The House Mover's Tale

I've been working at home a bit of late, having got a half-decent broadband connection from the Co-op (3% divi too - woo hoo! ;-)). I prefer to go into work when I can for a whole bunch of reasons, not least seeing other humans and saving money on my central heating, but occasionally it's useful to be at home without distractions other than the blasted cat trying to walk all over the keyboard. I can't stick in the 'ahrse (as they call houses rahrnd 'ere) all day without getting cabin fever and needing some fresh air, so I have to go out now and again. So today I went for a walk to the shops on Bracebridge Road to get a couple of odds & sods and also to the library to return a book. Sadly, I returned more depressed than when I left the house, having seen:

• cracked and highly uneven pavements, real ankle-breakers, and liberally sprinkled with mounds of dog turds to trap the unwary pedestrian who's not looking where s/he's going
• every possible public flat surface graffiti'd:

• road signs (other than the new one on my road, which presumably is of a graffiti-proof sort),
• boards on bus stops
• constructor signs outside the college grounds
• the brick walls of the library ("Bilbra Cru" - either the dimwits can't spell or, more likely, they're trying to emulate mean muthafucka gangstas)
• shop shutters

• a low-flying cop helicopter on the prowl
• a pasty fat-faced darren on a blarting mini-motorbike piling up and down aimlessly
• a telephone exchange box ripped open
  

On the plus side, I saw:

• the shiny new college building and sports centre
• land cleared for new building outside the college
• well-kept houses and gardens
• er...that's it

Bilborough is not the place to go for a leisurely promenade through the streets - no wonder that you only ever see packs of darrens, and pissants staggering back from the Pelican, wandering around. Not that it's dangerous, unlike some areas (St Ann's, Meadows, Radford, Basford, Strelley and Broxtowe come immediately to mind), but fuck me, it's depressing. When I lived in my wee palace in Hull, just off Springhead Road, I could go for a pleasant wander through the cul-de-sacs and over the sports fields and allotments if I wanted some fresh air, and come back in a better mood than when I left, but not here.

What I really miss is being able to walk to a decent pub of an evening if I fancy a bit of human company, but the Pelican is strictly for hard cases and the Poacher is deader than roadkill, so the only half-decent pubs are 10 mins bike ride away. Not much, right enough, but enough to put you off on a cold winter evening when it's sleeting down, and it's a right pain to have to puff and pant uphill after getting all warm and relaxed in a cosy pub.

So, time to go, I guess, although I've been saying that virtually since moving here. On the plus side, house prices are on the rise again so I read in the papers, so I dare say that I could get knocking on 100k for this box seeing as my neighbour's house went for 95k before Xmas. Of course that has a downside as well, as anywhere I want to move will be more expensive, ma c'è la vita. There are 2 options:

1. Move somewhere else in Nottingham.
2. Move out of Nottingham altogether.

(1) has the advantage of immediacy, but the disadvantages of:

a) houses in areas I'd like to go to (eg Beeston, Bramcote) being out of my price range, unless I settle for some pokey flat or tiny terrace and pray for quiet neighbours
b) Nottingham's a grot city in general and on the slide, so it would be good to get away from here altogether
c) at least 2k in fees (surveyor, estate agents, Briefs, removals) to move, probably more

(2) has the advantage of cost, as if I get a job somewhere civilised, ideally North of the Border where socialism isn't a quaint pre-80s word but a real living idea, I can claim moving ex's as I did for this place. Trouble is, jobs in the UKHE sector are pretty thin on the ground at the mo, at least North of here, so I could be stuck here for some time if I hang around to be offered the right job (web developer for the UHI would be nice :)) which would be wasted time.

I'm definitely getting more fed up with this area, though, and unless Bilborough starts to improve markedly I'll get to a tipping point when the grot just gets too much. It would be nice if the cahrncil spent a bit more money on the area, in particular improving the roads (which are seriously dire - you know when you drive into Bilborough by the ba-dum ba-dum of your tyres on the depressed channels across the road where wires or pipes go beneath the tarmac) and pavements. If public spaces are allowed to deteriorate through neglect then it hardly encourages the locals to treat them with care and respect. I suspect, though, that the council either doesn't give a toss or is seriously short of money, probably both.

PS: The guy charged with the recent shooting of the female cop in Lenton last week comes from Bilborough. If he is the shooter then that's a little worrying - burglars with guns are not good news. I've long lived with the realisation that I'm going to be burgled at some point (it's not happened to me once yet) and I can live with being ripped off as long as I'm insured, but the idea of an armed burglar adds another notch to the paranoia. Still, innocent until proven guilty.