Been living in Felixstowe 6 weeks now having moved up from Hertfordshire. What a strange place. Don’t get me wrong, beautiful countryside and lovely beaches (some, apart from the chavy end where the Amusement Arcades are) but crikey these people are weird, i just don’t know what to make of ’em. Really friendly on the outside, very smiley… but it’s almost like a scene out of comedy horror ‘Hot Fuzz’. You know in the film where everyone is really friendly ‘and smiley’ to Simon Peggs character Nicholas Angel, but really they’re plotting against him because he’s an ‘outsider’ and different… that’s what i mean… just bloody odd. It’s almost like they’ve been brainwashed.
Where i used to live you knew where you stood with people, they seemed to have more substance, an edge to them… something to relate to. Here they come across as a bit wishy-washy, like a weak Lemon drink. ‘Practically zero crime rate here,’ was one comment from a proper Suffolk shopkeeper and ‘we don’t like foreigners coming up from London’. See, ‘Hot Fuzz’ !
I’m having real problems relating to anybody. The only person i really got on with was a builder up from London who had worked in Felixstowe for a while. He said ‘it’s a very slow pace of life, you’ll get bored’. Haven’t really got a problem with that, was looking for peace and quiet, but then he said, ‘they’re a bit backward round here’, that made me laugh, not very fair but there’s just nothing to get your teeth in to with these people. I’m so used to ‘banta’, a bit of ribbing… you know where you take the piss out of each other for a bit of fun… maybe once i get to know people, i’m not sure… maybe they don’t get it… or are too polite?
Have i made a mistake? It’s driving me nuts at the moment. I’ll give it a year. I don’t feel like i’m living in the real world, civilisation, i need that connection with people and here i’m finding it impossible.
