To wonder how people cope living in London?!

[WinterIsHereJon]

I'm visiting for the weekend. It's hot, sweaty, incredibly busy. We had the misfortune of travelling on the tube during rush hour earlier, people pushed and pushed onto an already full train, to the point where I became rather intimately acquainted with a chap behind me. Despite the complete lack of room people were still attempting to read newspapers! I think I'd snap if that was part of my daily routine, I don't know how people do it!

I really have no idea what your issue is with me. It's incredibly childish and bad mannered to bring up other threads on different ones.

FFS, you started a thread previously. Own it. If you don't want it brought up, pussy out of it by changing your name, but please don't blather on about bad manners in relation to bringing up a thread started by yourself!

Wtf is going on on MN?!

Enjoyingthepeace of course it is terrible form to bring up various other threads from one thread to another! If you have beef with someone about one issue address it on that thread. Don't advance search them then bring up one post out of thousands that fits with your agenda.

I did "own" that thread and as per my post a few above I already said exactly what happened on there.

Why are you getting involved in this? Or is this a sneaky bit of sock-puppetry?

I did it nine months pregnant :) I've lived in Zones 1, 3 and 4 and now live in Zone 9 which is actually the countryside. We did get sick of it a bit. Christmas in Zone 1 is very lonely and its difficult to have proper neighbours. I think you just adapt to what you're used to and enjoy the accessibility. We used to get standby tickets at £5 for best seats available so with a few hours notice could see a top west end show for very little. My DH went to work in Oxford, got a job back in London and realized he just didn't want the hassle anymore. It's a work and party hard place.

LovePGtipsMonkey I'm in a totally different part of zone 2 and we also have farm animals

It's a work and party hard place.

I feel I'm letting the side down. I hope I don't get deported.

Yep, ds's school had farm visits in zone 2.

Queenbean,feel free to be bad mannered and look in to past threads

Different strokes for different folks. I got on with it and made the best of it when I lived in London, but it really isn't my thing and I know what you mean.

Also the comments about village life in London makes me chuckle. We had a local summer fête at the church near where I lived and people would come in Hunter wellies, Barbour jackets and babble on about the villagy feel of the whole affair. They spent the afternoon wandering around the graveyard and drinking Pimms which was even funnier when in the background some drunk homeless man was trying to set up his bed or the police removing some gatecrashing druggies! I always admired their optimisic outlook delusions.

Parks are beautiful in their own right but they are not woods or wilderness and you can always hear the hum of traffic. If you do manage to lose yourself in your thoughts you may unexpectantly step out of the "woods" into four lanes of traffic

I enjoy visiting as both my parents live there and they think it is the best place in the universe. I always love to go but I do feel claustrophobic after the thrill wears off and I'm always glad to come home.

I grew up in London and hated it as a child but was priviledged enough to get out every weekend. I have lived there as an adult and I did have a great time, it is a nice place to live and you just have to go with it and embrace the citiness of it all, but it is certainly not the best of both worlds by any stretch of the imagination.

It's a work and party hard place.

I didn't get that memo.

I agree with dizzyfeck. Although I never hated London. I enjoyed it when I lived and worked there, but I met the love of my life and moved north to be with him. Home is where the heart is as they say.

Also, I just don't feel the need to visit museums/galleries/theatre/opera/ballet/nightclubs/bars/eat out every weekend.

I had to laugh at the farm visits. We are surrounded by farms and all the children know perfectly well where their meat/eggs/dairy products come from.

I don't hate London. Living there isn't for me.

Welshwabbit I lived here 10 years before I discovered the Crystal Palace dinosaurs. I think I let out a little squeal.
DD and I had such a lovely day at the South Bank last weekend. There was a little pitch by the Tate Modern where they were teaching Salsa and Zumba and there were just all these random people - Young, old, black, white, Chinese, gay couples, straight couples just getting up and having a go. And they were all smiling and everyone who was watching them was smiling.
Then we walked down a bit to the 'beach' by Blackfriars bridge and there was a man who must have been well into his 70's standing on the beach with a Yamaha organ belting out 'Wild Thing' while people cheered and threw coins. And behind him, a load of art student types were building truly amazing sculptures out of sand. It was one of those moments when I just knew that, for all its faults, I could never live anywhere else.

That's my commute, MissHoolie .

I've seen Nile Rogers of Chic busking, explored pop-up mazes and met this character outside the Oxo Tower .

I just don't feel the need to visit museums/galleries/theatre/opera/ballet/nightclubs/bars/eat out every weekend.

Neither do I NicknameUsed. But I could if I wanted to.

So could I limited. We have plenty here in Yorkshire you know

MissHooliesCardigan that's the stuff I really love. When we stay at Hotel le Grandpa we really make the most of the city and the young children get a fantastic experience, even if they are bit like Crocodile Dundee in New York and unlike many cities a lot of the activities are also free.

But I have a 13 year old and his days of making junk models in the Tate Gallery, building things with giant bricks in the Royal Festival Hall or playing all day at the Diana Memorial Playground are long gone. He can be out of the house for 10 hours a day. He goes off with his dogs and horse, meets his friends and their dogs and horses, they climb trees, fly kites, play football, swim in the river or fish and make their own bike trails. This weekend they went fishing, brought back their catch and prepared it with their hunting knives, made their own campfire, called up a bunch of people in their class and ate and joked for hours under the stars.

I doubt I would have let him go out in London for 10 hours on a Saturday. Teenage boys need kicks and freedom and I would worry what the kicks were in the concrete jungle.

We are not near big shops, fancy restuarants, galleries, museums and culture, but the experience can be just as rich in a different way. We are lucky though as we have family in London and get to enjoy everything the city has to offer and it certainly has a lot to offer.

I moved to London at 19 as my old home town in Northamptonshire held no prospects for me. I've been there 20 years and work as a station supervisor for London Underground.

My husband was born in Lambeth, as was my daughter. We moan about the anti social behaviour of some citizens, we whinge about the transport (Southern Rail Buses are shite, Tube is annoying) and the cost of things but generally it's a great place to live. We are in Zone 3. We live in a tiny flat with our cat but are looking for something bigger further out.

My parents can only last a few days here before they get fed up. I am the same when we visit them. I just love the easy access to culture, art, sport etc and there is always something to do. Back "home" all I can do is look at sheep and plot my way out. My daughter hates going there!

Maybe when we are retired we may live in a smaller place on the South Coast but for now, I count myself lucky!

Interestingly, wrt teenage kicks, there are loads of drugs where I live now in a very naice market town. I was brought up near the sea and there was also a huge drug problem, I came across more drugs there than I ever did in 20 plus years living in London. Yes, you know where to go to get dodgy stuff but it's all a bit more diluted in London there's so much else going on.

I'm very worried about my teen ds here and praying he able to get a job next year when he hits 16 and so isn't distracted by anything else. Fortunately atm he's very into sport so hopefully that will focus him.

Maybe I'd be just as worried if we still lived in London but not so sure. It was idyllic when he was younger but different now he's getting older.

You can get drugs anywhere. Some students were done for dealing weed at DD' school recently. A good comprehensive in a naice market town.

I think Londoners walk a lot. I would always walk rather than getting the tube for five or six stops in central London. We also have uber

Wow this thread really took off!! Feel I should reiterate again that this was not intended to be an offensive, slag off London thread, just a light hearted rant about being in such close proximity to strangers on a hot and sweaty day, and having newspapers wafted in my face!! Give me my 8 mile commute through the countryside any day; tractors are a nightmare this time of year but at least I can sing at full volume without anyone looking at me strangely

We are home now and had a wonderful time, as I do every time I visit. So much to see! I can see the many positives of living there, I just prefer (and am used to) a quieter life. I don't know where I'd keep my chickens in London either...!

Winter I didn't see it as a slagging off London thread, it's just that you do get a lot of anti-London sentiment on here and I did let out a bit of a groan and start counting down waiting for the comments about pollution and how unfriendly we all are. It's been nice to have an excuse to stick up for London.
I had a fairly rural upbringing. I remember it being very idyllic when I was young, then it began to feel less idyllic and, by the time I got to my teens, it began to feel like a prison. I have several friends who moved to quite isolated locations when their children were approaching secondary school age who are having serious reservations now that they spend half their time driving their teenagers around and said teenagers are constantly complaining that they're bored. My teenagers have an absolute ball living here and we don't have to drive them anywhere (which is just as well as we don't have a car).
IME, teenagers don't want to build dens and climb trees - they want swimming pools and cinemas and shopping centres and skate parks and free festivals and they want to be able to get there without mum or dad driving them.

I didn't see it as you slagging it off, just making some perfectly valid observations. It always amazes me how stupidly defensive some people can get about London. And frankly, if I want to slag London off, I will. I've lived here for 45 years, all my life, and I'm not going to be told I can't by any Johnny-come-lately incomers wearing rose-tinted glasses.

FWIW we're still here, tied partly by our industry which is very London-centric and partly because it is a good place for kids. But I'm not enjoying it all that much these days. And it is polluted, ludicrous to suggest otherwise.

I was a teen in London. It was far from idyllic and as soon as I was 18 I got as far away as possible. I don't remember any free festivals. Shopping was great when you had money. Most people I know would shop lift as much as they bought and their parents just believed they were really good at getting bargains. There are skateparks, cinemas and swimming pools everywhere and outside London the cinemas and pools are a lot cheaper too. London costs a fortune and a lot of London teens don't have money for weekly concerts and shopping. They cant keep up with the prices of the city and get disheartened by that.

My kids have a different life because we are no longer in the UK so our rural experience is very different. My kids are lucky that they have a local pool they can access on bikes, the weather is good most of the year and they can go for pizza or burgers with their friends and can pay for it from pocket money. Driving them is not a major problem, I was driven to lots of places in London, especially at night. I think a lot of teens feel trapped where they live, it probably has more to do with the individual teens than the place

Oh and OP you can keep chickens in London. The local primary had chickens as did some of our neighbours. The eggs were very thin and pale yoked though so I'm not sure if they were as happy/ healthy as rural birds.

I love London! I wish I could afford to live there.

I would have to go on my own as DH can't cope with it. He has severe anxiety and visiting London brings him out in hives.

I really need a weekend in London soon. It's just so expensive, with all my lot, maybe I will just go with my mum for a little holiday instead of taking the children.