It only takes you an hour to get to Brighton but it takes you two hours to get to the other end of the Central line. It takes double the time to drive to Melbourne from Sydney as it does to drive from London to Scotland but somehow Scotland seems further and you'll pack like you're off to explore the arctic. Europe is right next door but Manchester is a mythical terra nullius as far as you know. Your country contains three timezones but a weekend in Portsmouth feels like a bit of a stretch.