What do you love about where you live?

Birmingham isn’t my birth town but it’s definitely my hometown. I’ve practically lived here all of my life, so I’m proud of my Yorkshire and Brummie heritage in equal measure but for very different reasons. As second cities go, I think Brummagem deserves more of the spotlight. True, we’re not as well-known as our cousins daaan sarf! (Although Peaky Blinders are doing a msrvellous promo job!) And people may think that we’re as thick as two short planks (stupid) because of our accent; but it’s me home and here are five things that I love about Birmingstrong!

1. The pace: the pace of life is just right. For some, it may be too slow but it has the Goldilocks effect for me; it’s not London where it’s toooo fast, cold and unfriendly. It’s not like the North where it’s reeeeal slow. The Brum pace of life is juuuuust right.

2. You can actually buy a house in a diverse city: A proper real life one with a garden and stuff!! It’s all well and good living in and around the epicentre of the UK but who wants to live in a barely-there home where rats and pigeons are your neighbours and the water looks brown? Our communities rub along together and as a minority-majority city, I love the diversity of my home city – a diversity that is steeped in the history of our city. We have more canals than Venice (thank you, Irish people) and the Industrial Revolution strengthened its roots here (look no further than the contribution of the blood, sweat and tears of enslaved African Caribbean peoples for that). To this day Chinatown thrives and the Balti Triangle is world famous and ever evolving with cuisine from all over. Shoutout to Little Khartoum on the Villa Road and Leyans Restaurant for their Sudanese café food.

3. Best footie team in the world: Aaaaah my beloved football team – Aston Villa. There’s nothing like a bit of claret and blue to brighten up your day! We may be a teapot team (always in the middle of the table) but they were the team local to where I grew up and whilst I’m not a season ticket holder, I do check in every now and then to make sure we’re not getting relegated.

4. Our accent: Now the Birmingham accent has been heavily criticised as being “miserable”, thick” or “depressing”. The disdain for our accent is unwarranted. I love our accent! Our accent has been voted the worst for far too long. Then, when I heard what people actually thought was the Birmingham accent, I had to cuss. Dear Anybody who cares, THAT IS NOT A BIRMINGHAM ACCENT! All I’m going to say is:

I absolutely love Birmingham. We are good folk up here. For a big city, we’re friendly. We love a good laugh. We can be manicured, sophisticated and suave but we are also the diamonds in the rough that make you feel alive for the right reasons. Our night life is coming back to what it used to be and our ever-thriving foodie scene is better than ever. We’re not prententious, tell-it-like-it-is folk… What’s not to love?

What do you love about where you’re from? Are you a Brummie? What could I have added to the list? Leave your comments down below.

I love you for reading,

Tricia xx