The town is called Loughborough, often shortened to L'boro, and pronounced "luffb'ra". It is in he East Midlands district, about 180 km north of London, just off the M1. [So if there is an east-of-the-middle lands, is there also a "just-south-of-the-east-of-the-middle- no,- a-little-bit-to-the-left, -more,-more,-lower,-thats-it-lands?]
L'boro is a university town of about 50,000 people, with the university most famous for having a center of sporting excellence which attracts many elite athletes and much of the British olympic team train here. Other than that there doesn't seem to be too many major attractions. The John Taylor Bellfoundry is here, the guys who made Great Paul, the largest bell in England that sits in St. Pauls Cathedral. At 17 tons it's even bigger even than Big Ben. I'd like to see Piffy play that one (obscure Late Show reference to you out there in Aus). There is also a steam train.
When asking about places to live, ie: should I stay local or is it better in the bigger cities and commute, no town gets any recommendation, including L'boro. It was the same situation when asking about which bank to use; everyone proceeded to disown the bank that they used, with the net result being me none the wiser.
Surrounding cities include Leicester, Derby, and Nottingham, and if you stretch it a bit, Birmingham. Lieceister is closest about 10 miles SE (no, they aren't fully metrificated). All the comments about Leicester are that anyone can live elswewhere, does. But no-one tells me why. I suspect that its higher population of "asians", what they call the Indians, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis, could explain it. My indian housemate goes there to get a curry rather than anywhere in town here.
Derby is about 15 miles to the north, and where Rolls Royce PLC (ie pty.ltd) has its headquarters. It is basically an industrial town full of old worker's cottages, and again doesn't get too many recommendations as a place to live. Other industries there include Bombadier rail transportation and aeronautical, and Toyota. And a big deal, believe it or not, is the new-ish Westfield shopping center that has opened there recently. Whoop de doo. Admittedly it was one of the first places I drove to when I got my car.
At 18 miles to the NE Nottigham frequently gets mentioned as the best place for a night out and the biggest of the cities so far, but also as the stabbing death capital of the UK. "How vibrant", the real estate agent might say! But probably too far away. And Birmingham is another industrial town that has a small bit of urban renewal as a jewel of hope for the coffee culture future. It also has, apparently, the stupidest sounding accent in all of Britain. Dunno about that as I'm still amused by all the Scots who work at RRFCS. After 6 weeks youd've thought I'd be over it, but no. If only I could get them to say "cheese eating surrender monkeys".
And there are lots of small villages in the surrounding areas, generally quiet little places that I could see being appealing if I was planning to stay here and had a young family and a dog. Quorn, Ashby de la Zouche, Burton on the Woods, Barrow upon Soar. Doesn't it all sound so English? And the Peak District is not far away, about an hour or so, and Lakes District about 2 hours... so access from the Mid-lands to the Aroundy-lands is quite good.
So what do I like about Loughborough so far? Dunno yet. The English do know how to do pubs really well, so words like 'quaint' and 'rustic' can be used in abandon. But not "pubikt", which is a bastardised swenglish word I made up once, and that was enough. I have found The Orange Tree which plays good indie music, including some kinda obscure stuff from Sweden. There seem to be heaps more clubs and bars here than in Lulea, though my one clubbing experience was about as poor as expected, as it isn't my thing. But even at Club Cleo in Lulea the people really dressed up to go out, and being Swedish generally looked really good. Here... not so.
And there is an Australian Restaurant, which I've already eaten at, called Moomba. Apparently no Australians are involved, and the menu is not particularly aussie at all, just that there is lots of kangaroo as the meat option. They didn't even do anything special for Australia Day. And Fosters - it's everywhere! It is the cheap beer of choice, but not my choice. We managed to have Boags and Coopers at Moomba.
I've already done the weekend trip to London once, to catch my fill of kulcha, and catch up with Christina. The much better accessibility of that to here ($72 aud 2 hr train ride) when compared getting to Stockholm from Luleå (min $300 plane trip), is a very good thing.
So I leave you with some pics of the town center. Complaints about the weather and bad food will come soon, I promise!
Meanwhile pics via Facebook, just click on the link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=31878&l=94627&id=731953277
