Nick
Administrator
A lot of fancy signs, there was that bit where the motorbike is.
I noticed a fair few projectors projecting random stuff.
Is the simulator new or just the same one as before?
50 Reasons to Not Visit Coventry (10 Viewers)
- Thread starter Nick
- Start date
A lot of fancy signs, there was that bit where the motorbike is.
I noticed a fair few projectors projecting random stuff.
Is the simulator new or just the same one as before?
Rusty Trombone
Well-Known Member
The projectors and what they showing looked good, didn't stop to listen to any all the way through though. The seating for the simulator looked different from the cctv screen that the chap on the desk was watching, and I think the prices had gone up which may indicate an improved machine, but the straght answer is I dont know.
Nick
Administrator
Must admit I flew round it.
Some woman was kicking off though complaining that something she loved wasn't there now.
Noticed a lot of the features were missing, things like "touch the screen to do this", but no screen there.
Otis
Well-Known Member
Did you write this
http://www.ilivehere.co.uk/coventry-the-armpit-of-the-midlands.html/comment-page-1
It is old but the comments make me smile
If that made you smile then you're easily pleased, Grendel.
You really seen to dislike Coventry to a very worrying degree.
Grendel
Well-Known Member
Actually it is the comments to the article that were amusing from the locals defending the City such as;
Coventry is the greatest city on earth willenhall born and bred were loyal, look after our mates and have some of the most gorgeous girls in the uk !!!! I have lived in many cities around the world and cov girls on average have the biggest breasts and hearts to match. Our football team is sh*t there are far to many tourists /immigrants. The ring roads a nightmare buildings were rushed after the blitz and proper planning not taken into consideration I agree but who gives a fck and unless you live here who cares about your opinion. Cov city for life !!!!!!!!!!!!
bringbackrattles
Well-Known Member
Here we go again my city getting slagged of per usual. All large towns and cities have their good and bad parts,maybe though we have more shitty areas than most.I live in Bell Green and it's gone down over the years,with drunks and druggies congregating in the shopping area.But you travel around the country and you see it everywhere don't you ? Looking at the pictures in the paper today of the thousands who attended the Godiva festival showed our city in a good light,so there are positives around.If you've had a bad experience in a place it can stay with you,and you can slag it all off but that doesn't mean the rest of that city or town is bad. A friend can't stand Wales but I love the place !
Otis
Well-Known Member
Oh, you're the one then are you!
bringbackrattles
Well-Known Member
I find the sheep there more attractive than anywhere else !
Nick
Administrator
Shame I'm not a student!
Grendel
Well-Known Member
I am not a student
Otis
Well-Known Member
Otis
Well-Known Member
Exactly Macca!
It's ridiculous to talk of Coventry in such a bad light when there are so many towns and cities that are worse.
i absolutely adored Liverpool, but up there some of their buskers had to have chains round their buckets, that were wrapped round their ankles, to stop them being stolen.
Liverpool is a great city, but I saw 10 times the amount of beggars there as I do in Coventry.
chiefdave
Well-Known Member
Absolutely right. The thing I find in England, which I've not found in other countries, is an attitude of 'its like this everywhere' and accepting the decline rather than trying to do something about it.
Grendel
Well-Known Member
I fail to see why, just as I was born in Coventry I have to like it. I don't. I find it depressing and when I retire (sooner than later I hope) and my children have gone I will be moving to what I believe will be a much better part of England.
Why that irks you I do not get.
Nick
Administrator
Nobody saying nowhere else has beggars though.
Everywhere has parts that are shitholes and parts that are nice. It is all well and good saying The Cathedral is beautiful and Lady Herbert gardens are beautiful (which they are) but being from Coventry, it isn't really somewhere you want to go daily.
If you are from Coventry, you want decent shops, easy to get in and out of town, cheap or free parking, clean paths, no beggars, you want your bins emptied when they are meant to be. You don't want to go into town and walk past gangs of people staring and speaking in a different language when you just want to get something from a shop.
Why would I bother going in to town to get something when I could go the Central 6, The arena, Gallagher and park directly outside and get what I need from there and park for free and save the hassle?
Priorities are different if you have to live there compared to a day out.
Yep the concepts of pride and shame seem to be largely missing
Otis
Well-Known Member
It irks me Grendel, that Coventry has been voted in the top 50 cities for students in the entire world. That HAS to be a positive. Whether you are a student or not is not relevant in this scenario.
That IS a positive for the city. I am not a student either, but it is great for this shithole of a dump to be in the top 50 student cities in the world.
If all you can says is 'I'm not a student' then that is no counter for very positive news in this instance.
Grendel
Well-Known Member
It's not positive to me and I would guess it's a survey involving Warwick University students.
You like the place I don't - I can't see the issue really.
Otis
Well-Known Member
There is cheap parking to be found, Nick. I find Coventry a lot, lot cheaper than many other towns and cities I have to park in.
On a Sunday for instance, you can park for 4 hours for 50p. I would consider that very, very cheap indeed. You can park for 2 hours on any other day, for £1.80. I consider that cheap too.
I simply do not encounter the beggars. I cannot remember the last time anyone approached me or asked for money.
Actually, there was one, about 6 or 7 weeks ago. He was very aggressive by M&S, but that's the only one I have encountered in a long while. The only thing I see of suck an ilk is Big Issue sellers, buskers and chuggers and that's it.
As for shopping, guess it depends what you want. I went to Solihull a couple of weeks ago and though the mall there looks mighty fine, it had no different shops I wanted to go in to Coventry. I was impressed with the look, but not at all with the experience.
Might have something to do with my vehemently being against the rip off that is 'designer' shops perhaps. Super Dry Japan? Errr, no thanks.
The only 'designer' shop we went in was Smiggle, a posh stationery shop. There my daughter bought 4 small rubbers, a light up pen, a scented pencil and a pencil case.
That came to £23.
I'm sure if you want overpriced stuff, probably made in the same factory as cheaper stuff elsewhere, then you can fill your boots.
I looked at the restaurants in Touchwood. There you have a Bella Italia (got that in Coventry), Pizza Hut (ditto), Pizzaa Express (ditto), Druckers (ditto), Costa Cafe (ditto), 5 Guys Called Mo (which I have had in London and is pretty dreadful), Nandos (Cov), Subway (ditto), Starbucks (ditto), Gregg's (ditto x20), TGI Friday's (ditto), Wagamama (opening soon in Cov).
There were very few restaurants Coventry didn't have and I would like to see a Pret a Manger here, as I do really like their sandwiches and wraps. I think one is going to be at the new Friargate development.
The parking was much, much more expensive than Coventry.
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Otis
Well-Known Member
Nick
Administrator
Just because you haven't seen them it doesn't mean they aren't there.
There was a homeless man and woman spark out asleep on the steps by the car museum with their bottle of Frosty jack next to them, there was 5 or 6 other blokes on the benches around with their cider.
The ticket machine opposite the baths often has beggars there for when you go to pay for your ticket which makes you feel uncomfortable. I used to go swimming there every sunday and 9/10 there would be somebody sat there watching.
I go to the bus station a lot also to collect people, it stinks of piss and the shops in there are like you are abroad. The dodgy internet cafe is like something you get on holiday. I wouldn't fancy being in there after dark the way that random groups lurk around, I'd much rather a group of chavs to be honest.
Say for example I wanted to buy a PS4 Controller, or a Toaster, or a Book. I'd either buy it online, drive down to the Ricoh or one of the shopping places like PC World / Currys, Argos and places where I can just drive there, get out of my car and buy it, then go back to my car.
Not really bothered by the restaurants either to be fair.
Otis
Well-Known Member
No, it was all students, both Coventry University and Warwick and any at colleges etc.
The headline was Students who live in Coventry tell us why it deserves its place alongside London, Paris and Sydney.
Not saying I at all agree with that at all, but, that's the headline. Guardian newspaper, so not the local CT rag.
Otis
Well-Known Member
I know it doesn't mean they are not there, Nick, but I am in town at least 3 times a week. By all accounts you have said you hardly ever go, so I would say my experiences hold greater relevance.
I agree about buying online, but then why go shopping to any town anywhere then?
Nick
Administrator
I'd say they were just as relevant though surely?
I'm not talking about going to any town anywhere, if I am not going to go to Coventry to buy a PS4 Controller I am not going to go to Birmingham to buy one. Out of town shopping places make it a much nicer / easier experience if you haven't got time to mess about and just want to do something..
Otis
Well-Known Member
Nope. Disagree with you there. If I go all the time and hardly ever see anyone and you don't go much at all and do, I would say therefore that they are rarer than you perceive them to be.
Nick
Administrator
Nope. Disagree with you there. If I go all the time and hardly ever see anyone and you don't go much at all and do, I would say therefore that they are rarer than you perceive them to be.
Must just be a co-incidence they are always there in the same places 9/10 times I go then.
Do the gangs of Kosovans hide from you as well?
Otis
Well-Known Member
Oh and on a sidenote, Coventry city centre seems to be bustling for the most part on many shopping days.
I went a week last Sunday and really struggled to find a parking space anywhere. I got the very last space in one large car park and there were a whole line of cars queuing behind me. Just about every shop I went in was really, really busy.
Might well have something to do with the population increase perhaps. It used to be under 300,000 not so long back, but is now up to 337,000.
Oh, and why don't you give Fargo a go, Nick. I need my commission.
I went a week last Sunday and really struggled to find a parking space anywhere. I got the very last space in one large car park and there were a whole line of cars queuing behind me. Just about every shop I went in was really, really busy.
Might well have something to do with the population increase perhaps. It used to be under 300,000 not so long back, but is now up to 337,000.
Oh, and why don't you give Fargo a go, Nick. I need my commission.
Grendel
Well-Known Member
Look I don't want to argue too much but like it or not Coventry is designed for a low demographic.
Sorry to disappoint but when you said John Lewis wasn't that great you are wrong. City planners with ambition dream of John Lewis. It is an AB demographic store and pulls people in with spending power.
M and S used to be the same. Less so now but it ranks it's store in terms if expenditure from 1 (high) to 4 (low) and invests and stocks accordingly. Guess what - we are a 4.
That's the reality. It's nor aspirational and has never attempted to be. It's a place that attacts a low demographic population. Only one of the managers I work with live in its boundaries.
It's poor and it attacts the poor and unless advocated as you clearly are accept it needs the John Lewis type of store it will always be poor and shunned by all middle management. Seriously where I work most shudder when you mention it's name.
Nick
Administrator
If anything, that puts me off.
Not too fussed about Fargo although I won't comment on it until I have been there. The web site / pictures kind of show me it isn't really my thing though.
Otis
Well-Known Member
Lol. What gangs of Kosovans?
:claping hands:
Last time I heard that said it was about 15 years ago and someone I worked with said he was attacked by a gang of Kosovans and people were saying there were Kosovans all over the city.
I worked as a volunteer at the refugee centre in Coventry at the time and do you know how many Kosovans were in Coventry? 12!!
Nick
Administrator
Lol. What gangs of Kosovans?
:claping hands:
Last time I heard that said it was about 15 years ago and someone I worked with said he was attacked by a gang of Kosovans and people were saying there were Kosovans all over the city.
I worked as a volunteer at the refugee centre in Coventry at the time and do you know how many Kosovans were in Coventry? 12!!
Sorry, I should have said gangs of eastern europeans rather than being too specific as I haven't actually checked their passports (probably have a job trying). Although saying that down buy the bus station it was really bad.