Nostalgia
Last weekend was wierd. My friend Monkey was back from Italy for a week, so I toddled off to St Albans for a visit to see him, his new girlfriend and to generally reaquaint myself with the town where I had spent so many years of my life. It was strange coming to St Albans as a visitor, staying in a hotel etc.
The days activities were of course a success, traipsing from pub to pub, avoiding popular locations and going for atmosphere, talking about art (contemporary art: overly maligned or random mess), creativity (apparently living and working as an artist in Italy works better because there is no financial safety net) and whether or not Tony Blair was spawn of Satan (the jury is still out on that one). The conversation was made somewhat more cumbersome as Monkey’s Italian significant other spoke only broken English and I only speak menu Italian (Due saltimbocas e una bottiglia del chianti per favore).
But the wierd part was the overwhelming nostalgia. Memories, both pleasant and unpleasant, sometimes tinted rose, overlaid with actually seeing the place ‘in the flesh’ was certainly an overwhelming experience. I still like St Albans, but now it’s probably more in an intellectual sense. I doubt I’d ever want to live there again.
I think the town has changed quite a bit. It seems a lot more cosmopolitan now than it was 10 years ago, but I guess that’s because a lot more cosmopolitan commuters live there now, who expect their Carluccio’s and Wagamama’s and the like.
When I was back over Easter I wandered around town for about the first time in 4-5 years and I found that there is a real divide in the town centre between the “cosmopolitan” part (south of the Maltings/Town Hall) and the slightly “cheaper” top of the town centre. Still no cinema tho (STILL) and nothing much else to do when the pubs close. Plus ca change.
The Water End Barn is now a Lloyds Bar pub/club, open until 2am several nights a week.
Still no damn cinema, though, and the historic one in London Road lying empty, bits falling into the street.
Shows how down I am with what’s going on there really.
Well I’ll certainly miss the beer festival this year. Since moving from Snawbans to Chiswick in January the things I miss the most are:
1) Access to the M1 northbound. I used to be able to go to a mates’ Shadowrun games in the evening – but the journey from Chiswick adds an hour to the journey time – so its now totally unworkable. Plus a large chunk of my friends live in Nottingham.
2) Lack of metered water. My new flat has no water metering – my bill is 3 times what it used to be a month – outrageous!
3) Good beer. Chiswick is unfortunately the home of Fullers. So I have to put up with minging flat pints of London Pride everywhere. Very occasionally I get a drinkable one – but really – it’s not a very good beer IMO. Relative to the Farmer’s Boy (my old local) and its very well kept microbrews – this is quite depressing.
On the flipside:
1) Living in Chiswick means no more do I have to travel on the antiquated rolling stock of Thameslink, with their super inflated prices. My commute time is down to 25 mins each way (from 1hr15) – which is very pleasant.
2) My flat is close to a main nightbus route – so going out late on Fri/Sat night in central London is feasible without having to budget for a 70 quid taxi fare.
3) A certain old mate of Stephan’s doesn’t know where my flat is now!