Piff Poff

I came from a small market town in Bedfordshire - I wouldn't want to be out and about once all the shops had closed and I certainly wouldn't want my daughter walking around after dark - or even early evening, and she wouldn't be allowed to go down the town on her own or even with a friend.

She has a lot more freedom here - The town we live in is at least twice the size of the one we came from. Before anyone says it's a false sense of security - she has friends who have a lot more freedom than she has as I am a pranoid Brit who thinks anyone approaching will either swear at you, spit at you or give you a once over to see if your worth mugging. It's so nice to be smiled at and hello'ed to instead

Bleech

Err yeah which is why I said I'd much rather walk around Kelowna I didn't mention Canada. Kelowna is friendlier, happier and less violent than Bristol end of. Is this where you ask for a link?
It's all about doing your research. I dont know why you'd end up in a rough old place in Canada though if you research enough, unless work demands it of course.

dbd33

I expect exactly that here. This morning, as is usual, there were women hooking at each of the traffic lights as I came in from the highway. One, in the centre of the road, was swaying alarmingly and I wondered, if I hit her, would I bother reporting it or just drive on. When my OH was attending night school here, I would collect her at the door so she didn't have to walk to her car. It's not the country but the neighbourhood that's rough, just as it is in UK.

Which town in Bedfordshire are you from? If it's Luton I don't blame you for feeling safer in the frozen north!

britishvixen21

If i had the money and could convince Canadian hubby id be back in the UK, i dont dislike Canada and it has given me some great freinds but as someone else said its a round hole for a sqaure peg, just dont feel like this is home.

Bleech

Hmm Toronto again

dbd33

Toronto has some great advantages, very few people living in Toronto are from Canada and many people continue to follow the culture of their home country, so there's every kind of food and the chance to learn all sorts of languages. There's lots of work in and around the city. otoh, it's very polluted rather ugly and has some crime issues. It's not a place people fleeing immigrants to the UK would want to go.

MikeUK

yep..

It has every thing........ bad bits included

Just like every major city in the world

ImLivingTheDream

Really???

Piff Poff

Luton is NOT a small market town and I feel sorry for anyone that has to live in that particular cesspit of England - they only built the airport there so there was another way out of the place! I wouldn't feel safe walking around Luton in the day time let alone venturing to the corner shop at night. Think smaller market town...No Bedford is also not a SMALL market town.

fishfinger

I'm in the category, moved to Canada, will be moving back to the UK as soon as my house sells. Might travel some more in the future but who knows where?

dbd33

As I came down the Jarvis St highway ramp this morning, a mosquito like swarm of beggars massed around my car. I shook a riding crop at them, "this wouldn't happen in Kempston Hardwick" I thought "Canada's gone to the dogs".

Bleech

Look at this group at a street corner. Hulking, idle, slouching young men ... foul-spoken, repulsive wretches. The young Ruffians of London molest quiet people to an extent that's hardly credible. The throwing of stones in the streets has become a dangerous and destructive offence. The throwing of stones at the windows of railway carriages is an act of wanton wickedness. And the blaring use of the very worst language possible, in our public thoroughfares is a disgrace.
When a Ruffian gets a police-constable down and kicks him helpless for life, it’s because that constable once did his duty in bringing him to justice. When he rushes into the bar of a public-house and scoops an eye out, or bites his ear off, it's because the man he maims gave evidence against him.

Could be from any 2008 newspaper, but it's Charles Dickens – The Uncommercial Traveller, 1860. Maybe somethings never change? Throw in the Jack the Ripper and 2008 London seems like quite a nice place
But from a personal point of view todays Bristol is not the same as 1980s/70s Bristol. It's the pettyness of what happens that pisses people off. I'll quite happilly compare Portishead my old town (population 18,000) to todays Kelowna (population 100,000+) and I've yet to experience any petty stuff like keyed cars or abuse/violence from teens like I did back there. People leave their cars unlocked or their lawnmowers out here all night, asking for trouble? Maybe, but I can gaurentee that if we did that back in our old town, both would be gone in a flash, I know I had 2 cars nicked and a lawnmower to name but a few People have more respect for eachother here, it's drummed into the kids at school. I'm not saying petty crap doesn't happen here, I just haven't heard of it happening and it hasn't happened to me.... yet.

Souvenir

I can relate to that. In the area where I live there is a lot of residential construction going on. A lot. Many of the houses are close to completion but lack things like doors or windows. Most have piles of building materials next to them. From what I can see, the wholly unprotected houses are not being vandalised, nor are the materials being nicked.

Piff Poff

Kempston Is the pits too no way near as bad as Luton though - no not from there either

And yeah you would probably get a mosquito like swarm of beggars in both Luton and kempston if you so much as stopped at the lights.

Red Deer is the biggest city I have lived in bar a brief spell in Norwich (worked in Norwich lived in Brundall) and an even briefer spell in Bedford. I wouldn't want to live in a bigger city than Red Deer, just doesn't suit me, would rather do without traffic jams everywhere. I always enjoyed a shopping or sightseeing trip to London but was always relieved to be home - somewhere quieter. Now I have somewhere quieter and we feel, safer. We have gone out for the entire day and accidently left the attached garage open all day and come home to find everything where we left it and feeling incredibly lucky, you can't even leave a kids bike out in the back garden and expect to see it the next day in England.