A Northerner's Guide to Cornwall

I've been living in Cornwall for just over two weeks now, which in my world is a very long time. Despite doing little more than going to work, I feel I've had sufficient time to soak up the local culture. Even though I've been living up North my whole life, I never really saw myself as particularly Northern. That is, until I moved here. It's kind of been like moving to another country. So, for anyone else considering a Southerly move, here is what I've learnt so far about a little place we call Cornwall:

• Cornish people do actually eat Cornish pasties- so the quicker you realise people are being serious when they talk about them all the time, the better.
• Teasy: a popular word that means tired. I think.
• Cornish people don't know what cold is. It's November and yesterday I heard a man complain he was cold. He was sitting inside and wearing a jacket.
• Cornish people wear flip flops. In Winter.
• They say 'hello' to everyone, and don't mean it sarcastically as a prelude to beating you up.
• Cornish people use phrases we thought were just left for Peter Kay 's stand up routine. Last week I overheard a bus driver say: "I make it ten past eight, what time do you make it?"
• 80% of those living in Cornwall haven't left Cornwall.
• 99% haven't been to the North.
• The accent isn't just funny when you first hear it, it remains funny.
• The cider is different.
• People actually do stuff on the beach, sports and everything.
• Orange Wednesday still text you, even though you're very far away from a cinema.
• No matter what pub you walk into, everyone will stare. It's as if they know you're not local.

Change is good, because deep down it's exactly what we resist. We're constantly changing, along with everyone else around us. And I feel like I could fully embrace change, once Cornwall gets itself a decent size Topshop.