Harry's Blog

I installed Google Earth when the Beta was first released but I've not used it for a while. Having fired it up yesterday I was pleased to find lots of areas have been updated, especially some of my old haunts. The detail level certainly has increased and, for example, in the picture of my first home (where he still lives) you can see my Dad's car under the carport. If I'd zoomed in a bit before I took the snap, you'd also have been able to make out details such as the car's sun roof.

So anyway, here I present a quick tour of some places I've lived.

Family Home in StockportApart from a brief stint as a foetus in Ireland and a few months in a Manchester orphanage, I spent most of my life here in Stockport. As you can see it's a place of leafy suburbia. It's not all grim up north.

My Uncle's Farm - DisleyNot strictly a place where I've lived, but I spent every Sunday of my childhood here in Disley at my Uncle Art's farm. He was a great bloke and he sadly passed away earlier this year. He will be greatly missed and I always have fond memories of him and my time spent at the farm.

Cartmel Bar - Lancaster UniversityWell here we have the inspiration for the name of this very website. Towards the top right (but not right at the top, that's the evil of County College) of the buildings you'll see Cartmel College. The bar was in the north west part of the quad, with our old halls over to the east.

Christie Park - MorecambeAfter a year in halls at Lancaster University I moved with several friends to this flat in Morecambe. The actual flat is in the top left of this image. I wanted to show you the proximity of our flat to Morecambe FC's Christie Park football ground. The short distance between the two was vital, as during winter games if they'd been more than a hundred yards further away we'd have frozen to death after the final whistle.

West Finchley Tube - LondonIn May of this year the gorgeous L and I moved to flat above a shop here in West Finchley in North London. As you can see, it's very close to West Finchley Tube Station on the Northern Line. The trains weren't a nuisance, the sound was rather soothing, but the noise of the shopkeepers opening the shutters at dawn and again late at night got to be a real pain.

Of course, since October we've moved over to Essex, but alas Google hasn't yet got a detailed version of our new location in the system and I didn't want to use the blurry version in there now.

Of course there's more to Google Earth than looking at where you used to live. The most fun you can have with it is tracking down secret military bases and military hardware. You can download Google Earth right here.