to hate living in the country?

[Hullygully]

IT'S SO BORING I HATE IT I HATE IT

I will PM you, Hugh. I'm about half an hour from Lincoln (aka The Big City).

I had the impression from reading Jilly Cooper that the way to deal with rural boredom was to have more sex.
You not feeling that, hully?

Hully, I think you are mad, mad, mad!

You have a chance to enjoy the country. Without mucking about with cows and sheep and waking up at some ungodly hour to milk the beasts or feed the hens or whatever.

Just the good parts for you - Views, fresh air and space. How can you hate that?

Some people seem to think it's a question of London, OR daily mail ridden twee cuntry side.
It aint.
There are some brilliant small cities to live in, say Sheffield (don't laugh, hear me out) which have nice tree lined streets,public transport delis, bars, diversity, cultcha AND lovely parks, rock climbing, walks and great schools within walking distance.
I live somewhere little, but don't have a car, and couldn't live somewhere where I need one.
In fact, imo, the worst thing about people moving to the deep country "because of the loverly peace and quiet" is the fact that, once they live there, they roar about everywhere at 80 miles an hour in their massive tanks.
I am a flaneaur. I need streetlife, but that doesn't have to mean London.

flaneur.

it sounds awful. I would never move to the country. poor you! What's wrong with the more civilised areas near you, can't you move there?

Yy - Jilly Cooper would advise that you shag someone else's husband, preferably on a tennis court. Try that.

What GerOrf said.

Stuck here for the schools.

Bored as fuck, wish I still smoked weed.

On a tennis course while playing polo!

Daily Mail nowthen?? We burn people who read that rubbish in the country!!

There's a village beginning with B near you where all the London folk who moved there are from south London. And they're all snagging each other. Apparently.

but I do agree about the small cities...York is gorgeous too and like a big history crammed town rather than a city!

I once went on a date with someone from a farming family. I snapped his banjo string, it was pretty traumatic . On the plus side, he didn't panic at the sight of blood.

I live in the country and I grew up here and I am planning to move to London asap. I am BOOOOOOOOOREEEEEEEED and I don't want dd to be.
In our town they desperately need some entertainment for the kids and instead of building a Hollywood bowl cinema complex or some trendy shops they are building a fucking Waitrose AND a Morrisons. Great. So now we have a bout 5 supermarkests, shite shops and nothing to do. Pretty though. Oh and the innane gossip and incestuous shagging does my head in too.

But living in a city can be boring too, but maybe not in such an obvious way...? I mean, one tends to be a 'consumer' more than a 'doo-er' outside of the workplace.

Watching a play or a movie or going to a coffeeshop or restaurant. It is not really doing anything meaningful, just consuming what others are doing, someone else has created the play, the meal, the coffee. How exciting is that?

If you want to excercise your brain, you can always take online classes wherever you are, to learn new languages, higher math or history or whatever interests you. For creative exploration, you could do photography, write a book, learn new ways of cooking, plant a garden...so much stuff!

flatbread there is SO much more choice in terms of unusual sports and exercise and being involved in creative arts and volunteering etc in urban areas, are they not meaningful?

I'd bloody love to live in a small city. Proper small city, not the poor excuse with barely a bookshop that passes for urban sprawl. in these parts. I'm not strictly speaking in the countryside, more a miniature rural town, but those bastard fields are only five minutes' walk away. Everybody is related to everybody else, they all recognised me 3 seconds after we moved in because we're not from round 'ere, but other than being nosey about whatever we get up to they don't give a shit because, guess what, we're not from round 'ere.

I've had a better lifestyle in a small village that had commuter non-natives who were willing to recognise us as being of the same species. At least in had a railway station.

Oh, I agree, Halloween, cities can be great. I, for one, really miss not having a Bikram yoga studio nearby, used to go to one almost everyday when I lived in a city.

But there are other forms of exercise in the country, that can be just as satisfying, but in a different way. Chopping wood, gardening, walking...

Same for creative stuff, maybe you can't find pottery classes or something, but there tend to be other creative possibilities in the country.

It is more about mindset, than actual choices, methinks. There is fun stuff to do everywhere , if you are open to the experience.

Though it is a bit more of a challenge in the countryside, when it is wet, windy and cold

walking was much harder to come by in the countryside, I've lived in a few countryside places

in the very very rural place, all private farm land with dangerous machinery/chemicals on the land/mad farmers with guns/dogs/livestock/violent goats! so you weren't wandering though fields, you either walked along the main road or DROVE to a walking path

in village 1, you had the choice of 2 circuits, one was very pretty but its always the same circuit! or walking along the main road then turning back on yourself

In village 2, again all private property, to get to the path you could walk on that wasn't a road you had to walk a good 20 mins along the road - jogging along side a road aint that great!

outside village 3, could cross my road and be in a woods with a path that opened out to a heath - frequented by bored country druggies, dead dangerous! a nice walk if I had DH with me but as a woman alone - NO! the only women who went in there alone were ones that had big dogs to take with them!, other option was to walk along the road to a park! not a great park!

Town 1, beautiful canal walks, reassuringly busy enough that you felt safe - passed other women alone and cyclists

London: endless amt of beautiful walks along the thames and in parks and though the city, so much more freedom to roam and so much more is public

Small city: totally limitless amt of leafy park type walks, and places worth walking TO!

for me, country = in the car all the time
city/town = either don't need a car or don't use it every day, can walk out your door and have a choice of walks!

well actually country = in car or house all the time, city/town = out and about on foot a lot of the time

You should try living in the country without a car! Bonkers I am. (Hope to pass driving test on Tuesday) But really when I lived in cities I didn't need a vehicle.

also much more scope for cycling in urban environments I find, cycling along rural roads is deadly!

In Scotland we have access rights to the countryside as long as we do it responsibly. We can walk across farmland etc as long as it's not for illegal purposes. If there are crops in the field you have to walk round the edges etc.

I feel I have the best of both worlds really - live in a small village surrounded by countryside, with a railway station on a main line - takes twelve to fifteen minutes to get into the city centre. Perfect.

I could never live in a city, much as I enjoy the facilities. I commute, but I love getting back to the peace and quiet.

I'd definitely agree with the small cities being cool theory.

Sheffield
Oxford (we have a house there, its lovely and we can pop down by coach from London in 90 minutes )
Cambridge
Bristol
York
Maybe Bath but I don't know it too well?

I'd say they're all "green but with that bit of urban/cultured/cosmopolitan edge".