Nottingham is Burgle-tastic

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:50 pm

I've lived here for 3 and a half years now, and have managed to escape this cities notorious problem until this week. But earlier on in the week, my housemate was sleeping round his girlfriends, and a couple of intruders just walked into their room, bold as you like! He woke up and went "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING??" and they ran off, so they phoned the police. About an hour later, the police stopped a taxi, and found the thieves with an Xbox and a mobile phone in the boot. As his girlfriend later commented, "it was the best burglary ever!"

Then, strangely enough, my housemate and his girlfriend (the same ones who got a rude awakening only a few nights previously ) left our house at about midnight last night, and just as they were getting to the bottom of the road, a couple of chavs tried to break into the front room! It was a pretty stupid plan: The house still had people in it, and they were still in eyesight. I was at work at the time, but my housemates phoned the police, and within about 5 minutes, three officers, a plain clothed policeman and even a helicopter were scouring the area. It was just an opportunist thing apparently, but it was still pretty scary

TL:DR: I've got to move.

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:57 pm

For some reason I'm reminded of Bill Hicks...

"Some hooligans knocked over a dust bin in Shaftsbury..."

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:06 pm

i've been to nottingham before, and i didn't really wanna go back. it's one of those places where most brits associate it with it's history and heritage; but behind that it's actually got a pretty high crime rate (and gun problems). i'm pretty sure nottingham is 99% scrote

why don't you move down to glos? just don't play your too loud innit

what is it you do that you were at work at midnight?

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:52 pm

Acid King wrote:For some reason I'm reminded of Bill Hicks...

"Some hooligans knocked over a dust bin in Shaftsbury..."

Heh, I remember that sketch:) If you want a more accurate depiction of the darker side of the UK, I'd reccomend you check out This is England by Shane Meadows. It's a pretty awesome film examining the microcosm of race relations in 1980's Nottingham. It's very harrowing at times, but it comes with a very poignant message. More to the point, it was filmed a stones throw from where I live: a lot of the locations in the film are some of my favourite hangouts

Just remember: things have moved on a lot since then

jpj wrote:i've been to nottingham before, and i didn't really wanna go back. it's one of those places where most brits associate it with it's history and heritage; but behind that it's actually got a pretty high crime rate (and gun problems). i'm pretty sure nottingham is 99% scrote

why don't you move down to glos? just don't play your too loud innit

what is it you do that you were at work at midnight?

Interestingly, I first visited Nottingham for a gig in 2003, and I fell in love with the place. It used to be an awesome place for noise and doom gigs, but they're drying up a bit now. There's a lot of nice areas here, and I live in a fairly nice and leafy suburb just next to the gorgeous University Campus. There's two nature reserves down the road, a huge country park just a stone's throw away, and the city centre is small but really compact. When you hear of all that crazy stuff on the news, it invariably has taken place in an area like St Anne's or the Meadows, which are very easy to avoid. It's not all Shottingham round here

Still, I think I'm starting to outgrow it, and crap like this just gives me more impetuous to leave.

Gloucester is pretty awesome; I had a mate living in Cheltenham a few years back, so I've visited both a few times. It's a place I would surely consider living if London didn't have such a siren song over me

And I work for a cinema down the road. The hours are long and late, but I'm just treating it as a throwaway job until I can start my preferred vocation: teaching

jpj · Post by **jpj** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 2:54 pm

ah, if live music is an important factor, gloucester/cheltenham don't really have that much going on, and a couple of venues have closed in chelt over the last few years.

well, best of luck dude

and since labour came into power your rights during a burglary have increased a fair whack. maybe time to buy a nailgun in the meanwhile

KindGrind · Post by **KindGrind** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 9:30 pm

Scary stuff.

I currently have 20 feet of snow on my front lawn and temperatures are about -25, which just about negates the urges people have of walking around and trying to break into people's homes. I kind of like it that way.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 9:59 pm

the burglars had a taxi?
Wow they seem to be going up in the world

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Sat Jan 24, 2009 10:17 pm

The UK is sounding less and less appealing as the years go on.

Lordstar · Post by **Lordstar** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:10 am

you get crime everywhere you go dude. its cool though i mean i can get three meals a day most of the time and the bombs are not being dropped on us right now so its great

Vexorg · Post by **Vexorg** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 4:54 am

Police have released this sketch of the suspect:

Elixir · Post by **Elixir** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 7:55 am

Lordstar wrote:you get crime everywhere you go dude. its cool though i mean i can get three meals a day most of the time and the bombs are not being dropped on us right now so its great

We get crime here, hell, I live in the ghetto which is South Auckland. But it isn't bad to the point where I would end up moving. Still, I love NZ and enjoy living here. It seems like the majority of people dislike where they live or want to end up moving, but I'm not like that at all. The UK has always felt unappealing in my opinion, though. But I guess I can't speak from experience since I've never been there.

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 10:26 am

Elixir wrote:
Lordstar wrote:you get crime everywhere you go dude. its cool though i mean i can get three meals a day most of the time and the bombs are not being dropped on us right now so its great
We get crime here, hell, I live in the ghetto which is South Auckland. But it isn't bad to the point where I would end up moving. Still, I love NZ and enjoy living here. It seems like the majority of people dislike where they live or want to end up moving, but I'm not like that at all. The UK has always felt unappealing in my opinion, though. But I guess I can't speak from experience since I've never been there.

I'd love to visit New Zealand one of these days. But I genuinely love living in the UK. It seems one of the few countries where you don't have to drive to get to interesting places. It's 10:14 now, and I could leave my house now and be halfway across the country in the Casino arcade in the capital by 1pm.

The country is very multicultural, especially in London. Being able to go into the Korean district and grab some obscure anime for my girlfriend is awesome. All bands seem to play everywhere in the UK: there's very little travelling to gigs, and if the worst comes to the worst, you can just get to London anyway. Every city is pretty close to another few cities, and each has its own unique characteristics. Even though I live in the sprawl now, I grew up in the countryside, drinking cider in the middle of fields and ruined castles, exploring underground tunnels and huge forests. It really is so varied; no matter how you want to live I can't see how someone could take exception to the UK

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 11:06 am

Apparently Nottingham has the highest lady to man ratio in the UK. I think its 3-1. Well I don't know if its like that now, but apparently it was in the 90's.

MX7 · Post by **MX7** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:36 pm

neorichieb1971 wrote:Apparently Nottingham has the highest lady to man ratio in the UK. I think its 3-1. Well I don't know if its like that now, but apparently it was in the 90's.

I know Nottingham Uni had the highest girl to guy ratio in the country when I attended. Not that this factor influenced my decision at all...

Skykid · Post by **Skykid** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 12:46 pm

Elixir wrote: The UK has always felt unappealing in my opinion, though. But I guess I can't speak from experience since I've never been there.

It's not unappealing, it's just downright shit.

I can speak from experience because I live here.

sjewkestheloon · Post by **sjewkestheloon** » Sun Jan 25, 2009 1:08 pm

UK's not so bad. Have you considered Manchester?

Music is good and it has a good spread. You can live 40mins bus away from the city centre and live in a nice leafy area with parks etc.

I hardly ever see any trouble at all.

Going back to the music point, I'm seeing 3 gigs this week. Jazz standards tonight, Pavement/Fall esque rolling around in muck with Monster Island on Tuesday and the porn/slut/funk of of Montreal on Thursday.