London Baby!!!

Lily-Rose_3

redsunglasses wrote: »

I might urgently need a cup of tea :rotfl:

I like knowing I can get these things if I need them, haha.

I guess it is nice to know you can get things without going 5 miles for them!

Lily-Rose_3

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

We lived in a most beautiful part of Spain for eight years, in a white house with exposed beams in a village up a mountain, with terrific 360-degree views and friendly Spanish neighbours (who I still miss).

However, it was to me never home. It was somewhere I was living at the time. Home was the Midlands city I'd lived in until then. We both felt this way and that's why we always knew it was not a permanent move.

Funny isn't it? No matter where you go, there's no place like home.

Billie-S

Agree with SDW and Lily-Rose, and a few others on here; I think no matter where you go, there is no place like home.

I was in the post office the other week, and a lady with a strong Belfast accent was in front of me. (She was about 55.) She said to the teller 'this is the last time you'll see me,' and the teller said 'why? Are you leaving?' She said 'yes I am going home, back to Templepatrick.' The teller said 'where's that?' She said, near Belfast in Northern Ireland. The teller said 'how long have you been here?' The lady said since I was 19, about '35 years.'

So she had been here 36 years, (TWICE the amount of years she had been alive when she moved here,) and yet she still classed Northern Ireland as 'home.'

I also know of a few people who moved to Australia and the states in the 1970s and 1980s and are now 50 to 65 y.o. and they have sold up and come back to look after elderly parents, or they have come back simply because as they get older, they feel the need to rediscover their 'roots.' It's weird, that no matter how many years someone spends in a country they move to, they class the country that they were born in, and spent their childhood in, as home.

mariposa687

I moved from Scotland to London. I often get 'I wouldn't live in London, it's dirty, expensive...' when I go back home which is equally annoying! I don't criticise people for having stayed in my home town but they find it perfectly acceptable to criticise my choice of moving to London.

People often comment on how expensive house prices are here (like I don't already know!) but buying a house isn't a priority for me at the moment so it doesn't bother me.

BigAunty

I know what you mean about the Scotland/London divide.

Some of my Scottish (by birth or residence) friends often big up Glasgow on the grounds that it's a much friendlier place than London, where you can chat to people on public transport, for example. I do agree.

However, I then remind them that it has one of the highest rates of violent crime and murder in Europe, with deaths of young men actually higher than some south american countries.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

BigAunty wrote: »

My friends and relatives from down south who have visited me in Glasgow have been positive about the city. If there are aspects that they don't like, I don't think I'd be particularly hurt. I'd live in Glasgow anyday over Croydon where most of my relatives live.

I lived in London for 10 years and hope I didn't shove its positive elements down any of my northern relatives front. Having said that one visitor from Rotherham did seem to think that Brioche and plum jam for breakfast was too exotic to contemplate eating which reminded me of a sketch on the Catherine Tate show where a couple were revulsed upon encountering tempura for the first time.

I love the good arts and music infrastructure here in Glasgow, the great public transport system, parks, restaurants and excellent shopping but I despise the high level of public drunkeness, so I am not immune to criticising it. It also has the highest levels of murder and violence in the UK with some of it exceeding the levels found in some US states and some south american countries.

That said, I escaped from a small commuter town outside London with a chav underbelly to it and I would definately find it suffocating to live there. Also, my closest family live in Yorkshire, they are very positive about the towns they live in and I just simply can't see myself ever living there. For example, I get taken to clubs that are like Phoenix Nights but without the friendly banter and where girls, for some reason, go to the loo with the doors open, yacking to their friends in the cubicle next door or on their mobiles,where the town centres are half boarded up or full of poundshops and betting shops.

So each to their own so long as a visitor doesn't shove their opinions down another persons throat.

Now, whilst you probably don't mean to, that's having a bit of a dog at Croydon, which is actually quite a nice place - great transport links, lots of places to go, woodland, farms, the downs are all within it's borders. And it's very tolerant of difference - it doesn't matter whether it's Bernard the Reggae Man dancing in the street or whether you're a blue haired punk, rockabilly guy or anything else, you're fine there.

lika_86

Lily-Rose wrote: »

Funny isn't it? No matter where you go, there's no place like home.

I'm not so sure about this, the only thing that connects me with 'home' is the fact that my family are still there. I've always felt like London was where I was meant to be, even from the age of 11, it's somewhere I feel more comfortable than my hometown.

Horses for courses.

Soleil_lune

mariposa687 wrote: »

I moved from Scotland to London. I often get 'I wouldn't live in London, it's dirty, expensive...' when I go back home which is equally annoying! I don't criticise people for having stayed in my home town but they find it perfectly acceptable to criticise my choice of moving to London.

People often comment on how expensive house prices are here (like I don't already know!) but buying a house isn't a priority for me at the moment so it doesn't bother me.

I had this from people when I moved from my little town up in the midlands in the 80s, to go to London where I stayed for several years.

I put it down to a mix of jealousy and people really not understanding people who want to do something they would never ever do.

I had cousins and friends settling down at 16-18 and having kids, and that was the furthest thing from my mind. Nobody could understand me, and said 'what's the point in going to London? There's nothing there. It's a dump' and similar comments.

I wouldn't want to live there now at all, but if people want to be there, then good for them. Better to go and if you do not really enjoy it, then at least you tried! Personally, I found that unless you have a verrrrry well paid job or are quite wealthy, it's not much different to living in your home town up north or wherever.

Although I guess if you want to be a singer/actress/performer/dancer/model/work in tv or radio etc, there are more opportunities there. That said, you do often need a degree to get into that line of work professionally, or to have gone to a fancy performing arts school.

London is great: exciting and diverse with loads to do and many opportunities, and I LOVE visiting, but I wouldn't want to live there now. I returned back home after several years as I said, as I did start to get homesick, and I missed my family and my friends and my dog!

The whole of Scotland is amazing imo, and much of it is very beautiful.

Soleil_lune

lika_86 wrote: »

I'm not so sure about this, the only thing that connects me with 'home' is the fact that my family are still there. I've always felt like London was where I was meant to be, even from the age of 11, it's somewhere I feel more comfortable than my hometown.

Horses for courses.

That's cool. A second cousin of mine moved from the Peak District to west London in the late 1980s when she was 18. She met her boyfriend there, (now her husband,) and is still there 25 years later. I doubt she will ever leave now. Her 3 kids have their lives there, and she only has about £10,000 left on the mortgage for her little 3 bed semi.

It's only 4 hours on the train back to her parents, and they see each other for 4-5 days at a time every other month and spend Christmas together. So that's cool. I would imagine if one moved abroad, it would be more likely that you may want to return home eventually.

Personally speaking, when I was in London, I had nobody really, just 2 flatmates. No family, few friends, and a job that only paid me enough to pay my rent and bills. Like I said, after a while, I thought I may as well be back home with my family and friends. (And my dog!)

Soleil_lune

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Now, whilst you probably don't mean to, that's having a bit of a dog at Croydon, which is actually quite a nice place - great transport links, lots of places to go, woodland, farms, the downs are all within it's borders. And it's very tolerant of difference - it doesn't matter whether it's Bernard the Reggae Man dancing in the street or whether you're a blue haired punk, rockabilly guy or anything else, you're fine there.

Woof woof