WHERE you choose to live says a lot about you. Each part of a city develops its own reputation and style, its own status.

If you're in the fortunate position to be able to afford to buy a property, the community around that property can tell others about your priorities and values.

I love living on the South Side of Glasgow but for a few months of the year I cat sit in the West End, which means I go and stay in Dowanhill.

Without fail, any time I mention moving south to west, someone will say something along the lines of, "Oh, that's nice for you. How lovely to get to stay in the West End."

And while it is undoubtedly lovely to have a change of scene, and while the West End is very nice indeed, I bristle. I bristle because I identify as a South Sider, which is pretty silly given that I'm not even from Glasgow.

But I've adopted it as my home and I'll argue to the end with anyone who wants to slag it off.

I was thinking about the south-west divide on Saturday as I went for a walk to have a nosey at all the new shops recently opened near my flat.

I walk out of my flat and almost immediately come to an ice cream parlour. I turn onto a main shopping street, where there are independent shops, hipster cafes and a fancy supermarket. The road takes me along to a park with a glasshouse. There are sandstone tenements and excellent transport links.

On Friday I walked out of the West End flat and almost immediately came to an ice cream parlour. I turned onto a main shopping street, with independent shops, hipster cafes and a fancy supermarket. I could have walked along the road to a park with a glasshouse past sandstone tenements or I could have jumped onto any of the excellent transport options.

There are so many similarities but, of course, so many differences. The West End street - Byres Road, of course - has a Marks and Spencer, a Pret, an Oliver Bonas and a Waitrose. You wouldn't find any of those opening up on my South Side street, Victoria Road.

But then, we have a McDonald's and a KFC so take that, Hillhead.

The West End has the university and Kelvingrove Park and yes, alright, you can't quite compare the Botanics to Queen's Park Glasshouse. While the South Side is well served with restaurants and bars, the West End has an overabundance.

However, the basics are much the same - tenement housing, good places to go out, fantastic parks and culture spots.

There are so many similarities so why do people get so territorial? It's about personal pride. The West End doesn't need to defend itself - its lure is obvious.

But the South Side has higher levels of deprivation. I saw it described in a London newspaper recently as "gritty". It has a reputation for being a wee bit less salubrious, a bit more trendy. Less douce, more fun.

And there's your answer - you aren't defending your area of the city, you're defending yourself.

If you choose to live in the South Side and take part in debate about its merits, you're saying you're not sedate or interested in keeping up appearances like those West End wendys.

The South Side has for a long time been "up and coming" while the West End is for those with aspirations and the money to support them.

As someone who splits her time between both, I'd pick south every time. I feel more comfortable in Lidl than Waitrose, that's what the choice boils down to for me.