Yes, Grimsby. This is where me and my fearless crewmates find ourselves for the week. Maybe even until Sunday as a series of storms sweep in from the Atlantic.
We have been here since, oh, Monday morning, and there are worse places to be stuck in, although nowhere comes to mind at the moment.
Grimsby really has suffered due to the over fishing in the North Sea, and is now a pale shadow of its former self, and rows of warehouses and factories slowly crumble. It is tempting to think how wonderful and vibrant the town must have been thirty years ago; but that really was a nother time, and it is really doubtful it will ever see those days again.
I would write more about these days, but the internet connection on the boat is awful right now, and I lose the will to live waiting ten minutes for each page to load, and by the time I signed in it's time for bed. Or so it seems.
So, I have been writing each night on my computer, and I post them when I return.
Sadly, I have sen the underbelly of British life since being here; there isn't much work around, and the dock area seems to attract all that is worse. Seeing young woment standing on the corner of a delapadated street seeling the last thing they have; spit and sawdust pubs advertising happy hour in what must be an ironic way. A walk through the town centre is an interesting experience; all sorts of drunks and the such laying under lamp posts, sleeping where their legs gave out. There is always enough money for a drink, though; and especially when a bar has a £1.25 a pint promotion. But at least all the misfits seem happy enough to get drunk together.
I may be selling the town short; once it was a hive of industry; got the thin end of the wedge; industry moved away and left a decaying corpse behind. Don't get me wrong, the people are woonderful; we are always made to feel welcome, and for the most part its clean and seems to be safe. Just so sad to see a town with so much potential just cast aside.
Every shop has sales signs in the windows, but its the same the country over; no one is buying. I do actually like this town; as I did Hull. To see it so on its uppers is sad. Maybe its not as bad as I paint; maybe a local will defend it. It may be a great place to live, there are some fine houses out on the outskirts. But down by the old fish docks, its dying.
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