Walking Alone in the Dark (as a WOMAN!)

I’ve gotten into a routine now where I go for a walk each night after work, for about an hour. I take the same route each night. As it happens, with winter approaching and for the fact that I live in Edinburgh, it’s now dark when I do go out. Hence I stopped the Holyrood Park – route (I walked through there a few times when it was pitch black! Rapists abound).

Now, my BF B. thinks Edinburgh is a dangerous place, and isn’t too keen on the idea of my walking alone at night. I’ve thus far dismissed it – for me, the city is a safe haven compared to the horrors of Hackney (crime pit!) where I lived last year. Here, I feel very safe and at home. Edinburgh is ‘my’ city and my home, and for some reason it’s as if it could never do me any harm.

Yesterday, however, a work colleague said the same thing – she was SHOCKED at my walking on my own in the dark, and strongly recommended I don’t do it. This has now put some doubts into my mind – nothing too major but still – do they have a point?

I always feel invincible here and very reasonable. I would NOT have left the flat in Hackney after dark – hell, I didn’t even dare walk around with my laptop during hte day as the chances of it being robbed off me were quite high (no exaggeration here – my chav mate J. had contacts to this person who handled stolen goods… and that’s the kind of thing that this dealer in stolen goods was offered, apparently).

I really don’t want to change my ways with regard to this walking. It’s refreshing and extremely relaxing, and I have a good night’s sleep every night. I may have to give it some more thought though, or make extra sure that I’m safe. Maybe not go out too late, and avoid the roads that aren’t too well lit or not busy enough. I.e. stay on the main roads 🙂

Stabbing in Hackney

The BBC reports that a boy aged 14 (!) was stabbed in Hackney last night just before midnight, and died this morning in hospital.

It happened in St Thomas’s Place, which is basically the side street next to Lidl, about 10-15 minutes’ walk from where I used to live. And someone asked me the other day if Edinburgh had (in my opinion) a lot of undesirables, i.e. drunks on the street, crime, etc.!

No! I said. It feels like heaven (just like heaven). I didn’t say that, but it does feel peaceful and quiet and the junkies I used to see in Fountainbridge were harmless enough. In Hackney, I would not have stepped out the door after a certain time. Definitely not on my own. There was one time when we went deep into a high-rise rough-as-fuck- estate to see a man about a dog, and while I was waiting in the car a group of youths gathered nearby (I think the estate was somewhere near Kingsland Road, near the Hackney Community College). I wasnae happy.

Cannae beat the experience of that. Hackney = the future, the apocalypse if you want to see it now. Just go there and walk around. At night. At the week-end.

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• Boy, 14, stabbed to death in Hackney

G. Went Missing Yesterday

G., V.’s 13-year-old daughter, went missing yesterday. She simply didn’t come home, even though she was meant to be home by 5.30PM (there was a stabbing on Mare Street).

Thus, when I went over to see them this morning – we had planned to do something together while I’m in London – they were really distraught. They had called the police etc. and we were trying to find out her school friend’s home address and phone number, as V. suspected that she had gone there to stay overnight, without telling her.

She didn’t answer her phone or anything, and V. (her mum) tried frantically all day to get hold of her, using her msn to chat to her friends, with all of us trying to help (I phoned the council to try and find out the contact details of the school’s head teacher).

In the end, it turned out she had gone to Camden and stayed somewhere overnight. She was asked to report to the nearest police station. She had done the typical teenage thing – told her friend’s mother that they were staying at hers, and not telling her mum anything!

She’s home now thank God. No longer logged in to msn, and her message reads

Be gone for a while those in da know will know Y

Edinburgh: Best Place to live in the UK

The same poll that last year declared Hackney the worst place to live (I mentioned it back then – a year has passed since – w0000000000000t!), has this year found Edinburgh to be the best place to live in the UK!

Yes, it’s only a TV show. Still, it confirms what I think anyway: Edinburgh is the bee’s knees.