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Original poster

Talk to me about real life outside London

760 replies

Herewegoagain84 · 25/02/2022 13:36

We’re considering the big move out. I’ve been a Londoner all my life and always considered I would stay, but I’ve got a third child cooking and I think it’s time. I know it sounds mad but I’d love to hear what your life outside London is like - especially with children at the weekend. We have everything so accessible to us here and always plenty to do. Can you talk me through how we might be spending our time and what activities you do / how weekends are spent? If you lived in London previously was it a good decision to move? Thanks!

OP posts:
merrymouse · 27/02/2022 15:39

It’s been kept going by the kind of snide bitchiness - resentment billed as faux humour - that this post neatly illustrates.

I haven’t called the OP ditzy or naive and I haven’t called anyone snide.

It’s just, as a PP said, bleedingly obvious that the relevant question is ‘I like doing xyz at the weekend, where can I do that?’ Or ‘We want to buy a house with x somewhere commutable from London on a budget of x, where do you recommend’, not ‘what do people who live outside London do?’.

TatianaBis · 27/02/2022 15:50

@merrymouse

It’s been kept going by the kind of snide bitchiness - resentment billed as faux humour - that this post neatly illustrates.

I haven’t called the OP ditzy or naive and I haven’t called anyone snide.

It’s just, as a PP said, bleedingly obvious that the relevant question is ‘I like doing xyz at the weekend, where can I do that?’ Or ‘We want to buy a house with x somewhere commutable from London on a budget of x, where do you recommend’, not ‘what do people who live outside London do?’.

Nope I didn’t call the OP either of those things, I said her question was reasonable, the problem was merely with the way she expressed herself.

Your beef is apparently that OP did not ask the right question. You are free to start your own thread asking what you believe to be the correct one.

merrymouse · 27/02/2022 15:53

Your beef is apparently that OP did not ask the right question. You are free to start your own thread asking what you believe to be the correct one.

It’s more about trying to provide a helpful answer.

For all we know the OP likes to spend the weekend scuba diving and doing fly ball with her dog.

AllOfMyLove · 27/02/2022 16:10

Hi @mangosaredelish and @PriamFarrl, I hope you do actually realise that I never said that you couldn’t get those food items outside of London… . I come from the Midlands in the first place and lived in Sheffield and then Leeds for 5 years. I’m very well aware that these foods are available. I simply said that I had a mare trying to get them here in Nottingham. And before anyone chimes in with all the places here in Notts that DO sell these items, that wasn’t really the whole point of my initial post!
But maybe I’m reading the intended tone of your writing wrong - so easy to do when not talking aloud! Maybe you are playfully mocking?

ChildrenGrowingUpTooFast · 27/02/2022 16:20

I have no idea what so lovely about summer in London. It is not a Greek island as far as I know.

DomesticatedZombie · 27/02/2022 16:27

'snide bitchiness - resentment billed as faux humour' - 'why let the chance to be an arsehole go to waste' 'a passive-aggressive, resentful, clichéd anti-London pile on.'

Tatiana, most of the comments are light hearted. No need to take them so personally.

mynameisbiggles · 27/02/2022 16:29

Good grief. I'd say life was far better outside London. Friendlier for a start. if you opt to live in a rural location though be prepared to be kept awake by foxes and badgers; few (if any) pavements or street lights, lots of mud in winter and don't rely on broadband, mobile phone signals, power or water and of course you might even have to live with a cess pit of septic tank. That was my life for 20 years and just 35 miles south of London.

PriamFarrl · 27/02/2022 16:37

@AllOfMyLove

Hi *@mangosaredelish and @PriamFarrl*, I hope you do actually realise that I never said that you couldn’t get those food items outside of London… . I come from the Midlands in the first place and lived in Sheffield and then Leeds for 5 years. I’m very well aware that these foods are available. I simply said that I had a mare trying to get them here in Nottingham. And before anyone chimes in with all the places here in Notts that DO sell these items, that wasn’t really the whole point of my initial post! But maybe I’m reading the intended tone of your writing wrong - so easy to do when not talking aloud! Maybe you are playfully mocking?
It sounded like you were saying that you were unable to buy basic items which in London were available in every corner shop. The products you listed are available in most supermarkets.
Legoisthebest · 27/02/2022 16:37

biggles I get kept awake by foxes here in South London. I've seen more foxes in my life in my 15 or so years in London than I ever saw in my just over 30 years in semi rural-shire.

TatianaBis · 27/02/2022 16:39

@DomesticatedZombie

'snide bitchiness - resentment billed as faux humour' - 'why let the chance to be an arsehole go to waste' 'a passive-aggressive, resentful, clichéd anti-London pile on.'

Tatiana, most of the comments are light hearted. No need to take them so personally.

I haven’t taken anything personally.

Whether the OP has, who knows. I am far from the only poster to have commented in this vein - there’s no need to be disingenuous about it.

TatianaBis · 27/02/2022 16:40

@merrymouse

Your beef is apparently that OP did not ask the right question. You are free to start your own thread asking what you believe to be the correct one.

It’s more about trying to provide a helpful answer.

For all we know the OP likes to spend the weekend scuba diving and doing fly ball with her dog.

I managed to answer nonetheless. Wasn’t so hard.
PriamFarrl · 27/02/2022 16:41

@Legoisthebest

biggles I get kept awake by foxes here in South London. I've seen more foxes in my life in my 15 or so years in London than I ever saw in my just over 30 years in semi rural-shire.
I saw more foxes when I moved to a city that I ever did in the country. I’m now suburban but backing onto woodland and we get more deer than we do foxes.
DomesticatedZombie · 27/02/2022 16:43

I'm not being disingenuous. Your comments were vicious. Totally unnecessary, when most of the thread has been in good humour.

PrimroseTheSmooth · 27/02/2022 16:50

I saw a fox in SW1 the other day, strolling along Tufton Street bold as brass.

TatianaBis · 27/02/2022 16:50

@DomesticatedZombie

I'm not being disingenuous. Your comments were vicious. Totally unnecessary, when most of the thread has been in good humour.
Ah so you’re the one who’s offended, not me.

I have simply made the same observations as other posters that behind the faux humour and performance peeing there’s bitchiness.

merrymouse · 27/02/2022 17:16

I managed to answer nonetheless. Wasn’t so hard.

Yes, but not necessarily helpfully.

TatianaBis · 27/02/2022 17:39

@merrymouse

I managed to answer nonetheless. Wasn’t so hard.

Yes, but not necessarily helpfully.

OP seemed to think so as she thanked me…
cakeorwine · 27/02/2022 17:41

Inspired by this thread, we went to Leeds this afternoon. Enjoyed some baklava and bought a range of foods that you really can't get in your local Tesco and if you can, you only have a limited range.

Then a nice walk around Roundhay Park. Very little traffic either.

BobISMyUncle · 27/02/2022 17:43

I've never lived in London, so I don't miss it. I have visited on several occasions, and every time I have, I know why I could never live there. There are so many people, there's no room on the pavements. So much traffic!
I live in rural Cambridgeshire, in a small market town. No police. No traffic wardens. No traffic lights. Low crime rate. Excellent schools. No overhead aeroplanes (not on the flight path). A few double yellow lines that no one takes any notice of - people just ask you to move your car if you're in the way of anything. A slower pace of life generally. Cambridge and Peterborough are just a drive or bus ride away. Family activities are the same as everywhere else. London is about 50 minutes away by train. A five minute car drive away is open countryside. Riverside walks. Woods and country parks to visit. And it's a bit flat. No hills when out biking! I don't miss London at all. AND! You can see the stars at night because we don't have so much light pollution.

intwrferingma · 27/02/2022 18:23

I am officially the best parallel parker in my small town, having lived in London for a decade or so. Seriously, I relish the pressure as old blokes stand, hands in pockets, whistling quietly as they think 'she'll never squeeze into that spot'. And then ta-dah! I do!

Clearly I don't have many other talents....

5thnonblonde · 27/02/2022 18:34

We get otters and seals here- but not that many foxes.

merrymouse · 27/02/2022 18:38

“merrymouse
I managed to answer nonetheless. Wasn’t so hard.

Yes, but not necessarily helpfully.
OP seemed to think so as she thanked me…”

I’m not sure which post she was thanking you for, but I hope it wasn’t this one:

“the answer to the OP's question is that she finds her weekends very dull because there's not enough to do and the people, with exceptions, are not wildly interesting.”

If you genuinely can’t understand the problem with your post, and why the the best reading you could hope for is ‘unintentionally humorous’, it’s difficult to know where to start.

PriamFarrl · 27/02/2022 19:06

@intwrferingma

I am officially the best parallel parker in my small town, having lived in London for a decade or so. Seriously, I relish the pressure as old blokes stand, hands in pockets, whistling quietly as they think 'she'll never squeeze into that spot'. And then ta-dah! I do! Clearly I don't have many other talents....
I used to get that after living on a street with tight parking. Especially when I had a Smart.
thefamous5 · 27/02/2022 19:29

This weekend we have been to the beach, been out for dinner , gone for a walk around the mountains.

PossiblyDreaming · 27/02/2022 20:54

@PriamFarrl I don’t understand why people think needing to be good at parallel parking is limited to Londoners. I’m in a tiny fishing town in the SW with zero off road parking in the harbour bowl, you need to be able to park if you want to have a car.