London

[User452734838]

I was in London earlier this week and it was manic. Everyone rushing around, tubes packed, people rushing down escalators when the tubes are 2 mins apart. Road noise, Sirens everywhere, People getting trains home at 7.30pm to commute an hour, people stood up on this train. As someone who only visits now and again on business it left me shattered and I was only there a day!

Is this just something you get used to in London? Is late working the norm? Travelling for what seems like hours either way to do a job?

It did feel alive though! Is this part of the attraction or is it a case of being born there and knowing nothing else?

I was glad to get back up North where the pace of life is so much less frenetic. We do have to put up with the awful weather though! It was definitely warmer in London 😂

I absolutely love London as does DH. We were both born there and lived there until we were in our mid 40's. We then stupidly moved out.

We live in another city now but it is nothing compared to London. We both miss it and go back at least once a month.

I love the museums, the art galleries, the veggie restaurants, the parks, the good and cheap transport, the markets, the unusual shops, the mix of cultures.

I can't imagine ever being bored of London. There is so much to see and do there and a lot of it is cheap or even free.

I will always regard London as my home even though I have lived there now for almost 20 years. We will never be able to move back unless we win the lottery and that makes me really sad

We moved to London a little over a year ago and absolutely love it!

My dcs are home educated, and there are so many opportunities to learn available to us, plus the museums, events, activities, parks, and historic venues are brilliant!!

We have loads of parakeets around here - lots in the square around the corner, but also lots in our garden. DH thought I was losing it when I first told him.

The parakeets are in my garden as I type!

I love living in London.

Jobs.
Restaurants.
Hipster cafes.
Culture.
Relatively cheap and efficient transport system.
Relatively green for a city - has a lot of 'green urban' land like parks and canal stuff.
Easy access to the rest of the world from Heathrow / Gatwick / Stantead / City / Luton

For sure it is better if you earn a decent wage though given the high cost of housing.

rosatheowl you are definitely invited if I ever find an armadillo in the garden, it would make good and plentiful eating We did find a peacock on the front doorstep of our nextdoor neighbour once!

Davros - I wouldn't want to eat it!!

Yes, I know, you're withdrawing your invitation.

Right, I must ask the neighbours about parakeets if they do appear here in the Norf....

I heard something about muntjac (sp?) in Mill Hill, which also surprised me.

Ginger - home ed - yes, I never thought, you'd be able to find stuff to do daily to help with that.

This thread has prompted me to look at going to Hampstead observatory as well at some point.

I'm off to google the hedgehog thing now - I definitely didn't want to talk about Brexit here and I doubt OP thought it would take that turn either....

Parakets are all over, I have them in the trees outside my office.

Has anyone been to Severndroog Castle at Shooters Hill?

Last time I was on the roof, the parakeets were in the trees right in front of me.

Well worth going by the way, fantastic views and lovely woods at the bottom.

No, Empress, I haven't. Sounds lovely.

I have muntjac envy now. I want one in my garden.

The parakeets are out competing the native birds in London now and there's talk of a cull but I don't know how true that is. They are bloody noisy though. The racket them and the Magpies make sometimes is unreal.

Severndroog & views.

You get used to it. The slowness outside of London drives me crazy. I think about moving more rurally but then I visit and am reminded that things move at a snail's pace.

When I'm on holiday I quite like ambling along staring at stuff. But London pace is just the default.

I've been here 20 years now, lived in several different bits & I can't imagine living anywhere else. Tomorrow I'm planning a long run through parks near my house and expecting to see sheep, deer & rabbits at various points. And maybe horses.

I haven't read the whole thread.

I came to London aged 19 from a rural area to go to nursing school. The nursing didn't work out, so after a brief spell in retail I joined the underground as a customer service assistant and my life is so much different to had I stayed in the Country.

I learned so much from the cultural institutions, from its diversity, and from tfe frequent protests in town. I have met some amazingly wonderful people, again, whom I have learned much from. I met my Cockney husband here, and I have a daughter.

Drawbacks are it takes an age to get anywhere, and it's very expensive. State schools are ok, certainly compared with where I come from.

We want a house, so will have to move out, but London is brilliant in my opinion.

Parakeets in south west and south east London. Story in our area is that a pet shop in Hampton was closing down and just released them rather than try to find homes.

But back ot - I love London - there's a vibrancy that's only found in a few places but also that depth of history and culture. Wonderful place.

Parakeets in Streatham here and have been for years. Also in North West London ( Uxbridge) so MN reports have them all over the compass!

Love the Hendrix story!

I lived for a while near Kingston. They had parakeets there. I have film of them in my friend's garden in New Malden. They've been there for well over 20 years.

I love London but at over £5 for a pint of Guinness in the London pubs that I visited last Friday I wonder how londoners afford to drink.

As well as birds, let's not forget London marine life - this week's Popbitch mailout had this little gem

"The Thames is suddenly full of short-snouted seahorses! Six have been spotted in the last two months; previous sightings averaged only one or two per year."

didn't know seahorses had snouts

That's lovely about the seahorses!

I love seahorses.

There was a dolphin in the Thames a few weeks ago near Putney. I’ve seen a seal in the river at Barnes

Dolphin died.

Seahorses! How utterly wonderful!

I remember a school of dolphin appearing in the Thames near the Houses of Parliament - probably more than 25 years ago now.