Shoppers Paradise

And so completes the first trip of 2013 to Chavtastic Basildon Town Centre.  Long gone are the halcyon days when one could pop into Bas and spend a fortune on budget £1.99 games in Software Plus (where QD is now, before it moved into the Eastgate Centre by the bus-stop), or spend an entire afternoon perusing through Star Trek memorabilia and comics in The Cartoon Shop (is it still open and if so, does John still run it?) without the risk of getting mugged, or abuse shouted at you by some rude pensioner with a chip on their shoulder.

Instead, the only enjoyment these days is watching mobs of tracksuit-clad youth (with their tracksuit bottoms tucked into their socks) ogling at what they can spend their dole money on in Cash Converters.

Oh... and playing "Spot the Newly Opened Pound Shop" game.  A fun way to entertain three bored children whilst they wait for their reward for being patient...  a trip to Toys R Us!

Still, I can't complain.  Basildonia, offers so much more than Evesham in terms of shopping variety.  That's not to say it's any good though - It's as hard to spend money in Bas as it is in Evesham.

AND, I am very proud of myself - I drove up and parked in a multi-storey car park today for the first time.  GO ME!  Over two years of driving, and I've never experienced the delights of driving to the top up until now.  Still not as fun as getting squashed by a boxed Aquavax in the back of Steve Ready's Dads car while going up the twisting multi-storey at speed in to Eastgate back in '86 - bloody hell, has it really been 27 years!

I'm living the dream.

Also...  What's this?  Three posts in as many days!

(a reminder to all that Basildon has not always been a chav-filled, pound shoppers paradise)

 

EDIT : Before anyone starts whinging at me, I would just like to add that I am not dissing Basildon.  Far from it.  Basildon was, and always will be my first home.  My views and opinions are only that of an outsider of the town, and are based on observations which I have made during our many visits to the area each year.