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I lived in Chiswick in the '90s. and trips to Richmond were pretty regular for boozing and spotting the odd Rolling Stone. Barnes and Eel Pie Island were also good little trips out.

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I was just thinking recently how I haven't been to Eel Pie Island for years! For some reason, we used to hang out in the boatyard there when I was a teenager. I will go visit next time I'm home and see if it's not as strange as ever. Thank you for reading :)

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Yes, it was Narnia for rock n rollers!

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A wonderful newsletter. Yours, birthday-woman

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Thank you <3 You're my birthday-woman every day of the year!

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“…if it is a choice between Richmond and death, I choose death.”

Great quote! Sort of like W.C. Fields’ epitaph: “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.”

“It proposes to each of us we transform ourselves, or our lives, by buying something more.”

Amazon makes that quite easy to do. “New Things and Shiny Objects” may help us get from day to day because life can be so daunting, especially at the wrong moments.

As for transforming us, we need to know what we want to transform into, first. I think a lot of us proceed through life thinking “we would be happy if,” “we would have self-esteem if” ... and those are illusions most people don't get to find out are illusions.

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:-o I didn't know the exact location where Ted Lasso was set. It certainly makes the area look very not-London. Pretty cool/bizarre that Bend It Like Beckham was set essentially next door.

Glad you enjoyed the London trip. I've been feeling some England nostalgia of late. I think it's because the weather is really turning cold here and it just makes me feel slightly homesick, which isn't something I feel often, especially after more than a decade.

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Thanks. I was intrigued by your post title, and was not disappointed. I discovered rather a personal connection here. I am a Northerner, but I spent a couple of years around ’97 living and working in Isleworth (Hounslow), starting my stay in an hotel in Richmond. It’s a short bus ride from Hounslow to Richmond but it feels like interplanetary travel.

My own long journey is a bus circular. I started in a cotton town in Gtr. Manchester, domiciled high and low, home and abroad. Now I live in leafy Cheshire but 30 minutes from hometown and family. I return weekly. The old place is pain and pleasure to me. I want to turn my back, but no, my work-in-progress story book is a similar tour of Manchester and its satellites. I throw chapters away if they are clichés. Hometown is not a funny place though in 2023 so I end up romanticising it. I might try writing a bit of People Just Do Nothing but with pies.

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"It’s a short bus ride from Hounslow to Richmond but it feels like interplanetary travel." Absolutely! The H22, my local bus, used to go from Richmond to Hounslow and that describes very well the experience of taking it all the way. It has changed route now, and goes from Hounslow to West Middlesex Hospital.

People Just do Nothing with pies sounds great. Can I ask which town you were from?

Thanks very much for reading and for your thoughtful reply :)

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I’m from Oldham. Our main railway station used to be “Oldham Mumps”.

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