During a recent three-hour train ride from Durham to London King's Cross, I prepared myself for sunnier climes yet greater hostility on public transport.
After care-free shoppers and un-timetabled buses, being confronted with angry commuters on the Underground was enough to have me long idealising the admittedly chillier north.
Stereotypical? Definitely. But whilst Gordon Brown asserts the need for a British identity' it is perhaps worthwhile to consider that the country's infamous north-south divide ensures there are limited collective characteristics, even principles, that we all share.
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A new line across the country devised in late 2007 by Danny Dorling, professor of human geography at the University of Sheffield, sparked controversy amongst many inhabitants of the Midlands who prefer to categorise themselves along with their reputedly friendlier northern neighbours.
The categorisation was based on figures examining life expectancy, housing prices and political voting patterns but many have ridiculed the research as having little real subtance.
Statistics may represent rather superficial differences between us and our northern counterparts rather than any enduring spiritual divisions.
With its distinctive metropolitan lifestyle, it often seems it is only London that epitomises most generalisations about the south with aggressive work ethos and inability to relax.
Out in the Cornish countryside, harassed commuters and culturally pretentious leisure activities are all too likely to be scoffed at in the manner of true northerners.
Despite being both born and raised in the south, I still cling to my family's northern roots with a persistent pride, confident that even such tenuous links provide the basis of any down-to-earth personality.
Though often a matter of personal preferences, with genuine socio-economic divisions prevailing, the gulf between north and south looks set to linger.
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