Bridget
– I
live on a houseboat on the River Seine with my husband, Alain, and our
daughter, Isabel. I met Alain eight years ago when I was on holiday here in
Paris – I’am from Ireland originally, you see. We’ve been married for six years and I’ve lived here since our
wedding day. The boat has got everything we want – a kitchen, a big living
room, two bedrooms, a bathroom, central heating and a small garden. Alain’s lived on this boat since 1995 –
he never wants to live anywhere else and neither do I. The best thing about our
home is that it moves. We can leave tomorrow and go anywhere we want.
I live in an
opal mining town called Coober Pedy, in Australia. It’s in the desert about 850
Km. north of Adelaide, the nearest city. I
lived in Adelaide for seven years before I moved to Coober Pedy, but I prefer
living here. The strange thing about this town is that 80% of the people live
underground. This is because it’s usually over 50 degree in the summer and
below freezing in winter. But the best thing about these underground houses is
that it’s always about 25 degree, so we don’t need air conditioning or central
heating. My family and I have lived in
this house for five years. It’s just like a normal house – but without any windows !
Mick Benton’s fascinating new documentary
series looks at the enormous distances people travel to get to work. Mick got
the idea for the programme when he worked for a TV company in Bangkok. He lived
only four kilometres from his office but it took him over two hours to get to
work every day. “The traffic in Bangkok is unbelievable,” says Mick. “Often
people sit in traffic jams for seven or eight hours a day. They even have their
meals in their cars !”
In the first programme
in the series, Mick interviews three ‘super commuters’ who work in London. Tony
Rogers is an accountant for a multinational company and travels from Liverpool
and back every day. Andrea Price lives in Paris, but works as an editor for a
London newspaper. And Ian Hicks is a fireman in Ealing, West London – he commutes
all the way from Santander, in Spain !
So maybe your
half-hour train journey to work every morning isn’t so bad !
