Milton Keynes

This is, as you can see, a pretty unremarkable photo.  It's the view from our hotel room this morning at just after 10.00am.  What makes it interesting, however, is the story that it tells about the legacy that Covid has left us.

I lived and worked in and around Milton Keynes for over 35 years before moving in 2020 to where we are now.  Milton Keynes was designed and built in the late 1960's onwards around the car; grid roads to the American system and masses of parking space.  Lots of office based employers moved to the town and despite all the parking provision spaces were hard to come by.  To prevent London commuters using space intended for local workers season tickets did not allow parking before 8.30am; the result was that just before 8.30 lots of cars circled the parking areas waiting to pounce on a space, a bit like a game of musical chairs.  By 8.35am you would have difficulty getting a space near your office; any later and you may even have struggled to find a space anywhere.  I experienced the downside of this in 2019 when I had train tickets to travel to Birmingham for a concert and could not find even a higher rate space anywhere; I ended up wasting the train tickets and having to drive.

Fast forward to now.  Having only visited the town once in the two years since we moved, we really noticed a difference.  It felt a bit like a ghost town; the shopping centre, previously a 'draw' for people from many miles away, was quiet even at lunchtimes.  There were few people walking around, and as for parking, there were probably more spaces available than there were those taken.  Covid prompted a big change to working practices with office based workers working from home, and this has clearly continued.  However, it felt a bit as though the heart had been ripped out of the City; even our couple of evenings out felt subdued with none of the after work partying we had been used to.  I am sure working from home has some advantages for people but I cannot help thinking that the lack of social interaction with colleagues other than through 'Zoom' etc. is unhealthy; I would have hated it during my working life, having made friends with colleagues that I still keep in touch with even though I have been retired for quite a few years.  It was good to visit and we will certainly visit again but whilst we have never had any regrets about our move, our few days here have reinforced that we made the right decision.

Now home, and ready to relax after what feels like almost a month of travelling and being away.  I'll put comments back on but it'll be over the weekend before I start getting back 'into' Blip.