What keeps me in this tourist town?

Paraphrasing Joni Mitchell for my song link for this last post in February. Not sure if I'll keep the song lyric links going, but I have enjoyed the way they appeared so effortlessly. Bakewell is a tourist town now - far more so than when I moved here in 1993. It's all year round, though it all looks a bit miserable in bad weather, and there are too many cafes and outdoor clothing shops all selling the same thing. The charity shops are good though. The ducks, geese and seagulls by the river can get you down too - all that bird shit everywhere.
No cinema, but there is a film society. No theatre, but there is a stage in the Town Hall and a Youth Theatre. No art gallery, but there is an independent museum. The best book and music shop you could wish for anywhere - Bakewell Books.
Houses are expensive, schools are good, the countryside is lovely, job prospects are limited, the public transport is limited too, though there is a National Express bus to and from London which passes through daily - maybe a relic of coaching days - it certainly takes hours to get there.Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall are on the doorstep. Good Farmers' Market once a month, weekly stall market, well dressings, carnival, Bakewell Show, Bakewell puddings (not tarts).
I'm ready for a change, I have never lived in the same place, let alone the same house, for so long, but at the moment friends, family and work keep me here - the usual story - and whilst I imagine a life elsewhere it's not going to happen for a few years.
There needs to be a bit more water under Bakewell Bridge. It's a young families/retirement town and I have a horrible feeling I'm going to move seamlessly from one to the other once my youngest leaves home.

New boots and pans

Didn't actually get new boots but couldn't resist the  Ian Dury reference, especially with the film just out.

I met him twice many years ago - in the early 70s with friends from the Edgar Broughton Band backstage somewhere in a London theatre, and later at a friend's funeral - it was this time of year in the late 70s. Les Prior had been part of Alberto y los Trios Paranoias, one of the best musical pastiche and parody bands ever. Les died of cancer and is buried in Heptonstall churchyard, as is Sylvia Plath. The Albertos had been on Stiff records and Ian was a friend. It was a memorably good funeral, with the sense that Les would have loved it. The fake green grass that the gravediggers used to cover the soil looked particularly incongruous against the snow. It was the first funeral I had been to where there was a sense of the person in the proceedings. I have been to many 'good' and one or two 'bad' funerals since, and they will come up for discussion here at some point.

Anyway - the new pans were in the sale at one of Bakewell's most popular shops - Sinclairs- which is about to close in just over a week. They have had an amazingly busy closing down sale going on for about 18 months (no kidding!) The pans were less than half price and very pretty - even my 16 year old son used that word to describe them! A photo will follow. This is an attempt to satisfy my desire to completely change my house as I have been in one place too

 long - nearly 17 years. But I can't afford to change it in any significant way - so some new pans help. I could remember when and where I was when I last bought a new SET of pans - 1988, living in Todmorden. Charlie was impressed at my recall, but those sort of memories are hooked in to other life events! Maybe it's just me.....