Moving out of London

Yo. Not yet. Might start on one this week.

Went out for anniversary dinner with my missus on Saturday night and we were talking about our adopted hometown. Consensus was that there was a lot to love but that we still felt very much political and cultural outsiders. I bemoaned the fact that even though there were some great pubs and nice cafes, at 42 years old I was still more often than not the youngest person in in the room and that I still hadn't met anyone to talk about guitars and records with.

Then as if my magic, my wife got a text from another DFL couple who she'd met the previous evening inviting us over on Sunday morning. Went over for coffee and nearly the first thing out of the bloke's mouth was that at two and a half years in, he still felt like an political and cultural outsider and how he hadn't met anyone to talk about records with. He then told a story about DJing to no-one in a local bar during the hop festival which led to enthusiastic chat about putting on gigs in the local guildhall. My people!

The subject of the golliwog pub came up and they confirmed that is was widely known as hangout for the local UKIP chapter, the windows had been plastered with "leave" posters during the referendum, the landlord (who is a nasty fucker who had been in prison for beating his wife) had flown a union flag for two weeks after the vote, during which time the golliwog had appeared.

Mixed feelings then. Glad my intuition had been right and I wasn't being paranoid. But any feeling of validation was overwhelmed by the knowledge that this kind of shit is thriving right on my doorstep.

Also i'm definitely not going to go in there and bring up the subject of the golliwog.

Fuck.