The reason amongst many.

I like Liverpool in general. I wouldn't have hung around as long as I have done if I didn't. I love the shopping (I'm a girl, I'm allowed to rate a city based on its shopping experience!), I love the night life (although more and more I don't tend to partake in this particular facet of Liverpudlian life!) and I love the fact that it's so damned cheap to live here!

But, like all things I suppose you get what you pay for. The public transport is frequent, and blessedly cheap, but you always end up sat in front of some little scally (for the rest of England, that's a 'chav') who thinks he's king of the world and is keen to shout about it. It's not that the bus companies don't try, it's just that if you're in the position to have to use the system, you've got to share it with everyone else who does too, and they're not all the nice wholesome folk you'd trust to leave your kids with whilst you go to the theatre.

The drink is cheap too, which probably doesn't help to soothe the problems the city has with anti social behaviour, but it does help when you're a student. Sadly, when you're a student in Liverpool, the rent doesn't stay so cheap. I couldn't believe when I left University and moved into this flat with Ben how cheap the place was. I mean don't get me wrong it's no buckingham palace. Hell, it's not even on par with the tiny terraced house my parents took me home from the hospital to. It's really only room for one person. But, you know, being married we live in each others pockets anyway. The really big problem with our flat is the shoddy workmanship.

I feel bad about ratting on my landlord for this, but it really does have to be said. The back of the flat is litterally rotting away. The entire back wall of our bedroom is covered in black rot. It appeared on the jont between the wall and the ceiling about a year ago, out of the blue, and spread. The bathroom frequently leaks into the flat downstairs despite oh...three patch up jobs now? The tiles are blasting away from the wall thanks to, I assume, the damp. There is no window in the bathroom as it is an interior room. There is an extractor fan but it's broken. The lino in the kitchen has gradullay split over time and there are big patches where it has torn away completely. The whole place is riddled with damp in general. There is no soundproofing so we can hear everything our neighbours say and do. We get to "participate" every time they do what grown ups in love do. There is no insulation and the radiators barely let out any heat. We leave the heating on all night to try and keep the place warm in the morning, but within an hour of us turning them off the place is freezing again. In the summer, it is impossible to cool the place down.

By the way, this is not a vitriolic hate filled rant, it is a statement of fact, and a note by which to look back and remember what we've been through when we're old and rich :p

But despite its faults, it's the cheapest rent I've seen anywhere and it's been a refuge when things were really bad. There have been times when the neighbours played up, and we've despaired, but on the whole we keep ourselves to ourselves and we don't look for trouble.

So why then, some of our scouse friends ask us with genuine shock, horror and sheer bewilderment on their faces, do we want to leave Liverpool?

Well, for starts, neither of our families live close by. Mine are in God's very own land (lol) of County Durham, and Ben's are in Kent. It's a long way to travel either way and we do so love our families. We've no ties here and it really does become troublesome trying to attend family functions. It was one hell of a job just trying to make sure the whole family (ie both mine and his) got to stay in the same hotel for our wedding in the middle of February (not exactly peak of the tourist season!) and even then a family friend had to bunk elsewhere after some dumb receptionist managed to muddle up her reservation!

Secondly, we weren't built for city life. I grew up in a town where I could be in the countryside in under ten minutes. If you want to leave town for whatever reason, you find yourself submerged in beautiful rolling hills with old, gnarly trees and golden fields of rapeseed. A place where the hills are topped with tiny little medieval churches. A place where, if you run out of Rabbit food on a Sunday you can go and pick your own and bring your bunny back a fresh treat. A place where there's nothing to do on a Sunday BUT go picking food for your rabbit! I'm not going to pretend I spend every waking moment of my time in the country, but when you live in a city and barely see a speck of grass for weeks, if not months at a time you begin to miss the greenery. Besides, I'm asthmatic and you'd be suprised at just how much my breathing improves when I visit my parents!

But one of the reasons which people here don't seem to click onto is that we're leaving because we're sick of the anti social behaviour here.

Now I'm not saying I lived a life free of such antics before I came to Liverpool. Everywhere has its problems. But before I came here I'd never had someone high on cocaine reach in through my kitchen window, grab a frying pan and try to throw it at me. I'd never had an egg thrown at me from a moving vehicle. I'd never crossed over the road to avoid a fist fight in action when I was just trying to get home. I'd never had to deal with going to the bus stop to get to work knowing that the night before someone was shot there. I'd never had to deal with my neighbour's shunned alcoholic partner asking me to help her break into his flat so she could "get her stuff back". I'd never had my neighbour try to break into my own flat before, whilst I was still in it and listening to them as they tried the lock.

These are just a few things we've experienced here. No I'm not saying we're the worst off but why should anyone have to put up with these things? Despite a select few natives thinking that Liverpool is the best city in the world and it doesn't get better than this...why should we put up with it when we could be living anywhere else?

If someone should find this blog who has never been to Liverpool before please don't get me wrong. There are many, many people here who despair at the state of the place, who enjoy less criminal pursuits than breaking and entering. It has a number of excellent theatres. It has some stunningly beautiful museums and art galleries. The council always manages to put on a nice show during the various holiday's throughout the year and there's no shortage of things to do. In fact I'm very much looking forward to the Chinese New Year celebrations! On the whole if you stick to the city centre you'll find the people more than welcoming. I wouldn't even mind commuting from somewhere outside of the city to be honest. But when you have to live in the suburbs and put up with this kind of crap? Well I'm sorry if I've offended anyone but I've just about had enough and I want to go home!

And so this is why, should any of you be wondering, why this blog documents the end of our time here on Merseyside. I admit defeat. Liverpool, you really were just too much for a small town girl like me to cope with! Now to do the hard work...find a job in the north east of England in the current economic climate, or else we'll be stuck down here for a while longer!

Next time I hope to post more happy things. Mum and Dad are coming for a brief visit next week and are bringing with them my Great Nana's old sewing machine. I really can't wait, I used to hate having to use the sewing machine's at school but I got into hand stitching little bits and bobs and now I want to start making actual useful things which, unless I never want to see the light of sun again, require a sewing machine for the sake of practicality. On the agenda whilst I get used to it, I want to make some new pillow cases (haven't the foggiest where all of my store bought ones have vanished to, apparently our washing machine just gobbles them up for dinner) and some new cushions. Had a funny moment the other day in Asda when Ben saw some on sale and I just ran in there...No! We're getting a sewing machine next week! I'll make us some! ^_^;;

Of course once I've become a sewing machine expert (or at least can sew in a straight line) I have a number of specific items I want to make. Namely, covers for our sitting chairs (so I can wash them properly) and some matching curtains for our next home. In fact I hope to create all manner of things for our next home. I never really felt like this flat was "homely". It's been a refuge, certainly, but it's just a jumble of stuff all thrown together because there's no where else to keep things, and so many hodgepodge things abound. There's no real flow to the design, no theme, not even a colour scheme. There just isn't the room. So I fully intend to fix that when we move! I've already got some idea's but perhaps I'll share them in my next blog.

For now it's nearly midnight and I think our downstairs neighbours have calmed down and will no longer be attempting to break into our flat with their key (yes, that did happen tonight, which is what sparked this little vent of steam) so I shall be heading to bed now :)

PS: Does this count as me having a vitriolic hate filled rant? Naaaah. I was just a little shaken is all :)