Commuting II - Cheltenham

Aside from my walk to work at  Kohler, the Cheltenham commute is the most residential. it is not particularly "old England", but I do enjoy the walk. So far I have not had a rainy day. My view may change in winter.

Below

The building on the right is my apartment. It is larger than Paris, but has no outstanding qualities except it is bigger, and has 2 rooms.  It is on a busy street.

From my street, I connect to a quiet street connecting the downtown to more of a  residential area...

Of course a roundabout.... need to be very careful crossing, look left...no...no look right first

...and then it gets pretty residential.

Past a football field...(notice the sponsor ..MIRA)

Another residential street...

Front gate....It is a working factory

...past the factory....

another boring office building.

Next blog....castles

Commuting

For the past 5 and a half years I have not driven a car on a regular basis. In Shanghai or Paris I would never consider driving. The only driving I did in "Asia" was in New Zealand.  The rest of that region intimidated me too much to even try.

Even though I lived close enough to Kohler to walk, when I lived and worked there, I mostly drove. Now that I do not have another car in Kohler, when I do go back for meetings etc,  I am walking to work most days. 

There are many theories about commuting to work. I have always subscribed to the "shorter is better" school of commuting. I have been able to pull this off by managing to live and work in small towns for most of my career. (Prescott, Brockville, Cornwall, Searcy and Kohler).  I lived far enough away from work that I felt I had to drive, but for the most part it was a short drive. I know many people who have long commutes and they say that they use the time to decompress or to prepare for the work day (that would then be "to compress"?) . In the context of short and long commute, it was always assumed that one was referring to a long or short drive.

 For about 2 and a half years in Shanghai, I could  actually walk to work. This added a further level of environmental PC to my commute. In June of 2008, we moved to an office park that was on the outer ring of Shanghai....walking was no longer an option.  This was  the last 12 months of my time there and I took the subway. I was lucky to live close to a station, and from the end of the line it was either a commuter bus provided by the  office park, or a 15 minute walk. The subway ride was about 20 minutes, and usually not to crowded as I came early and left later. It was always much less busy than I would experience on a Saturday if I went shopping. So the total commute was about 35 - 45 minutes on average.

As for using the commuting time to decompress or prepare for the day, I am not sure I did. I am more of a people watcher/daydream commuter I think. I tried reading, but I am not able to read books in short spurts, I need long periods, plane trips, weekends etc.

In Paris I took a subway and a train for 12 months. The Paris route had me change from metro to RER. Daydreaming was risky as a couple of time I missed my stop...and that was hard  to do as about 80% of the people got off at the metro at the station Gare du Nord. The Paris commute was more interesting however for people watching.  Shanghai did not have buskers, beggars nor the wild variety of characters or dress that is offered by the Paris metro. A virtual feast of humanity in all its colours and shapes.

In Cheltenham, I walk again.

I thought I would share some pictures of my commutes from Paris and Cheltenham...first Paris:

This is the street outside my apartment. I am heading to the Metro. A typical Parisian street scene.

Entrance to the Metro.

My metro station. mentioned in an earlier blog, Brequet Sabin is a small station

Usually not very busy at any time of the day or night.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Br%C3%A9guet_%E2%80%93_Sabin_(Paris_M%C3%A9tro)

Gare Du Nord...controlled chaos every morning. this is where I change from the Metro to the RER

Getting on the RER. Only one stop on this train.

The view from my stop. Plaine de Stade De France. The Paris metro/rail system is amazing and  very large.

From the RER station, it is about a 15 minute walk.

I pass a small area of urban garden allotments, nice to see progress every day.

Suburban office area outskirts of Paris...where the office is located

The office building.... boring....

 And finally the entrance...

In my next blog I will share my Cheltenham commute.

Moving

It seems as though I am always running behind in this blog.  I still have lots of potential entries for our stay in Paris but we are now moving to Cheltenham in England.  Actually, I guess it would be more accurate to say that we are in the throes of moving.  Tomorrow, we fly back to Paris and Stephen will return to the UK with the rest of his suitcases at the end of the week.

So, goodbye Paris flat.... hello Cheltenham.

Outside the Paris flat

View out the window.  It's a little deceiving because normally there wouldn't be as much traffic....there was a strike taking place that day in Bastille Square and cars were being diverted. 

Having left the flat, we moved into temporary accommodations in a nearby hotel.

I thought the flat was small...

At least we had a nice view

The one picture we didn't take was of the 7 boxes that were shipped to the UK ahead of us.  It's easy to accumulate "things".  I thought Stephen was going to downsize when he left China but it seems that socks, and underwear, and shirts, and books tend to multiply in spite of good intentions.

Here are some indoor pictures of the new flat in Cheltenham.  It's a one bedroom - much appreciated after the studio flat in Paris.

I didn't mean for our laundry to show up in this picture.

View form the bedroom window.  The traffic is very close so it can be a bit noisy.

Since the above view isn't that attractive.... here's a more pleasing impression of Cheltenham.

And finally, I couldn't resist showing a picture of the birthday boy - celebrating after settling into a new apartment.