November 13th 2013

I wrote this post on November the 12th as I will have a busy day on November the 13th so for the first time I'm experiementing with the Schedule Publisher, what can possibly go wrong...............

At lunchtime today I needed some fresh air having been staring at a computer screen for nearly 5 hours. Its not healthy to be indoors on a glorious November day, so instead of my usual working through lunch I went for a walk to top up my vitamin D. I had no plan of where I'd walk to but a chance turn down a side road made me realise I was in the Redland area of Bristol behind the BBC, an area I knew well around 15 years ago. Between 1994 and 1998 I had a girlfriend here, Helen, who lived in a flat in Redland, just 10 minutes walk away from work. At that time I lived on the Somerset Levels so would stay over quite a bit to reduce the commute. She lived in flat in Alexandra Park (picture taken today of the house above) and I remember it being a quiet residential area of Victorian villa's and so, on this wonderfully warm afternoon, I retraced the walk we did most mornings into work.

Nothing has changed, yet everything is different. It is strange retracing a past life, a past landscape so well known for a few years. But there was one day, now forgotten in time when I would have walked my last walk into work that way. My footsteps would no longer echo along Chandos Road (below). All the old landmarks are still there and recognisable, the large trees, the houses looking the same, it even had that same feel of a quiet residential area. And yet, it was entirely different. The shops I knew have changed, the area seems more upmarket with deli's and craft shops. The streets are still full of parked cars, but none of the models I'd have seen 15 years ago. I stood outside a house I knew so well and yet, my life has changed so much it seemed like somewhere I'd never been, yet walking back to work it felt like I'd never left. I'm not a proponent of living too much in the past, we change the world changes, but in the echo of my footsteps along Chandos Road today, the shadow of my past life still remains. I enjoyed going back.