I just can’t take nights out any more

11:03am Friday 1st August 2008

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By Shuiab Khan »

IF you don’t go into the town centres at night you will have no idea what goes on.

It is a long time since I went for a night out. In fact it has been so long I kind of forgot what it is like going through a town centre on a Friday or Saturday night.

Normally a man of my years will tend to get mistaken for one of two things.

Sometimes I will get flagged down by someone looking for a taxi. It tends to make no difference that my car has no taxi sign on it or the fact that I don’t actually have that taxi-driver look. You’re an Asian in a car driving around at night so you must be a taxi driver.

Or the police will tend to think you are looking to groom someone. Hey, I’m not making a joke out of a serious issue but they aren’t drunk enough to mistake you for a cabbie.

But it seems we have something of an embarrassing problem and for once we can’t really blame the extremists.

Our town centres are sadly becoming no-go areas at the weekends.

Now, some might say this is simply generalising and we should all get a grip. If people want to have a good time then why should we be the ones to spoil their fun?

I used to love nights out that lasted till six in the morning but now that I’m married the fun only comes in small doses.

But the fact of the matter is when you hit the age of 35 a part of you wants to stop everyone else having a good time.

But I still think there should be more stringent laws as to how clubs sell alcohol or allow people under the age-limit inside their clubs.

I’m also pretty sure that the police and the NHS should be doing more pressing things than having to dedicate their whole nights to the ‘night out’.

I spoke to one takeaway owner who said he had people urinating inside his premises almost once a week.

And I spoke to another reveller who says going out means staying out of trouble.

You never know when someone is going to want to beat you round the head for absolutely no reason.

But then again why don’t we just live and let live and just be resigned to the fact that this is life in a Northern town.