Do You Have a "What I would never have known without this city" story. Here's my starters for 9. It happens to connect through Leeds. But your surprising connecting story, can be any city.
Before Leeds I had grown up as a child in Wimbledon, graduated at York, Post-Graduated at Cambridge. My father worked all his post-war life commuting from Wimbledon to The Economist in ecosaintjames. His sister lived her adult life in the Scottish isle of Arran. Her parents had retired there after her father had been in Britain's diplomatic service moving consulate every 3 to 5 years. So my dad and his sister had travelled as children. My dad went to barding school in Mill Hill London in his teens whilst still visiting his parents at hols. For example Moscow 1935 was a life-changing time and place for anyone who knew being there and seeing the double evil power emergence of Stalin and Hitler. My mother had been born in Bombay (just before the Gandhi's salt walks from Ahmedabad) in a family tree that had been there for several generations. Whilst Kemps were white and like Macrae-nets Scottish, if my mum's father Sir Kenneth (a legal constitutionalist) had not spotted a loophole in the laws giving India Independence, my mum would have been classified as of Indian nationality not British or Scottish. This may explain why my dad's brand of economics and entrepreneurial revolution and I would Quite happily see a webbed world for my daughter's children in which national boundaries on peoples freedoms disappeared like some scowling Cheshire cat.
Without Leeds I would not have:
known that a citizen can also enjoy the libation of countryside walks, starting 10 minutes drive away, and with almost no time wasted every day commuting
about learning networks: Leeds gave me my first job and what a grand exploration it was for a 22 year old: as a researcher and developer of the UK's National project in computer assisted learning: i got to explore learning networks and webs from 1973; I did it in the company of a very scary species for me (female psychologists- classes I mentored as they tried to use the computer networks;
met the lady who became my wife though she was not one of my students
... because Leeds seemed such fun for me, I did not gain a mature understanding of how divided immigrant cultures would become out of Leeds, to my great sadness 30 years later as I lost one of my deepest mentors to the London bombs of 7/7 1 by a terrorist team of 4 who started their fateful day early one Leeds morning
...Back in 1973, I learnt that academia was very age-ist - my boss wanted to promote me for working night and day on learning networks but the university banned any pay rise beyond some national average; I decided learning networks would be my hobby through life, would be the greatest future story including one that determined any of life's opportunities my children would have even if I never got to see whether that worldwide revolution was glorious or terminal for 22nd C humanity; with my father, one of the world's leading future historians our 1984 book written partly as a tribute to Orwell mapped all the timelines that leaders and peoples need to question fist as we set sail in the 21st Century; some links for exploring that are 1 2 3
what's your story a city that changed your life in a way you never dreamed of at the time?
Before Leeds I had grown up as a child in Wimbledon, graduated at York, Post-Graduated at Cambridge. My father worked all his post-war life commuting from Wimbledon to The Economist in ecosaintjames. His sister lived her adult life in the Scottish isle of Arran. Her parents had retired there after her father had been in Britain's diplomatic service moving consulate every 3 to 5 years. So my dad and his sister had travelled as children. My dad went to barding school in Mill Hill London in his teens whilst still visiting his parents at hols. For example Moscow 1935 was a life-changing time and place for anyone who knew being there and seeing the double evil power emergence of Stalin and Hitler. My mother had been born in Bombay (just before the Gandhi's salt walks from Ahmedabad) in a family tree that had been there for several generations. Whilst Kemps were white and like Macrae-nets Scottish, if my mum's father Sir Kenneth (a legal constitutionalist) had not spotted a loophole in the laws giving India Independence, my mum would have been classified as of Indian nationality not British or Scottish. This may explain why my dad's brand of economics and entrepreneurial revolution and I would Quite happily see a webbed world for my daughter's children in which national boundaries on peoples freedoms disappeared like some scowling Cheshire cat.
Without Leeds I would not have:
... because Leeds seemed such fun for me, I did not gain a mature understanding of how divided immigrant cultures would become out of Leeds, to my great sadness 30 years later as I lost one of my deepest mentors to the London bombs of 7/7 1 by a terrorist team of 4 who started their fateful day early one Leeds morning
...Back in 1973, I learnt that academia was very age-ist - my boss wanted to promote me for working night and day on learning networks but the university banned any pay rise beyond some national average; I decided learning networks would be my hobby through life, would be the greatest future story including one that determined any of life's opportunities my children would have even if I never got to see whether that worldwide revolution was glorious or terminal for 22nd C humanity; with my father, one of the world's leading future historians our 1984 book written partly as a tribute to Orwell mapped all the timelines that leaders and peoples need to question fist as we set sail in the 21st Century; some links for exploring that are 1 2 3
what's your story a city that changed your life in a way you never dreamed of at the time?
posted by ... at 4:00 AM
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