I've been down to London this morning....

amcluesent

>Are there any people, places, hobbies, activities etc. that give you genuine joy?<

No. 'Joy' is something I've learned not to seek or expect.

System

amcluesent wrote: »

No. 'Joy' is something I've learned not to seek or expect.

What a life.

Cleaver

amcluesent wrote: »

>Are there any people, places, hobbies, activities etc. that give you genuine joy?<

No. 'Joy' is something I've learned not to seek or expect.

If you genuinely get no joy whatsoever from friends, family or any of your interests in life then you really do have my sympathy. But at least it explains your hate-filled posts on here, as it must be agony seing others enjoy life if you have no ability to do the same.

drc

I'm a Londoner born and bred. It's sad how much my London has changed over the last 10-15 years. I don't recognise it anymore

What part of London did you have the misfortune of visiting?

abaxas

drc wrote: »

I'm a Londoner born and bred. It's sad how much my London has changed over the last 10-15 years. I don't recognise it anymore

What part of London did you have the misfortune of visiting?

I would assume he means the 'bit inside the m25', ie the shytehole

macaque_2

Cleaver wrote: »

Macaque and Amcluesent, I have a honest question. Are there any people, places, hobbies, activities etc. that give you genuine joy? Or does every single thing about this life provide you with an opportunity to see the negatives and have a great big moan? I'm not sure I've ever read any comments on this forum about people you admire, pursuits you enjoy, things that inspire you, places you adore, actitivies you are passionate about. Maybe you do and you just have an image to maintain for this forum.

An honest question deserves an honest answer

PhylPho

Until the OP is able to say how many of the umpteen thousand streets in London he visited today, this thread's pretty pointless.

(Said as one who extols the appeal of Bath's Royal Crescent despite narrowly escaping a mugger a couple of hundred yards from it. . .)

Jowo_2

AD9898 wrote: »

I just wanted to say, Londoners you have my sympathy and empathy for residing in such an area. Row after row of 70's, 80's, 90's and 00' pokey flats, with no garden, driveway, garage etc. Appalling architecture and probably build quality too.

...

To be honest, that sounds like any semi-deprived urban area and could probably apply to parts of every city or big town in the UK...

What's so specific about the architecture that makes you feel this only applies to London (which, while it is a city, operates more like a collection of villages, some a lot nicer than others...)

Spartacus_Mills

Cleaver wrote: »

Isn't it lovely how we're all different?

I go down to London a lot for work and had a year of my life when I 'lived' there from Monday to Friday for work.

I did that for 18 months and utterly loved it. I stopped in a nice B&B in Golders Green. It was not too expensive and I always had something to do. The diversity of people, buildings, things to do were wonderful.

I would recommend to any 20 years old to live and work in London for 10 years.

I wish I had not waited til I was 40 to do it.

Having said that I would not trade where I live now for living in London.

edinburgher

We came back from London to Scotland last June, after what had been a very happy 18 months.

Within a couple of months of moving there we had found a nice enough flat (granted, in a multi-unit Victorian building in Bromley, so not in the centre), paid high but not horrendous rent and commuted into the centre with everyone else. We had relative job stability, decent wages (£25k+, enough for DINKYs ) We wouldn't have been able to buy anywhere nice, but we had fun, a great quality of life and enough left over for some savings and investments. Great restaurants, plenty of cultural things and shopping that makes Scotland look a bit pants.

Great transport links to the South of England, the continent, hell - the world! Friendly enough people (sorry fellow Scots, but Southerners are a bit more welcoming to outsiders) and much better weather.

I'm not trying to glamourise it - I hated the commute in summer (along with everyone else), rent costs were something you just had to grin and bear and it was important to try your best to stick to rent you could afford so as to keep pennies for the fun parts of life (you know, not paying a slum landlord).

8 months later and we miss it, life just seemed happier there (for all its faults). Our work situation hasn't changed too much, we like seeing our families, which all makes me think that London has something special that draws people to it. We get married in September - every chance we'll be going back to London afterwards.

I never thought that such a bewilderingly huge mess of locales, accents and cultures could feel like home, but it did...