Blog of Wisbechness

Well, it's the new year, and what better way to start the year than with a report of a TV programme I've just seen?!

It's a documentary about immigration in the town that I currently live in, Wisbech. Hosted by Evan Davis (the man with the epic voice), the aim of the show was to give some typical caucasian English people some of the jobs that immigrants have been taking up, as some say, unnecessarily.

Not that I was interested so much in THAT (though it was quite interesting in itself, I s'pose...).

It was seriously weird - I don't know how I actually feel, so I thought I'd write everything I'm thinking down in a blog that no-one reads before I go upstairs and hibernate for the night. Seeing the town on TV, and all the landmarks I commonly visit (particularly at weekends :D), it's kind of... well...

...it's kind of nice. I felt proud to be a Wisbechian. Kinda funny, really.

But that's not the real worry - I was born in London, and stayed there for the first four years of my life! Everytime I take the National Express 448 bus up to Golders Green from Peterborough, I actually go past my old house on the A1(M). It's really scary.

Nonetheless, I've always considered Hendon as my home! Not rubbishy old Wisbech!

But I suppose it kinda struck me - If they showed Hendon on TV now, I probably wouldn't recognise so much of it. Probably not even my old house (it's true, last I checked they had changed the exterior slightly. Apparently they even took a room out of it; had to be my father's, didn't it?!)

Though personally, when good ol' Evan visited the Nene School, that was really a huge change for me. Not many people know this, but I actually went there for Reception and Year 1 :) and Mrs Mardle... what a lovely woman she was! I went there twelve years ago now, and it's so great to see that she's still there! I mean WOW, nostalgia trip much :)

Mrs Mardle, if you're reading this, you rocked.

However, if you did watch the documentary today and thought that Wisbech is a town full of immigrants and Wisbechians, I'd just like to say that not EVERYONE is like that. Okay, it is kinda nasty sometimes, and there are places in the town that even I don't like going, but I suppose it took that documentary to realise that this town ain't so bad after all...

I may not consider it to be my home, or maybe I subconsciously do - I suppose the documentary did represent the town to be relatively decent... and yes, a lot of people are like those shown on the TV.

It is kind of a culture clash though. I miss the city, but probably only because the last time I lived there was when I was four, and when you're four EVERYTHING is pretty awesome. But it is kind of weird; one of the last times I went up to London (the town of Edgware - their local hospital being my birthplace) to stay with relatives, my uncle actually got assaulted by a group of hoodlums!

I've only witnessed that twice in my thirteen-ish years here. But once in a total of about three months? I really know the best places, don't I? :P

That said, I've applied to UCL for September. And so far it's probably my favourite university (though that may change depending on what they offer me!). If not, UEA in Norwich was also surprisingly decent (I say "surprisingly" because you don't typically expect your local uni to be any good, do you?) so who knows?

The future's bright. It's probably even orange.


I'll leave you to think about that until next time.
See you guys! Don't wait up.
Jimbob xx