milton keynes, take 2

those of you who have been reading this blog for years might remember an entry from several years back. it was my first weekend in the UK, and my good friend harry (who is not a fan of this country and spends as little time in it as possible, although he was in fact born in london) decided to horrify me. i think he wanted to pursuade me that i had made a grave error in relocating here, or maybe he just wanted to open my eyes fully to the reality of modern england.
in any case, he took me to milton keynes.
specifically, we went to the milton keynes leisure centre, which was probably as far from the world i was just leaving in paris as possible within the European continent.
milton keynes is one of the most culturally lacking places i have ever been (ok, it is not as bad and the MAll of Americas, but up there).
the whole place was strategically planned in the late 60s, and really took off under the dark days of thatcher when such planned communities were considered the way forward. the organisers planned the major road layout according to street hierarchy principles, using a grid pattern of approximately 1 km interval, rather than on the more conventional radialpattern found in older settlements. Major roads within the town run between communities, rather than through them: the major roads are known locally as grid roads and the spaces between them are known as grid squares. so, the place looks like a board game, with zero organic growth architecturally.
i wouldnt want to live here, but maybe i have something wrong with me. unemployment is practically non-existant, houses are larger and cheaper than in london, the birth rate is one of the highest in the country, and families are supposedly happy and intact (if you believe the locals, that is). for my views on the "leisure centre" see the early entry from September 2005.
regardless of what the place is or isnt, my recent evening spent there was truely lovely.
i dont get to see harry that often, so i have to take advantage of the opportunities i get, even if they happen to involve milton keynes. harry and his god mother picked me up at the station and took my to the god mothers house. there, harry and i had a long catching up chat in the back garden over tea while vivian prepared a delicious home cooked english meal. very rarely do you read praise of english cuisine in these pages, but this i assure you was delicious. very rarely do i ever get to have a home made meal in an actual home, including good company, a big dessert and endless cups of tea. the experience was so unusual it seemed strangely exotic.....