Nostalgia From The United Kingdom 1999-2001

London, Windsor walkway-trekearth

Manchester-trekearth

I have discussed the incident with Manchester University and the being bottled incident more than once on my blogs, and so I will not discuss these within this post.

Please note that the dates on the photos are incorrect.

When I arrived in Manchester the University did not have student housing available for me or an academic adviser and so I had to find my own accommodation and therefore I did some research with some assistance from someone at the University and I rented a flat from a fellow or bloke named 'Dave'.

First I rented in Crumpsall and then later in Gorton. This was for over a year of the almost two year stay. Less than half of my stay I house-sat for missionaries that are among my group of Christian friends that are life long friends I made in the United Kingdom. Most of whom have now moved out of the Greater Manchester area.

Here are some photos from the first 'flat' I rented from Dave in Crumpsall.

That is the oven in September 1999 after an attempted wipe down. That is how bad the grease was! 

And in the beginning the flat did not have any heat.

Crumpsall and the outside of the flat.

I was going through the political issues with Manchester University and not getting any work done and so I headed home for Christmas 1999 and also visited my friend and his family JB that at that time lived in Southern Ontario.

JB and I visited Niagara Falls and Buffalo, New York with two trips.

From Southern Ontario I flew back to Greater Vancouver for Christmas. I then took a return flight back to Southern Ontario, visited with JB and family again and then boarded a flight back to Manchester. 

When I returned to Crumpsall my flat had been broken into and all of my electronic equipment stolen including my computer.

There was a note from Dave which stated, and I have the actual hand-written note glued to my photo album here: 

'Russell, your flat was broken into 25/12/99 I have refixed door. Janice (NO 6) has reported it to police. Dave.'

I emailed and phoned JB about the issue at the time and his Father is a retired police officer and his Father thought there was a good chance that Dave was responsible for the break in. Dave knew I was away and could have arranged to have an associate or associates break in.

At the time I reasoned that this was of course an intellectual, philosophical possibility but I thought with the high crime rate in the area it was just more likely a matter of the fact that persons reasoned that I had been away for a few weeks and took advantage of the situation.

There had been a prior incident, for example, when I took the third photo on this post presented of the outside of the flat where a young thug type slammed on his car breaks and jumped out his vehicle and with from my Canadian perspective, a whiny difficult to understand Manchester accent, as in not someone well-spoken, and was questioning why I was taking the photos. I simply stated 'private photos' sternly and he walked back toward his car and drove away.

This to me demonstrated among other things observed that Crumpsall was a high crime area. 

And so I asked Dave to find me a better area, and he found a better flat in the supposedly slightly safer area of Gorton, according to him.

When I moved back to Greater Vancouver for the Summer of 2000, it was nearly for good, perhaps it should have been. But I did move back again to Manchester for basically another year. This time I wised up and stored all my electronic equipment that I could remember with a Sikh computer technician and friend that built my new computer that was the replacement for the one that had been stolen.

When I returned to Gorton, once again I had been burgled, but I reason I only had lost a watch to theft that I had mistakenly left behind.

My electronic goods were all safely stored in my Sikh friend's basement in Trafford close to Manchester United...

Once again JB stated that his Father reasoned that Dave was behind these burglaries and this time although I had no solid evidence I decided to play it safe.

I accepted my missionary friend's offer to house-sit.

As far as Gorton being supposedly a slightly safer area, one of the neighbours in a nearby building had two people visit him, tie him to a chair, beat him to death, take nothing and leave the door open for the entire neighbourhood to view.

A local merchant told me he thought I had been the victim.

And I stated that I carried a night stick and I would probably be more difficult to take out by two thugs.

I also trained with that weapon.

Actually, the first thing the downtown weapons Manchester store owner offered me when I asked for a self-defence weapon was a Samurai sword, but I stated I was not interested in beheading an intruder.

Proverbs 15:22 English Standard Version (ESV)

22 Without counsel plans fail, but with many advisers they succeed.

I had limited support from my soon to be ex-University.

I did take some of Dave's advice as I was in a new country in a unfamiliar cultural situation, but realized that in light of his oven and heating issues, for example, with the first flat that there were some serious problems in regards to professionalism.

I did consider the wise councel of an intelligent and wise friend and his intelligent and wise Father that had worked as a police officer and would have experience with the issue of burglary.

However, without more evidence to this date, I have no firm conclusions in regard to whom would be responsible for either burglary.

But I am firm in my conclusions that I was wise to exit myself out from that rental situation.

Gorton

End

Country Road by Caron Smed: Caron was kind enough to share her fine art with my blogs once again. I have seen her work live as well and it is very impressive for depth, brilliant colour and detail. In line with this post this country road painting reminds me of the backroad off the tourist map trips I have taken with my family and friends over the years in the United Kingdom.