I lived in South London for 20 years before moving to the suburbs and then further away from London as time passed. I lived in council housing for a few years - The Arndale Estate in Wandsworth for those who know it – but now live in an Idyllic yet not a ‘Utopian’ city / town with the ocean just over the top right of my monitor as I look out for inspiration. Hint its not Southend!
As an ex-pat I regularly watch BBC / Sky news to keep in touch as I still have family and friends in the Uk and now feel ashamed of being British. The last time I remember feeling pride in 1977 when the Silver Jubilee meant street parties, in the early 80′s when the Falklands Taskforce returned, I felt robbed in 1990 when England were knocked out of The World Cup, and joy when they won The Ashes and Rugby World Cup. But now I look back at the country of my, my children’s birth feeling ashamed – areas where I once considered I would remain for life, I have watched as scum have moved in, multiplied, and turned once thriving and VERY neighbourly places into ‘No-GO Zones’. I have seen the elderly being ridculed and abused by so-called chavs, and yes I did get involved after all it was my job to !!!
So how pissed off with the UK am I?? Well although purely ceromonial, I have done what I thought I would never do, I have not re-newed my passport. The British Passport a once mighty document, it opened doors (literally it was that sturdy), you only had to show the front of it to get into Britain after returning from overseas. I am currently without a passport – I am waiting on my Citizenship for my chosen country !
This year we have seen over 20 young people knifed to death in London alone, teenage pregnancy, drinking, smoking, and poor literacy skills at an all time high. Tv programmes - Catherine Tate’s bov’vered, Little Britains yeah but no but….make a joke out it but it like a cancer….its spreading not only within the Uk but now unfortunately to a place near where I live.
Its known locally as Little Britain not by the Brits !! There is a big store, chip shop, kids hang outside smoking and abusing passersby. They wear hoodies baseball caps, jeans, have shit jewellery and for God knows why, many families from the UK seem to graviate towards it.
I actually heard the parent of one ‘local’ kid who put his hood up be told "Take yer hood off you look like a Pom !!"
A message for the UK – sort yourselves out……..its time to stand up and say "Enough is Enough!" reclaim the streets from the shit. With regards to ‘here’ – I am doing my bit to reclaim the streets – trust me !!!
I do not want my kids to grow up in a place that tolerates Chavs….we moved our kids out of the UK for this very reason. I can guarentee that we will not have to put up with it here.
Adelaide as a whole is…well, ordinary. It has some of the most hopeless chav/bogans on earth Gawler, The Peachey Belt (officially the worst suburb in Australia) Christies, Kilburn (you can smell the VD) the list goes on . The weirdest murders in Australia(perhaps the world) check out the “Bodies in the barrels” case…various bipedial pond life murdering and then (albeit accidentally, whilst attempting to dispose of the body in acid) pickling their victims.
The Adechav is frequently Dickensian in its hideous physical deformity. Kids with odd shaped heads are the norm particularly in the northern suburbs such as Elizabeth (Lizbuff to the inmates) It really is like looking at the ascent of man in reverse.
Usually a trip to Munno Para will give you a pretty good cross section: the large female slumped over a shopping trolley shuffling along in leggings and flip flops the scrawny younger tattoo wearing male rat faced and clad in either a Harley/heavey metal T shirt and jeans or pseudo “gangsta” gear from the mid 1990s. Then there are the oldies either great big obese offerings who all seem to limp or have some sort of other physical impediment or the “I just got released from Belsen look (sans teeth).
Across the board it is a self satisfied rather inept little place that thinks it is something special. They constantly go on about being descended from free settlers (as oppossed to convicts) but they have made up for it since!
Even the so called better end of society are near imbeciles.Succesive State governments througout their short and desperately uninteresting history have bankrupted the place. They constantly repeat the same old mantra, “turning North Terrace into a World Class Boulevard” (where sorry?) Trams, “The smart city” (yeah right) and their latest pipe dream hi tech/defence/communications etc etc.
Of course lets not forget their TV stations and the truely awful “Advertiser” newspaper, for years they spelt the word paedophile as PEDOPHILE(sic) which, considering Adelaide is the nonce capital of Australia is pretty poor.
They have a desperate fear of change and anything that is not”South Aussie”, love going on about their “Icons” (pronounced Oicons)and “role models” (invariably bogan AFL players who then get done for drunk driving/indecent assault/common assault/drugs etc etc (strike out offence that doesn’t apply). Another great Adelaide passion is stating they are “Proudly Parochial” (tells you it all really).
A visit to some of the rural Chavarariums (yer cuntry towns ) can be interesting, there is so much inbreeding even the dogs have club feet.
The much vaunted Barossa Valley is inhabited by the descendants of
Lutheran settlers from Germany who fled religous persecution in the 18somethings, they still like to hold the odd exorcism up there,(true google it I am not joking!) which is I suppose an escape from the unbelievable banality of going on and on and on about vineyards/Vignerons/ how like Tuscany it is (WTF?)
Still, the weathers um …nice.
The “Whinging Pom” stereotype at it’s finest!
As an ex pat myself I agree with you 100%, I have always had a grudging respect for the Aussies, no nonsense stand-up sort of guys who tell it like it is, and if you dont like it then you can f**k off, I sincerely hope they, and you now that you are officially one of them nip this in the bud.
Perhaps Australia is following Englands footsteps?