My original home town? Hmm. Even the heroin wasn't renowned for being particularly good, but where there wasn't quality there was certainly quantity. The only thing there was more of was racism (other forms of bigotry are available). The main industry was being pissed off about the mines closing as though that alone might make them re-open and new coal miraculously appear. The most famous resident was DH Lawrence, who while notable for his pioneering profanity, was by all accounts a bit of a dick and didn't really wax lyrical about the place and got out as quickly as possible and didn't go back. Oh, and the impenetrable dialect which means every Lawrence adaptation seems to feature people speaking RADA Yorkshire. That said, the first thing people do when escaping is lose the accent. Or try to, it tends to follow you and crop up when you least expect. It's the dialectical equivalent of a stalker.
It's probably got better but I've no plans to visit it more than once a year to see my parents. I think the happiest moment of my life was getting on the train to university.
Current home town is Surrey commuterville on the fringe of London. It's not a bad place, just a bit dull. The high street is dying shopfront-by-shopfront, there's two pubs neither of which encourage a second visit and a clutch of middling if uninspiring restaurants. Generally, it's an encouragement to get the train into London or simply stay there in an evening. In theory, it has potential, there's a large affluent population which money to spend, but the high street (despite a bypass) is a busy road, rents and business rates are expensive, and everyone seems obsessed with parking (as though if someone overcomes the issues with quantum parking that allows several vehicles to park in the same space at the same time everyone will suddenly arrive and it'll be a boom town). There's another supermarket opening, so we'll have three within 30 seconds of each other, each with parking.
Yeah, that's what the place needs, yet another supermarket. There's a nice annual festival with lots of events.
