I went back to Nottingham
On Monday of this week I was seized by an uncontrollable desire to move back to the first city I lived in post-uni. It was such a strong impulse that I couldn’t fall asleep until 2:30am. I’ve long been a believer of the mantra “never trust how you feel about your life after 10pm”, which is typically when most of my negative thoughts happen, but…
This impulse was uncharacteristic for me in that 1) it was a positive idea, imagined as moving towards something rather than running away from something else, and 2) I generally do not have such strong and sudden resolutions.
By Tuesday I was calling my aunt who lives in nearby Grantham, and my mum, to whom I had previously half-promised a relocation to London, to inform them of my plans. To my aunt I had posed the challenge of “talk me out of this”, which was impossible as she loves having me in fairly close reach!
On Wednesday I took the day of the work to travel up there by train from Cheltenham. I went to my favourite cafe in town, The Hungry Pumpkin, for lunch. I hopped into St. Mary’s Church for a brief reminiscence, and then grabbed the bus to Lady Bay, an area I had once discovered while on a summer bike ride.
After a flat viewing (no thanks, not this time, no I don’t have any feedback for the landlord), I walked through The Hook Nature Reserve (funny how all my favourite places I associate with exercise), across Trent Bridge and along Victoria Enbankment up to Wilford Toll Bridge. I got the tram into ’town’ as far as the Victoria Centre before walking back towards the station.
Previously I lived in the city centre, overlooking the Lace Market tramstop. Friends and guests will recall not being able to sleep very well. I’m hoping to live somewhere else this time round, probably in the Trent Basin area, which is still kinda under construction but mostly finished. That way, I get walking distance to Meadow Lane for Notts County games, running distance to Colwick Country Park and the swimming lake, and I can still go to the gym I used to go to.
Now that’s all well and good, but the one tiny detail I need to work out is: am I gushing for the nostalgia/optimism that naturally came to me after finishing university or is there something unique about this place that I can’t get anywhere else? I want to believe it’s the latter. Maybe the fact that I’ve listed the attractions means that I want to be there? Open question. More soul searching required.
Well, thanks for reading, comments/insults welcome via email and so on and so forth.