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Back to Bristol, where my family belongs
This column is written by James Caig – returning to live in Bristol after 15 years away
Three vans, six removal men and fifteen years of our lives followed us up the M4 on the last weekend of August. Since then, the family has been has been in residential limbo.
We are four-fifths in Bristol. The family home, for now, is a rented house in Bishopston. I’ve been staying with friends in Hackney, seeing out the notice period of my job.
My weeks start on the 6am from Temple Meads. They end in a taxi cruising through the vibrant day-glo party that is Stokes Croft on a Friday night. The permanent house is close, but just yet no cigar.
Two of our children started their new primary school, and they’re settling in nicely. But everything is new right now, for all of us. This September our family didn’t just move up a year. We changed up our lives.
The temporary double life will be worth it, though. We’re back here for a different, better life, making time for the important things. My wife and I have fond memories of when we last lived here, 15 years ago.
But from afar, and on first impression coming back, Bristol seems to have become, well, even more Bristol. The dial has been turned up. It’s even more creative, even more digital, even more green. The docks are even more populated. Clifton Village is even more Clifton Village.
We’ve enjoyed exploring Bristol from our unique limbo status. We’ve been to vintage fairs, looking for furniture for which we don’t yet have a house, and buying records for a player that’s in storage. We’ve hosted a sixth birthday party, asking our son to choose new friends from a class he’s only been in three weeks. We’ve hovered around the docks, watching the skaters and making mental notes for future things to do.
Different family members have observed important rites of passage, too. Some or all of us have become members at the zoo, been invited to a sleepover, gone to a gig at the Trinity Centre, attended a talk about Cary Grant at the Watershed, and slid down the rock faces near the Observatory. These are the things that make you start to feel you belong.
As a result I’ve realised saying ‘yes’ is a good way to start your life in a new city.
‘Yes’ to that invite to the pub from other parents at the school.
‘Yes’ to that new adult learning class.
Even, perhaps, ‘yes’ to the idea of a monthly column in a new magazine. It just might give you the excuse you need to explore the cultural life of your new adopted home.
What better way to dive back in?
Picture: Jon Le-Bon / Shutterstock
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