Even though I have lived all over the place the past few years, Grimsby is my home town. It is where I was born and raised. That doesn't mean I have to like that though.

Grimsby is a fishing town on the east coast and was formerly known as Great Grimsby. The town has a population of around 90,000 and boarders the seaside town of Cleethorpes. Being a fishing town, this brings in a lot of jobs due to the amount of businesses that have something to do with the food industry, factories being a major source of jobs. A few years ago, Youngs named Grimsby its source for fish and even used pictures of the docks in their TV adverts. Not many people I have told this is where I am from know where it is or if they do, it's only because of it being a fishing town.

As for things to do in Grimsby, there isn't much choice to be honest. One of the biggest places to go in town is the shopping centre, Freshney Place. It was built between 1967 and 1971 and a little fact is that my Dad helped to plaster the inside of the building. The building itself is much like a greenhouse, having a glass roof. This makes it unbearable to stay in there too long during the summer as it gets incredibly hot. I have previously worked in shops in Freshney Place and having the glass roof makes the shops hot as well, even though them their selves don't have that kind of roof. The shopping centre is home to around 70 shops and those are gradually getting better. I remember when I was a teenager that there wasn't really much choice in regards to clothes shopping but now at least there is a big Next, River Island and New Look. During the recession, a lot of the shops had to close down and there were a lot of empty spaces but at least that is starting to get better again now.

As this is a fishing town, it would be a bit strange to not have a museum of some sort to celebrate this. Just over the road from Freshney Place is the Fishing Heritage Museum. When I was in school, this always used to be where we would go on school trips and even I didn't think it was any fun at all during the time. The inside of the museum smells strange, there isn't much to do or see in there but you can buy some funky fish related gifts in the shop. As a part of the museum, you get to go on the Ross Castle boat which was more interesting than the museum itself. Getting to see how a fishing boat actually worked was pretty cool for me at the time.

Another thing to do in Grimsby is to drink. There are plenty of pubs and a couple of clubs surrounding Freshney Place and this used to be where I'd go every single weekend. Unfortunately, the places that used to be really good closed down years ago now and have yet to be replaced with anything decent. Pretty much all of the pubs around the centre sell food which is great as Freshney Place isn't big enough to have a food court. The pubs get pretty busy during the daytime, no matter what day of the week it is and sometimes there is a wait for food. One of the best places to go is The Ice Barque, which is a Wetherspoons just across the river at the far end of the shopping centre. There is plenty of room to sit, children are allowed in during the day and the food never takes long. Of course, you can always sit and get drunk there during the day if that's what you wish to do instead.

Apart from these couple of things, there isn't really that much to do in Grimsby. There is no cinema now that the one in Freeman Street closed down some years back. There is no bowling alley either as both of these things are in the neighbouring town of Cleethorpes. If you don't drive, getting around to be able to do more fun things is a massive pain and at least a half an hour journey each way. Grimsby College has recently become a university so at least this is a plus side for the town now. Having university status means getting more students from out of town, especially abroad. The revenue coming in from foreign students is definitely helping the town to be a better place.

As you can see, I am not a fan at all of my home town and that is exactly why I don't live there any more. There just isn't enough for me to do and I get bored very quickly every time I do go home.