In suburbia

One of the things I always think, is, whenever people tell you about where they live they always tell you the touristy things and no-one ever tells you about the really boring bits. Like, where people live, where they do their shopping and what kinds of flowers they have in their front gardens, etc. It made me think of this when I went to Edinburgh recently because all the houses were so different to our small stunted houses Down South. I am always interested in the really boring bits and for those of you who do not live in the UK this might have the charm of novelty. For the rest of you it probably will not and you are welcome to skip ;-).

Put that camera down and stroke my furry back

The first thing about Cambridge is, wherever you go and whatever you are doing, a cat will jump out at you and want you to stroke it. I think 80% of houses here must have a cat. One of the Great Cultural Differences between the US and the UK is, in the US they keep their cats indoors because, as I understand, if they go out they may be eaten by a ravening coyote and/ or a bear. In the UK 99% of our cats are free range and are at liberty to molest passers by. Indeed the other day I had to try to rescue an older lady near our house who was weighed down with shopping bags and had a very determined cat weaving around her feet. Alas! She had fish in one of the bags and thus I was powerless to dissuade the cat, and as I walked up the road I could hear her saying ‘Ooo! Stop it! Go on, you naughty thing!’ all the way.

I am estimating £800,000. Nice flowers though

The second thing about Cambridge is, house prices are just completely ridiculous. If you buy a house I think it is now almost impossible to get anything anywhere near the centre for less than a quarter of a million pounds, and if you rent, small houses/ flats cost about £800 - £1500 a month. This means if people have a house they hold on to it and no-one can ever leave anyone else because of their mortgages, unless they find a couple with a mortgage of a similar amount/ length of payment left and swap partners. Even when the housing market was at its worst, there were people in Cambridge gazumping other people with cash. It is all very depressing and sometimes I feel like knocking on people’s doors and saying, excuse me, do you mind telling me what you do and how much you earn, as I am curious.

Spot the bike. They're everywhere!

Everyone cycles everywhere in Cambridge, apart from me because I prefer walking and ambling about and stroking cats. So there are bikes everywhere you look and lots of second hand bike shops. Cycle theft is a major concern (yes! It is! Yes this is indeed a bit of a backwater!) and the only untethered bike in Cambridge which has never been stolen is the one in our back garden which I bought thinking I would be able to ride it. I could not, as I think it was actually a bike for a child, and it bruised my coccyx. I may put it in front of the house with a sign on it. ‘Someone take this away. PLEASE’.

See? Bikes again

Most houses in Cambridge are tiny terraces, often two up two downs where you go into the living room straight from the street, but there are some big ones like this. These are normally split into bedsits and/ or owned by the colleges. Often, university departments are in these big houses. When I was looking for a bedsit after I finished university, I went to see one in a house like this where it was just like Rising Damp. The lightswitches were hanging off the walls by their wires and there were 2 toilets for 15 rooms. We were dogsitting at the time and I used to go back from the horrors of bedsit-hunting and cry into the dog’s fur (she had dreadlocks), she used to sit patiently and then she and I used to pull ourselves together, drink coffee (me) and listen to loud music (both of us) while we waited to go to the pub.

I want to live in a boat with a solar power generator but not one of those chemical toilets

People live in house boats on the river. I always think this looks wonderful, but Partner says if he moved into a houseboat with all his books he would sink it. When I took this photo there was a boy sitting on one of the boats happily playing his guitar. It may not be so much fun in winter though. There is a big park next to this river, and actually there are loads of green open spaces in the centre, many of which have cows on in the summer. Sometimes the cows chase tourists, and when Stephen Hawking still used to get about in his wheelchair the cows who graze on the fen over the other side of the city used to chase him over the bridge while we watched from the pub.

No-one has ever stripped to their pants in this launderette. It is devoid of eroticism

All the centre of Cambridge is made up almost entirely of chain stores which is a bit boring, but as soon as you get out of the centre you find small slightly bizarre, 50s-looking shops like this. There is a shop round the corner from this where they have made their own sign, and, though I am supportive of the DIY ethos, well, you can really tell. I imagine the owner setting off up a ladder with paintbrush in hand, crying, pay a signwriter? I think not, and everyone else standing round raising their eyebrows despairingly at each other.

The scene of the Weaving Cat and Fish Bag incident. Leafy suburbs near my house

Plants in front gardens go in fashions. A while ago everyone had those giant spiky plants, at the moment we seem to be on things in pots, roses, or lavender. My street has a lot of petunias. There is a street near my house where someone has written all of Jerusalem on their front window and someone else has made some eyes and put them in the hedge. I don’t like to actually take direct photographs of people’s houses but I might see if I can do it discreetly to show you because, you know, eyes in a hedge O_O. Cambridge is very arty so often people have quite interesting displays in their windows, one house has a large hand sculpture, another has straw figures operating a wheelbarrow. A house not far from us has a big black cat ornament outside, often there is a real living black cat sitting next to it looking vaguely contemptuous. I assume it belongs to the house and has not just been attracted there by some kind of cosmic ordering vibe.

Have I bored you? What are the houses like where you live, and are the biggest threats to public safety free-range cats, horror at house prices and bike thieves? I am curious :-).