Just realised - I've only been into postcodes for a year

[MyNameForToday1980]

When the pandemic broke, the first thing DH did was start driving lessons. We'd never needed to drive as we'd lived in London all our adult lives. Driving just seemed expensive and excessive to our needs.

DH got to be test ready, and his test has since been put back four times. Because: pandemic.

It felt like a driver's license between us was one route of escape from the city (when lockdown restrictions allow).

So we've spent the last year (or so) in two London postcodes, SW12 and SW17 (or maybe three as DD's nursery is in the border).

We're not usually intrepid, but were active and busy, we visit friends and family, we eat out, we go on holiday, most weekends we'd take the train somewhere.

I just feel like our world is so much smaller. Which I can hope with as I've seen other stuff, but I'm aware DD (4) probably can't remember a time before COVID.

We've been so lucky, no illness, noone close to us has been very ill, even now DD is in nursery while we WFH, and they've had no confirmed cases.

Does anyone else feel strangely trapped where they are? And so eager to get the heck out to somewhere different.

@Changemaname1

Another one thinking you’d developed a postcode fetish, sorry - hobby

Yes and another one. I wasn't sure what the appeal was.

@ceeveebee I thought the same! I wondered if it was like geocaching

If you look at it that way, I have been in the same first three characters of my postcode for 356 days - the highlights of the last year have been trips to the GP and hospital, the later taking me completely out into a different area altogether.

Being disabled, working and there being a pandemic is bloody crap. Were it not for work, I wouldn't have left my immediate postcode at all.

MyNameForToday1980 once the Summer is here I think people will be allowed to travel more. My postcode SY20 is a lovely place to visit, a tiny little town in the Welsh hills, not far from the coast.

I know my postcode but don't feel that is where I live.

Agree that the world has become smaller for me, though was able to visit museums and cinema in the summer when they were open.

We're in London and don't drive, but we go for walks across five different postcodes (not all on the same day!), straight from our door in different directions. If I didn't have a toddler, we could cover a lot more - you could cover a lot of ground if you were out walking (at an adult pace) for the day. I like walking in London as there are a lot of green spaces but it's also historically/architecturally interesting, so there's more variety than in rural locations. I find it's not difficult to socially distance if you're being sensible.

We've also used public transport for leisure purposes (outside of lockdown). Things opened up quite a lot in London over the summer, and there were lots of places to visit. We had a couple of short UK holidays by train as well. We'd normally go abroad a few times a year but we haven't risked it since March, so our world does feel smaller.

I do feel more trapped during this lockdown, but I think getting out and about when infection numbers were lower meant that it's been bearable, because for us it hasn't been for such a long period. And even during lockdown, we've visited lots of different local areas for walking - so many parks and gardens, as well as riverside and canal locations. I get bored easily so rarely go back to the same place.