To hate being from Essex sometimes?!

[PixiNanny]

I move around a lot and meet a hell of a lot of people. Therefore it undoubtably comes to the "So, where are you from?" bit. I'm honest about being from Essex and will admit it happily. However on occasion (a quite regular occasion...) I will get the "Ooh... Essex then? You're an Essex Bird?" I grudgingly repeat myself only to get "Well, you don't speak like one. Do you act like one? winkwink" No, I don't. "Oh. ... Is that because you're a Mum already?" Do you see a child with me? No.

I hate it. Yes I know that Essex has a stereotype and that in quite a few cases that it is true, however I am not included in those cases! Wherever I go I have to put up with it, why should I lie about where I'm from to avoid the stereotypes?!

Maybe it's just stereotypes in general. I'm a bisexual, Middle Eastern, Essex girl. Therefore I must be a nymphomaniac, indecisive terrorist who sleeps around and has two kids at the age of twenty

ooh & just remembered the beat box under 18's disco at the Robin Hood with Paul Hardcastle..... nnnnn nineteen!!

my dd1 was born in Essex - in sarf end no less so even more essex/sarf end jokes apply - only when in England.

Bouncing Turtle - I taught in Basildon for 4 years when living and working in the UK. Walked through Pitsea market every week when walking from train to work.

I moved to Essex from Australia - lived in Shoeburyness, moved to Westcliff and then we moved to a little village just outside of Chelmsford - Danbury.

Loved living in Danbury. I used to love telling people I was from Essex when I lived in the UK - they would look at me all weird and wonder how the hell an essex girl got an aussie accent.

Even worse than being from Essex - tell people in the UK you are from Australia and so many stereotypes spring forth - for manyt he fact you do not speak like Steve Irwin is confusing - that you don't talk like Alf in Home and Away - used to drive me nuts. The fact I did not live in a squat with 20 other backpackers in Earl's Court - also used to confuse people.

YANBU! I also hate it. I grew up there but wasn't born there. I now live in Holland, so am always asked where I am from originally in England, I've even had Dutch people say 'oh you're an ESSEX girl are you?!' How?

Hi Fruitbeard - I posted about clubbing in Seven Kings and yes it was Kings - and Jakes!!!! I can't believe it's still there,and serving the infamous Jake's Gutbuster, it was 30 years ago when I used to fall in there after way too many bacardi & cokes! I think it was run by twins but like I said before, the memory's not what it used to be. Remember Room at the Top too (posher than the Kings!) and we also used to go to the Ruskin Arms pub in East Ham to see Iron Maiden long before they were famous. Sorry, that's going out of Essex & into east London but this thread is bringing so many memories and old places back to me ...

Mmmm.... Jakes Gutbuster....

I've only (!) lived here since 1989 but a friend of mine told me he saw Status Quo at the Cranbrook pub and they managed to break all the windows of the flats behind with their first chord!

Did you ever go to the Cauliflower?

And I've now remembered that that huge pub on the cross-roads at Newbury Park was called the Green Gate - it's now half a McDonalds and half a football shop (bizarre combo!).

Funnily enough I drove down Cranbrook Rd today to get my car MOT'd and they've opened up a new bar next to Faces called "Visage, the 80's bar"... it has loads of tacky neon in it and serves cocktails - I think I may have to pay it a visit

Don't remember the Cauliflower but I do remember the Cranbrook! Also used to go to a pub called the 3 Rabbits, which I think was in Manor Park. And saw Ian Drury at Gants Hill Odeon many moons ago!

For sb6699 - I saw the Harlow sign today and I've already forgotten the exact wording!

I think it was 'the home of optical fibre communications' or something equally forgettable.

Is the sign new? It was partially hidden by trees but it was the first time I have ever noticed it.

Now I need to remember to look out for the sign when entering Herts. How exciting

I was born in Forest Gate and raised in Romford (gulp) and consider myself to be a decent human being. Nobody would know my origins if I didn't keep telling them, honest guv .

Actually, I'll come out and say it. Any Old Edwardians on here? Go on, out yerselves, especially if you remember Mr Gwinnell!

I'm northern (but have lived in sarf for a good while) and have a real affection for Essex people....I've always found them to be warm, honest and generous, and I actually quite like the accent.
Oh, and as for welcome signs....try this beauty ...."Welcome To Oldham, Home Of the Tubular Bandage".
People refuse to believe this legend is plastered all over Mumps (yes, Mumps) Bridge.....but it is, it is..............
So, OP, you should love being from Essex, but YANBU for hating the Essex girl business.

LOL, eidsvold. Years ago I remember chatting to a girl from work - she asked me if I was going home for Christmas, I said yes but only for a couple of days. She said 'isn't that a bit far for just two days??'. After much confusion it transpired that she'd mistaken my Essex accent for an Aussie one..... WTF??

I was born in London, but have spent most of my life (all over) Essex. I've lived in : Basildon (went to Felmores school), Pitsea (Went to Everslea school), Brentwood (went to Hutton County Primary and then St.Martins), Great Bentley (going to school in Brightlingsea, another Colne girl here), Walton for a while, Clacton, and have spent the last 10 years in (various parts) of Colchester. I do agree with the over where Waitrose was built, but on the plus side, it's an easy journey from Myland on the number 2 bus...... I've tried living in Suffolk, Kent and even Scotland, but I always seem to end up back in Essex!

Yes, the Waitrose location caused a few smirks/looks of bewilderment I must say, but I guess there was a ready made site there, on a busy confluence of roads going to the 'smart' outlying villages in all directions, and it's a destination in itself so people who want to use it will travel out of their way. I had to have a little chuckle to myself when I went (along with the world and his wife ) to its grand opening day, to find it bursting to the seams with the, erm, 'colourful' characters of Greenstead, rubbing shoulders with the Horse and Hound ladies in their Musto tweed jackets. I've never seen them there since though!

I frequent Wiatrose simply because they deliver, so I get to chose my shopping myself, and then go home on the bus without having to drag shopping with me. . Plus they do the best selection of GF foods for DS1.

I am in Basildon and on a sink estate here too but despite the reputation the estate has it's quiet and my neighbours are nice.

I would love to afford somewhere in a nice village but it's not likely to happen now. I am content with what I have though (bit more money to pay the bills would be good).

Outside of Basildon (and still under the name of Basildon) there is some beautiful green belt land which is uused by many people.

I grew up here - lived in Somerset for 10 years - but came back.

So - single parent, sink estate - where's the DM types to judge me?

Isn't Frinton on sea considered posh?

My mum always aspired to living there when we were children.

Can anyone enlighten me on what it's like?

i cried with laughter when moved down here and finally saw the gates at Frinton blo*y train gates

ok nice green , nice beach but god forbid that you want to buy icecream/drink without leaving beach you can*t

True Frintonites go shopping with their baskets and never go outisde the gates.People if not snobs once they move inside teh gates they become one and this is voice of experaince i married frinton man

omg what a mistake vows to stick to common people only

ima traitor am just about to move over border to herts going to being the neighbourhood down watch out posh spice

So Frinton on sea = the Town of Stepford?

Good thing we didn't move there then - we'd have been far too vulgar

Frinton is a lovely little town with a proper old fashioned high street and the beach is lovely - but Phoenix is right, there is absolutely nothing there to amuse tourists, and that's the way they try to keep it! Going through the 'gates' is a bit like going through the wardrobe into Narnia! That's why it hasn't turned into Clacton, no arcades, no bingo, no fast food outlets, not even an ice cream kiosk on the beach, though you can get one in the high street. It's nice and easy to park near the seafront. The houses are very gentile, well-kept Victorian and Edwardian, with more modern cul-de-sacs on the outskirts. It's very much a proper residential area, not a holiday-home mecca. It has a slightly stuffy, very conservative (in both the small and large C sense) vibe with unglamorous but useful shops in the high street. It isn't a bit like Southwold - all chi-chi little boutiques and galleries geared to the well-heeled tourists from London. You'd struggle for a Cath Kidston pinny or an over-priced driftwood thingy in Frinton, though you'd probably be ok for a sink plunger or extra-wide comfy shoes!

I went back to Frinton last week for a visit, I love how small it is and quaint... but I could never live there! Lol