$300|1-Kei's in Ipswich $000 by Kei/Carnage $eee Well in the last issue of The Word or at least the last few issues, I mentioned that at some point I'd be moving to Ipswich to start work for a rather large telecommunications firm. Here's what I've been up to since last issue so long ago.. During several weeks of conversation with 2 people I met at university, we decided over the phone to meet at Ipswich University College on a certain date at 10am. Rather than setting off at 5am that morning, they were staying at a mates flat in London and were going to drive from there in the morning. I contacted Kenco of Carnage who had since moved back home to the village of Stamford just north of Peterborough. It turned out his folks were away and there would be no problem of me staying there for one night and travelling to Ipswich the following morning. I packed the minimum amount of stuff I would need to last me a week in Ipswich. This consisted of one bag with my clothes and gear in it and a coolbox full of food. I left all of my computers behind which was hard for me as I'm a computer junkie. All I took was my little electronic organizer which I take everywhere with me. My organizer has saved my arse several times in the past. The last time was when I went to Edinburgh to see a girlfriend and we had a massive argument and we fell out. She figured I'd spend the next few days kipping on her sofa with her telling me what to do in her flat untill it was time for me to head back. Fuck that. I pulled out the organizer, dialled in the local area code to locate my nearest contact, phoned him up and an hour later I was on my way to his digs! She was non to impressed. ;) I once worked out that within the UK, I have a contact within 30 miles of every major city! So here I was one morning loading my car up with my gear getting ready for a very long drive down south. I had only recently managed to restore my car to road worthiness after being off the road for the past 4 years due to lack of funds on my part. I had also not driven for 4 years so the last 2 days after my car past it's MOT, I'd been practicing driving. It was like riding a bike only with more revs. My car didn't have a radio aerial so I had to play music tapes all the way to Stamford. I got bored of Celine Dion and Subliminal so in went some heavy metal and I began to pick up some speed. I arrived in Stamford making good time only to get completly lost. Kenco's house was located in a little village called Ryhall and his house was not easy to find. Once located though I woke the bugger up and we unloaded the car, grabbed a bite to eat then booted the playstation. I better take this opotunity to thank Kenco for his hospitality! Let me know when your dad is bringing some more vidz back from Oman mate! As soon as I get myself a PSX I'll get TR1 & 2 definetly! The next morning I found myself driving to Ipswich. Not long after passing Cambridge I realised I was running out of petrol. My car only has a small tank which takes about 23 quid to fill and will do 218 miles. Ipswich is about 251 miles from Middlesbrough and that's not counting getting lost in Stamford. My car does not have a reserve tank so when the needle is pointing at empty, find a petrol station now! 5 miles later and still no sign of a petrol station so I pull off the A14 and head into the nearest village only to drive out the other side after not seeing anything but cottages, and coming back out onto the A14. Just around the bend though was a petrol station! If I had only stayed on the road 30 seconds longer! I arrived at the agreed location an hour late but so did the others. We got a map of Ipswich town center from the college and went around the estate agents looking for a place to live. After visiting several dumps we finally found one that suited our needs but it was a half hour drive outside of Ipswich on the coast line in a little village called Shotley. The estate agents said they would hurry the paperwork but it may take a week. The B&B's were not cheap so one of the other guys had brought a tent. It was costing us 2quid each a night on a camp site but that's what we did for several days. Work proved interesting but we all signed a form saying we would not discuss what we do outside of work so all I can tell you is that I have my own desk, computer, phone and the use of a group secretary who is a very pretty 19 year old called Gemma. On the 3rd day though tempers had started to threy between the 3 of us camping in a tent. We found that we were just not getting on. On the 3rd night though it got worse and physical violence was threatened. The other 2 were bigger than me but younger being 20 and 21 and me being 24. So when the biggest threatened to smash my face in he was a bit suprised when I said ok let's get this sorted right now. He calmed down and began to realise that if they alienated me from the group which they had been doing, they would end up having to pay my 3rd of the rent. It was too late though as I left that day after pulling out the organiser (once more) and discovering a contact nearby. A quick call ensured a floor to kip on and a TV to watch which I was missing by now! We decided to go our seperate ways. Those 2 would get the house themselves as the rent would only be 35 a week each now. I headed over to my contacts house (cheers to Chris, Richard and Adrian if you are rading this on yer Amiga's! I appreciated the floor space!). After a tour of Ipswich I finally found the house. They let me crash on the floor in the front room which wasn't being used anymore. As they worked at the same place as me, offering them lifts in to work was the least I could do for my new hosts. Over the next few days I had permission from my boss to take time out whenever I needed it to look for a place to live. There were some real expensive dumps in Ipswich I can tell you! Ipswich is full of old houses being an old town but these places were falling apart and the renters were still asking 250 a month! I finally chose a place which was large at 225 a month but there was no where to park close by which would be a problem. Before I signed anything though I remebered I had one last place to see tomorrow which I had arranged a few days ago. I went to see it at lunch time the next day and immediately wanted it! It was a recently built large house split into 4 flats. Mine would be the second floor front flat. Basically it was a small batchelor pad with a bedroom, bathroom, lounge and kitchen complete with furniture, a new cooker and fridge. The paperwork was completed but I couldn't move in till next wedensday. That weekend I travelled back to Middlesbrough with one of the guys from the house I was staying with. He had offered to pay half the petrol if I took him and some of his possessions to Wakefield. Earlier though we had had to call out the AA (which I had just joined) because my car was leaking petrol. It turned out that the rubber hose connecting the filler pipe to the petrol tank had perished. The AA guy siphoned a gallon of petrol into a container which did the job temporarily. We stopped off and had a McDonald's meal at an all-night McDonalds in Blyth (I think). This was about midnight. We didn't get to Wakefield untill 1am. From there I didn't get to my home until 3am. I unloaded my gear from my car and then all I can remember is waking up at 7am. I was lying on my bed half undressed. I must of being undressing when I just passed out asleep. Adrian, the guy I had given a lift to had been giving me coke and coffee all night as he was getting woried as I seemed to be drifting onto the hard shoulder a lot as he figured I was getting to tired. He offerd to let me kip at his house in Wakefield but my folks were going away early the next morning for 2 weeks and I needed my dad to give me a hand with the petrol problem and an oil leak I was having. I managed to stay awake listing to DIO, Iron Maiden and Doro Pesche. That morning me and my dad went to a hose dealers and got the hose for nothing as this guy sells it by the reel and the little cut-off we neeeded wasn't worth the hassle of paperwork so he said. We fixed the petrol problem. The oil leak turned out to be not just a new oil filter seal but a CV joint problem as well. That would have to wait till next time. They headed off on their holiday. They had left me 15 3hour videos to watch of stuff they had taped for me. Also I had to install a satellite system for my dad. It took an hour to get the satellite system in and working and the rest of the weekend I spent packing and watching videos. I only managed to watch 6 tapes. The rest of the tapes I took with me as well as all my post and 50% of my gear as the rest would not fit in my car. So I only had one VCR, my A1200 and my laptop with me. The drive back was uneventfull apart from counting the road kill on the A14 between Cambridge and Ipswich. There was a lot. I had my own TV with me this time so I tuned it in to the local frequencies which seemed to be at the opposite end of the range than ours in Middlesbrough. I had been watching an old TV at my contacts which had to be warmed up and tapped occasionaly. I found Charlie Grace on East Anglia to be interesting but it was the last episode. ;( I must point out however that I've been just about everywhere in the UK and seen most ITV channels and Tyne Tees has to be the best. East Anglia is pretty sad to be honest. Central and Meridian are better but Border and Thames are worse. I finally moved into my flat. I met my first neighbour who has the flat next to mine. He talked for ages about the do's and donts. It turns out that he is house proud. This was confirmed as every time I went up the stairs carrying my gear from my car he followed me with a dust pan and brush. This was getting weird. I spent the rest of that day cleaning and dusting and sorting my stuff out. The next day I went to work. Over the next week I would get up, make breakfast and head into work only to come home and play WORMS DC on my Amiga. I had given my contacts my new address so all I could do was wait for some jiffies. I ran in to my neighbour again who informed me that the guy directly beneath was an alcoholic and if people didn't put the "B" after my house number, my mail would go to him and he would keep it as he is like that. However he isn't around at present so my mail started coming in ok until yesterday when a redirected package from my home address had a suspicious slit in it's side. According to my mam there was money in it (for return postage) when she redirected it so someone has made off with it. Whether it was a neighbour or postal worker I could'nt prove. So those of you who are sending to my address at present, well sealed jiffies only! NO envelopes and NO money! Unless it's notes of course.. ;) The TV is real boring especially East Anglia so I enquired about cable. The next day a cable guy came around with some info on cable. I had only made a general enquiry but they were following it up. It had to go through the estate agents. They ok'd it and I got set a date for the following wedensday. Living at home with your folks is a pretty easy life as I'm sure most of you know. However, living on your own is a completly different story. I found though that I was starting to enjoy going shopping every friday at the local supermarket. Shopping is supposed to be a pain in the arse but I found it fun budgeting as best as I could while buying food so I had more to spend when I reached the alcohol section. Alcohol these days is so exenpsive don't you think? I made the mistake of asking a question on the companies USENET newsgroups. The question was "Is there a difference between north and south beers?". I logged in 5 minutes later to find a thread of 100 messages from my origonal question! I only seem to like expensive drinks. I like guinness, Jack Daniels No.7, strong Scottish/Irish whisky, Southern Comfort, Bailey's Irish Cream and Becks Bier. I think 15 quid or more for a bottle of JD is a bit much. Anyone out there who can get it cheaper? I know someone in M'bro who can get Famous Grouse at a fiver a bottle so I'm placing an order asap. As TV was boring I had gotten myself into the habbit of going to the cinema at the weekends. There is only the ODEON in Ipswich so there's no competition to bring prices down. In M'bro it is 1.50 per film. In Ipswich it is twice that at 3.00 and they don't do student discounts! However they do have free postcards and posters in the lobby so there's some free jiffy junk in my carrier bag. |1-The Town Ever been to York? Well if so you have an idea of what Ipswich is like. It's town center high street is pedestrian only. It has a square in the middle where all the banks and building societies are based as well as the small market stands. There are several shopping centres. East Gate is a small shopping centre with an indoor car boot sale for some reason. Tower Ramparts is a more high class shopping centre with escalators, lifts and glass everwhere. Ipswich town is much bigger than Middlesbrough. The high street is 3 times longer with major stores such as a Virgin Megastore, a big HMV and W.H.Smith's. The best shop though is QD which I haven't come across before. You can kit your flat out with this store at a really cheap price. Ther are loads of side streets off the town centre leading to all sorts of shops. In York there is a place called "The Shambles". In Ipswich it's called "The Walk". |1-Speedway Still bored, I noticed that everyday on my way to work I was passing Foxhall stadium. This holds speedway and stockcar racing. I haven't been to speedway since I was about 12. Me and my dad were into it in a big way. My dad even owned a Rotax Jap speedway bike with dirt and grass track frames. I gaped at the entrance fee however. It was 9quid a person to get in! I paid it anyway and was glad when the programme was thrown in as well. Finding a good spot I started talking to a guy who said he's a long-time fan of Ipswich SGR Witches (the team). He filled me in on details about the team and speedway in general since I hadn't been into it for a while. I always planned to start going again when I had some money but the Middlesbrough track was sold and re-developed and I don't know what happened to the team. Any speedway fans out there know? I was told that Chris Louis was the best rider on the team and one of the top men in the country. I had actually met a top speedway rider once in Morrisons supermarket on Teesside Park in Stockton. His name is Gary Havelock in case any of you are into speedway. He rode for Bradford and I think he now works as a speedway presenter on SKY SPORTS 3. The races got under way and I started off on a nostalgia trip with the smell of the bike smoke and the taste of dirt combined with the smell of hotdogs and chips. I followed the programme easily enough and started enjoying myself and followed the races closely. Since M'bro don't have a team anymore I guess Ipswich is mine now since I'm living here. The one thing that always amazed me as a kid with speedway is the way the bikes work on corners in that you turn the wheel in the wrong direction! Also these bikes have no brakes! The match I watched was Ipswich V Swindon. It was close all the way being a draw most of the time. It came down to the lsast race and Louis was in front as usuall. His partner in this race was a new kid on the block currently in 3rd. If he could retain his place we would win on points. However he had other ideas and shot forward after the last corner taking 2nd place! The crowd went wild and so did the kid! He went around the track pulling wheelies and stunts! I bought a magazine recently (Speedway Star) to try and update myself on the sport as things had changed over the last few years. For one they have this carpet sweeper on the back of the bikes now to prevent dirt being sprayed up into the visors of those riding behind you. If there are any speedway fans out there then I'd like you to get in touch or at least write some articles on the subject for this magazine. If anyone knows what happened to my favourite rider, Steve Wilcox then I'd appreciate the info. |1-Library Most of you know I like reading books with all the "Recommended Reading" articles I've written for Grapevine and The Word. So it was natural for me to seek out and join the local library. I was expecting a small library filled with Mills & Boon books and some dog eared sci-fi paperbacks. What I wasn't expecting was a fully computerised library with mainly new books as well as music and videos. Even the central library is better as it is all on one level but has more books than M'bro's central library. The books are mostly new. I even found Harry Harrison's new Stainless Steel Rat Book "The Stainless Steel Rat Goes To Hell" among others. Watch out for another "Recommended Reading" article from me! Ipswich may be an old town from the outside but that doesn't man it is on the inside. You can rent a video for 1.75 and keep it for a fortnight. You can get mainstream videos of 6 months old and older to classical and foreign tapes as well as sci-fi series from Blake 7 to Voyager. Music wise, there are tapes and CD's as well as CDROM's for your home computer. |1-Cable It didn't take that long to have cable wired up. I was missing my satellite system so I figured that cable would ease my withdrawal symptoms for a while. Cable basically consisted of a set-top box that took it's feed from one of 3 wall connections. The other 2 were phone and FM radio. Cable did not however have access to my 2 favourite channels, SKY 2 and PARAMOUNT. Also it was 2 quid more than SKY. So much for being the cheaper option. The phone on the other hand was much cheaper than BT. It is only 4.43 a month which is half of BT's line rental charges. Calls are also chaeper and you get free services such as Call Waiting, Call Forwarding, 3-way calling and voicemail. |1-EPILOGUE I'm starting to get used to living in Ipswich now. It's a lot different from Middlesbrough. Thecrime levelis a hell of a lot lower. Most of the cars here are classics like mine or american. I've already said thatIpswich is anold town. It has a lot of museums and nationalheritage places as well as large parks, carnivals and country pubs. I'm missing Middlesbrough and my family and friends but it's nice having money in your pocket and your own independence. I guess that I'll also have more time to spend on my computers and todothe Word as long as I can afford the electric bill with paying for speedway and the cinema every week. end