It’s happened. The big move has occurred. I’m a grown man with family and I’ve moved to the suburbs. I resisted for a long time. ‘How will I stagger home from the pub?’ was the repeated question I posed to my uninterested wife. But the signs were all there. We’d ignored them for a long time but you get to a certain age and noise becomes annoying and sleep becomes precious.
My wife and I have always lived in ‘the City.’ It’s not a real city of course, just an extended village by the sea but it has all the amenities; shops, pubs, etc and that’s what makes it feel like a city. When we had our son, we moved out of Hove and lived up by the Level. This was a big move at the time, in fact moving to the Mecca that is London Road, felt like the equivalent to moving to the Bronx; a great area to raise a child.
We survived though and had some great times. Our son took his first steps in that flat and we had some very memorable parties, which of course, I remember little about (always the best).
But as time went on, our neighbours (we lived in a multi-purpose block of flats, filled with old people) eventually died or moved to retirement homes and the dreaded students moved in. From this point on, we missed our dead neighbours. You know what they say, ‘Dead neighbours are quiet neighbours.’
With my ever increasing work load and an active family around me, space and peace suddenly became quite attractive. Our rock n’ roll London Road lifestyle was wearing thin and it was earlier this year, that we decided to make the big move. The move to the ‘burbs.
'Hello, welcome to Hollingbury.'
So here we are, in Hollingbury. There’s not much here; a shop, a pub, Asda, a library. But we like it. We have a big house. We have a big garden. Total strangers say hello to you in the street, thankful for extra signs of suburban civilisation. Sure, we have to get the bus but I get stuff done on the bus (beware of extra tweeting) and it’s a nice bit of down time between work and home (this will wear thin).
We’re keeping a little slice of our Rock n’ Roll London Road days by having a housewarming in a couple of weeks and you’re all invited.
But remember; please do keep the noise down.