My grandfather often enjoyed telling us that when he lived in Limpley Stoke in Somerset, he was at the centre of five different transportation routes: rail, road, aqueduct, footpath, and the air for planes overhead. I love the visual picture this conjures, of a lively intersection where people driving and paddling, walking, flying, and commuting, might wave to each other in delight as they moved through the village, wondering at the very ingenuity of humankind.

My own village boasts footpaths, roads, and bridleways, and is close to the river where boats and paddleboards trek up and down, so I guess that with the military aircraft sometimes passing from Brize Norton, I can claim the same cosmopolitan connectivity as Grandad.

But it’s when I have to go a bit further afield than the local pub (a few minute’ stagger) or village hall (where I voted last night) that the wonder of multiple forms of transit really kicks in.

For my recent snowboarding trip I travelled by car, aeroplane, two different kinds of bus, and train, marvelling on the way at the casual punctuality of continental European public transport. We spent last weekend in Birmingham and, due to not just one but two punctures on the M40 and some complications brought on by Aston playing in the FA Cup Semi-Final, we ended up sampling our first ever Uber to get us home again (so modern!).

I’m in Birmingham again today for a work event, thrilled by the sheer range of options for getting about. Although Spaghetti Junction and busy road arteries still feed the imagination of this city*,there is also a wonderful smorgasbord of other options: trains, boats, buses, scooters, trams, bikes. I’m like a child in a sweet shop, wide eyed with opportunity. Where might I end up?

I’ll end up at the conference centre, I guess. And I’ll walk, taking this chance to cross the tramlines and breathe in adventure.

• If you do one thing today, please watch this video…