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Saturday 21 February 2009

Where I bean

Oxford

I tend to post stuff on weekends that I would never post during the week (ie. real low quality twaddle) because I assume no one really pays attention. Lately I have been proven wrong.

Please don't feel obliged to read this just because you follow me. It is unadulterated navel gazing.


Places I have lived:


Age 0-1: Someplace, Debbin, SA


Age 1-7: Jwaneng, Botswana


Age 7-18: West-Evil, Debbin, SA


Age 18-23: Various bits of Cape Town, SA (Rosebank, Rondebosch, Mowbray)


Then it all gets a bit hazy:


Ash, Kent, UK (1 month)

Chartham, Kent, UK (6 weeks)

Yeovil, Somerset, UK, (2 months)

Stevenage, Hertfordshire, UK (on and off for about 2 years in between all this other manouevering, including while working in Cambridge)

Fernedown, Dorset, UK (More specifically: a field in the middle of somewhere. 7 weeks.)

Hampton Magna, Warwickshire, UK (4 months)

ROYAL Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, UK (last 3 years)


****

The BFG's list is far more interesting than mine, and includes Dubai, Antarctica, and most exciting of all, Potchefstroom.

We are nomads. We have moved around a lot. We always have a move in the back of our minds; of house, of town, and of country.

It makes much sense for us to move now, to another town so I can be closer to work, or at least another part of this town. But we are both resisting strongly. 

We have had a chance for the first time to put out little rootlets and shootlets and pretend that we are settled. It is just an illusion. But it suffices for now. We may live in Poo Palace, but I think we have embraced our inner drug dealer- junkie thieves. Because we are tired.

And anyway, in what other town can you see two drunken old men singing and playing a beat up grand piano on the side of the road that they wheeled out from who knows where?

This neighbourhood has character. Too much sometimes, but it reminds me that life is not always a box of chocolates. Sometimes it is a pile of poo.

(Really I just stay here so I can blog about it. Of course.)


((Not.))


(((Although I did just blog about it. Again. But I don't get danger pay for this stuff.)))

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Read your post and followed the links and oh dear, oh dear! *shakes head*

I am a snob, there, I said it and if I were you, I would have moved house a long time ago, even a few hundred meters to the other (right) side of the tracks. While living where you do gives you much to blog about, sigh, I'd rather be the boring blogger that I am and live in a boring, uneventful town.

po said...

Swiss twist: I know, we should move. Last night some scary drugged people were fighting again. But we are tired though. Actually the BFG is never home on weekends, otherwise we would probably investigate another town closer to my work.

Charlotte said...

We're also nomads and are getting very jittery since we have lived in the same house now for five years - the longest I have been in one place since I left home at 18. Time for a move!

Hope you find a nice place to live soon, and leave the druggies behind you.

po said...

Charlotte, are you Charlotte in Germany?

If you are, I really want to link to your blog for strange shores tomorrow. Do you have a link? If you do please send it here, or else I may just link to your blog in general if that is ok?

Always good to read about fellow nomads

Anonymous said...

But if you moved, you could blog all about that! Think of the new angsts you could have to write about?

Leave Poo Palace and live somewhere else. Britain is full of oddballs so I'm sure there will be lots of new characters to keep us all amused!

Prixie said...

ah character...paris has character too - like drunken hobos and smelling metro passages. oi....
'normal' towns are for the retired...tee hee.
thats just my bravery talking

Anonymous said...

Ah...druggies. Reminds me of home...

Still, I find it amazing seeing as I've only lived in two places my entire life.

Sass said...

I've frankly "bean" nowhere. :(

I like living vicariously once in awhile...thanks. ;)

po said...

ladyfi: I know I know. But we pay the cheapest rent ever. In this time of economic whatever, this is much appreciated :)

prixie: yes, but I think I am nearing retirement, if it means wanting some peace and quiet!

Irish chicken soup: well, I only started moving around like a nomad after I finished school. You never know where you will end up.

sass: To be honest, what I really want right now is to find a place where I can settle down and not move for a very very long time. Unfortunately it does not look like this will happen in the near future!

Anonymous said...

Move to Cape Town - we have character and stuff, and the city is one of the safest places to live. :-)

Anonymous said...

Being a nomad must be interesting. Just don't give it up... it makes for stories and people; I can't even begin to imagine the kind of people you meet. *envy*

But like... it's always good :)