My life in Bing Maps pictures

It's sometimes fun to fire up Bing Maps, and engage in a bit of virtual tourism by visiting the Eiffel Tower, Galway Bay or any other sites you can't afford the air-fare for right now. I wondered if it was possible to share pictures of the places that are important to me; it turns out that almost everywhere was available in Bing's 'Bird's Eye' view - just proving what a townie I've been.

Childhood home: Cheadle Hulme

We moved to the leafy suburbs of South Manchester in a time before I can remember. It's a friendly, if anonymous town, with a great butcher's and a local pub that did the best pub quiz I've ever been to.

Cheadle Hulme School

From age 11 to 18, I was lucky to have an incredible education at a school just 5 minutes walk from our house. They would do everything they could to encourage any skills people wanted to develop, and managed to bring out the best from so many pupils.

Moving out: Chester

Before university, I spent a year working for Shell, in a fuel research department there. I lived in a house with other gap-year students, had some incredible fun, and made friends that I'll know for the rest of my life.

Going to University: Clare College Cambridge

Being at university mainly taught me how to think, learn and balance too much work with too many responsibilities. I taught myself how to run a radio station.

The Judge Business School

I spent the final year of my undergraduate degree at The Judge Insitute of Management Studies (now the Judge Business School.) It is amongst the top five business schools in the world; though the inside looks like a cross between an MC Escher drawing and a Play Doh factory.

Preston: Britain's Newest City

Just before finishing uni, I spent a summer working in Preston, raising money for St John Ambulance. The job and the city would have been unremarkable, except that it's where I met an incredible girl, Cameron, that I married a few years later.

Our new home: New River Village

After graduation, Cameron & I moved to London; she worked in health, I worked in broadcasting. We lived in the comfortable and stylish New River Village in Hornsey. This photo was taken while the area was still being finished - the building site around the river was later covered in grass and turned into a park - just a few months before we finally moved out.

Another Home: Willesden Junction / Harlesden

In 2007 we had to move house, and while I was out of town Cameron managed to find us an awesome, and pretty cheap flat in a terrace on the high street. Harlesden might have been named the 'murder capital of Britain', and we might have had a drug dealing, all-night-night-club in our basement, but for three years it was our home, and we had some wonderful times there. It was also right next to the best connected station in London's suburbs, which made leaving easier.

Across the Pond: 4th Avenue Plaza, Seattle, USA

Most recently, I've moved to Seattle to help Distilled launch a new office. Our first office (which we quickly outgrew) was in the heart of downtown Seattle, and was the tallest building in the city for 30 years. (Darn you, Columbia Center!)

Living Like Frasier: Belltown

While in Seattle, I've been living in Belltown - an area famous for trendy restaurants and trendier people; I stick out like a sore thumb. My apartment building has a roof terrace on the third floor (go figure) and is just a couple of blocks from the Space Needle, which looms over us like a space ship landing pad.

That brings us up to date; I'll update this post if I move anywhere that is actually exciting or visually appealing - or if Bing adds any larger scale images.

To create your own 'life story told through aerial photos', visit bing.com/maps and click on Aerial → Bird's eye to get the full experience.

The images in this post are the property of Microsoft and their map partners.