Greetings from Bournemouth

 Hi, 

I thought I should do a post about Bournemouth and how I'm finding the town, now that I've been down here for a couple of weeks. I've done a fair amount of walking around the place, exploring it on foot and getting lost regularly, and there's a lot to love. The town's commitment to green issues is evident in the wild flower verges and wild, overgrown, graveyards, and that makes me happy. Admittedly there are a lot of cars on the road, and some of the drivers down here are complete bastards, and seem to hate pedestrians, but that's not a unique Bournemouth issue - you find those guys everywhere. 

It's fair to say that there are two Bournemouths, the tourist town and the other one. I'd say that the town centre and the front firmly belong in the former camp, while the rest of the town is terra incognita, a strange mixture of the two. With an economy that seems as reliant on barbers, tattooists, dog accessory shops, and little antique stores, as on the tourist Pound, I do wonder what will happen when the Hipster bubble bursts. Though, truth be told, it's probably none of my business. My employer, the Arts Uni, will probably be unaffected if the plethora of ink collectives and grooming places vanish, and the only thing that will sadden me is that the one place that did both (because why not cut out the onerous task of having to go to two places to get your new ink and your beard trimmed?) would go, simply because it does feel slightly ingenious to try and corner both parts of the market. 

The town centre is nothing really special, in terms of shops. The retail monoculture that grips the UK is present here as well, but the buildings are nice and worth seeing, and there's a breezy, pleasant, feel to the place. The highlights for me so far have been the arcade Waterstones (my personal Mecca), a toy shop where I can get presents for the kids I know, and the Pause Cat Cafe, which I passed yesterday and it had the cutest ginger tabby in the window. I plan to visit soon. Even in the midst of a pandemic, the town centre feels gripped by people, and it's busy enough that places like McDonalds have queues outside - though of course that's a feature of our brave new, infected, world. If we really do have to live with Covid long term, we'll have to get used to queueing and not getting service as fast as we'd like. In the same way as having to tolerate every shop wanting to zap your forehead to take your temperature for at least the foreseeable future (going back to normal isn't going to feel very normal).

Bournemouth has lots of lovely green spaces almost sequestered out of sight - a path will suddenly appear inviting you to explore along it. These have been quite a feature to my exploration, or getting lost if you prefer to phrase it that way, and they're feeding my imagination as well as my wanderlust. One place seemed pretty ripe for a story I have sitting on the backburner, while another suggested quite an adult scene. I mention this because I'm always on the look out for places for stories and the fact I'm finding them here makes me happy. 

One thing that's taken me aback is how young the town is - it's only about 200 years old, making it an infant in comparison to many of the UK's towns and cities. That doesn't mean its a poorer place for it, only that its younger and, perhaps, more energetic. That perhaps is because of the Hipster element, and though I may scoff slightly at the tattoo places that seem to be ten a penny here, I do like that they're here - it gives the place a stronger identity and makes it feel unique in a way that doesn't evoke blue rinses and those terrible words "God's Great Waiting Room".  When so much of the coast seems to be dominated by old people's homes, the fact that Bournemouth feels vital and young is to be treasured. We should support these businesses and cultures and help them thrive.  

Anyway, it's a lovely place, and once the pandemic's over you should definitely visit. If you want to be an arty type, and want a degree, you should apply to my employer. And no matter why you come to the town, you should get a tattoo and go to the cat café.