Moving North

I'm packing up my life again, well about 42% of it, everything else stays here to gather dust and look confused. Like the little girl who later grows up to become the meth huffing prostitute looking out from her front step screaming 'Daddy where are you going!?' in some Oscar nominated redemptive story probably starring Drew Barrymore and Jarred Letto as the abusive yet tragically lovable older brother. Urgh.

So I'm moving out of Maidstone, West Malling, Kent, the worn disfigured knotch on the commuter belt attempting to control the ever expanding waistline of the dirty, alienating urban sprawl we call London. I'm moving to the North where things are less hectic, less complicated and competitive. Some people find London exciting and maybe I would to if I dared give it half a chance but truth be told it just isn't me. I don't like maneuvering like a tetris block through the crowds. I can't bare the complete lack of silence, endless sirens, screaming, boisterous banal conversations, the sharp metallic accents that scrape against the bones in your ears. There's no warmth in London or the Southeast. It's a grey created by woven suits and speechless transactions in non-desrcript shops with workers who barely speak the same language as you. Everything is so detached. I've seen commuters literally walk into people in their way, knock them over and keep walking. What kind of place is that? Sure there's the wild side to it, the infinite thrills but from my experiences of London and Londoners it's all too fucking cool for it's own good. They live for the most part in a state of continually anxiety that a better time is happening somewhere else. I'm sure it just consists of more people listening to music devoid of anything remotely endearing or soulful and posturing around in attire so off-putting it at best is intriguing and at worst depressingly tacky. I don't have much time for fashion or dancing so London isn't really for me I suppose.

Anyway the new base of operations will be Manchester a city without parallel when it comes to civic pride. Manchester is really really bloody proud of itself. On the grand scale of things it's done some good stuff and some great things have come from it but it's achievements are far outweighed by its overinflated opinion of itself and I like that. I like it's neurosis, I like how big it feels but how small it actually is. I like the preachers and the homeless men underneath the Arndale centre, I like the small bars underneath the street on hidden down allies. I like the fact it's big enough to escape the majority of people yet still feel like part of the city (unlike Leeds for example!) I like the cheap drinks, the drawling warm accents, the grey spitting rain, greasy chips and mushy peas, the crowds are thick and slow, the small canal bridges and faded dirty signs for small stations, the fact it constantly feels new and regenerated, fresh and exciting yet old and run down although not intimidating or alienating. Above all though I admire the sense of identity Manchester has because gives it community, it gives it a shared experience. Get on a tube in London there will be perhaps 100 people all in ear shot of each other and nobody will talk. Get on a metro or bus in Manchester there will be 20 or so people all talking and there is always a conversation you pick up on that is either genuinely touching or hilarious. So as you may be able to tell I'm looking forward to moving, I'm looking forward to living in the city I was born in yet don't really know intimately. It's everything I want it to be!