There’s a spot in Plymouth’s city centre where I spend lots of time - in fact I was there earlier today. It’s a place where I can see into a shop and watch my ex fleet in and out of view while she’s working. Well, I say ex but we’re not officially divorced - she doesn’t know where I am and that, for the time being, is how I want it.
I do keep in contact with her: when I can I make the odd telephone call, that way she knows I’m OK and I know she’s OK and that the kids are OK, too.
You probably think that sounds a bit odd. I wouldn’t blame you. I know it’s not normal behaviour. I’m not in a normal place at the moment. When I am though, and I will be, I’ll approach her and we’ll talk face to face.
In case you're wondering, if she ever looks in my direction I’m safe, she wouldn’t recognise me, I barely recognise my own reflection. But I have to make sure I keep an eye on the time, I don’t want to attract undue attention from her or her workmates or those CCTV hawk eyes above me, behind me and to my side!
When I left that spot I was feeling pretty low so I trundled around the city centre to gather my thoughts. Thankfully, my feelings were lifted when I noticed that parts of the West End were being repaved following all the trippings over the last few months. At least somethings are going right...
Showing posts with label Plymouth City Centre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Plymouth City Centre. Show all posts
Friday, 12 March 2010
Monday, 22 February 2010
Plymouth's West End Makeover
I've always viewed life as a continuous stream of gambles, so I never saw gambling of any kind as an enemy. What a mistake. It's horrifying how much one man can loose when a thoroughbred has a revelatory moment and discards her rider before the first jump! Nowadays, if I can scrape enough kazoo-busking cash together, I only gamble on lotteries - it's safer that way.
If I ever won a lottery I'd spend a generous portion of the winnings on developing the eyesore areas in Plymouth. It'll be no surprise for you to learn that I have yet to win big, so you could imagine the joy I felt when I heard, back in 2007, that BID (Business Improvement District) was embarking on a multi-million 20 year plan to redevelop the city.
But whether all that money is being spent wisely is questionable.
Last December the west-end of the city centre had a £3.2 million revamp. It took 8 months to complete. The aim was to make the area more attractive and accessible to shoppers because Drake's Circus Shopping Mall's magnetic pull on consumers had proved too strong.
Now part of an area which had been pedestrian for 20 years has became a one-way road with car park spaces, the pavement has been badly repaved and a crucial zebra crossing has been erased! Madness! Inevitably, there has been a slew of falls and near misses, thanks to the unevenly raised cobblestones and confusing open spaces which fail to clearly mark out the boundary between pedestrian space and car space - as if they want us to co-exist harmoniously!
But why was the pavement cobbled? Why wasn't tarmac used? One cobblestone fall victim was Babette Doolin (86!). She tripped and fell flat on her face leaving an "abrasion to the head." Is this the price of a pavement going retro: pedestrian pensioners are getting hurt.
This issue got on my tramping moobs, not just because our elders were tumbling but because falling in public is one of the ultimate faux pas. Personally, I find the sober falls the most cringe-worthy because, you either hit the deck like a tonne of lead, the shock of which can leave you speechless for a minute or two, unable to communicate with the public that's literally looking down on you; or, rather than your body submitting to the forces of gravity, you're actually arsed to try and rescue yourself, which means you have to endure a humiliatingly prolonged, bent-legged stumble before finally skidding onto the concrete, and if there's somebody in front of you, well, try not to grab them or else next time you need to be CRB'd you might find you have an uncharacteristic, irremovable blot on your record!
But, just thinking about it, maybe that was the intention all along: get people to trip up and they'll conveniently stumble into the nearest empty independent trader’s shop. In which case, the developers are mischievously ingenious.
But I doubt that.
Get it right next time people.
If I ever won a lottery I'd spend a generous portion of the winnings on developing the eyesore areas in Plymouth. It'll be no surprise for you to learn that I have yet to win big, so you could imagine the joy I felt when I heard, back in 2007, that BID (Business Improvement District) was embarking on a multi-million 20 year plan to redevelop the city.
But whether all that money is being spent wisely is questionable.
Last December the west-end of the city centre had a £3.2 million revamp. It took 8 months to complete. The aim was to make the area more attractive and accessible to shoppers because Drake's Circus Shopping Mall's magnetic pull on consumers had proved too strong.
Now part of an area which had been pedestrian for 20 years has became a one-way road with car park spaces, the pavement has been badly repaved and a crucial zebra crossing has been erased! Madness! Inevitably, there has been a slew of falls and near misses, thanks to the unevenly raised cobblestones and confusing open spaces which fail to clearly mark out the boundary between pedestrian space and car space - as if they want us to co-exist harmoniously!
But why was the pavement cobbled? Why wasn't tarmac used? One cobblestone fall victim was Babette Doolin (86!). She tripped and fell flat on her face leaving an "abrasion to the head." Is this the price of a pavement going retro: pedestrian pensioners are getting hurt.
This issue got on my tramping moobs, not just because our elders were tumbling but because falling in public is one of the ultimate faux pas. Personally, I find the sober falls the most cringe-worthy because, you either hit the deck like a tonne of lead, the shock of which can leave you speechless for a minute or two, unable to communicate with the public that's literally looking down on you; or, rather than your body submitting to the forces of gravity, you're actually arsed to try and rescue yourself, which means you have to endure a humiliatingly prolonged, bent-legged stumble before finally skidding onto the concrete, and if there's somebody in front of you, well, try not to grab them or else next time you need to be CRB'd you might find you have an uncharacteristic, irremovable blot on your record!
But, just thinking about it, maybe that was the intention all along: get people to trip up and they'll conveniently stumble into the nearest empty independent trader’s shop. In which case, the developers are mischievously ingenious.
But I doubt that.
Get it right next time people.
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