. Having so many students means that the town can support supermarkets, not necessarily a wonderful thing, however in so many places one has to drive to an out of town superstore. We have three supermarkets, with a fourth having been granted planning permission, and a fifth masquerading as a garage.
So we have a Tesco (UKs largest supermarket chain, cheap and relatively cheerful), and Iceland (specialising in frozen foods, but with some non frozen staples), a Budgens (Open 24x7x365 for at least 11 years, a little pricy, but otherwise very similar to Tesco), Waitrose will be opening in a few years (the supermarket I normally shop at, more expensive, but generally better quality and flavour), and we have a Marks' and Spencer in a garage (The most expensive, and best quality supermarket, being in a garage it is even more expensive than normal, I buy my lunchtime salads at one of their branches).
However we have no butcher, greengrocer, bookshop or baker in town :-( Just an astonishing number of restaurants only three of which are chain (and apart from one posh chain).
One of the things that I enjoy when I go abroad is looking round a supermarket, it seems to show something of the local culture, although looking at the different supermarkets we have over here I guess that view could be very different depending on which supermarket I go to.
Apart from that we have some charity shops, some jewellers, two shoe shops, a pet shop, a few estate agents, a Chinese herbalists, a few pubs, banks, building societies and a few nick-nack shops.
I suppose that this makes the town sound a little dull, and maybe it is, however it is quite a nice place to live.
I think that this is probably enough to write for one entry, maybe if I have another quiet week I may continue on to me!
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Sounds nice. My home town (actually, just an urban continuation of Los Angeles) has about 20 used car lots. There was a name-brand supermarket three blocks down but they closed over a year ago. The nearest one now is about two miles away. Not too swift if one needs something quick at the last minute, but that's another rant.
ReplyDeleteWe have no local grocer anylonger in my little town. Therefore, you would find think us very generic based upon our grocery stores. I would have to take you to the local farmers market in the summer for you to get a taste of local flavor.
ReplyDeleteI just came home from working for a week in a small town I've absolutely fallen in love with. It has some great local artist shops and restaurants and gifts shops.