The street where I live

Exciting times - I collected the keys to my new house today. It'll be a couple of months before I move in as there's a bit of work to be done - which will give me something to write about. Jim can't wait to get stuck in and we've talked of little else for weeks.

For the first time in my life, I'll be living in a Street. I've lived at a dozen different addresses over the last fifty two years, and not one of them was a street. There were five Roads, a Court (when I was very small - my first ever address in fact), one Lane, a Croft, a Dene, a Park and a Rise. Oh, and the last one was a boat (just realised, that's undermined what I've just claimed, because the address of the yard - had I ever used it - was Watling Street. But I didn't, so it doesn't count).

That leaves plenty of places I haven't lived. I've never had post addressed to a Terrace, Alley, Close, Heights, Mews, Grange, Place, Square (except when I worked in Tavistock Square), Gardens, Way, Walk, Drive, Avenue, Arcade, Villas, Vale, Meadows, Boulevard or Crescent.

This will however be the second time I've lived at number 15. I've also lived at 1, 4B, 5, 18A, 22, 26, 32, 38, 61 and 81. And, I suppose, 224.

These addresses represent 1 boat, 1 bedsit (very briefly), 4 flats and 6 houses. The shortest period I lived at an address was four months; the longest fifteen years.

Two of the roads were named after famous people (Kitchener and William Allen - quite a contrasting pair); and one for a local worthy, while a further one might have been a person or a place (Melbourne). Three more (including Bakewell) were named after places, two (both my previous Sheffield addresses) trees, and one after a cereal crop. Finally, there is one topographical feature, and one compass point.

And I rather hope that from hereon in I won't have too many new addresses.