I seem to live in two separate worlds, one dreary and grim, the other happy and free.
First, there is the 'real world' – the horrible, giant new build estate where I live. I hate this place. It's surrounded by roads, and all you hear day and night is the screaming of car engines and the explosions of modified exhausts (how is it not illegal to drive around with an exhaust that sounds like a firework display??). The traffic is awful, with constant tailbacks. My neighbourhood is all industrial estates, out of town shopping areas, concrete, cars, more cars, and noise, noise, noise. Some of the neighbours are lovely, thank god, but I'm not much of a people person, so generally keep to myself. There are just too many people crammed into too small an area. I also find my job exhausting (partly because I spend an hour fighting through traffic just to get there).
Then there is my second world, where I am happy. I have a small room to myself, which I've filled with books and paintings and flowers. I've also got a good quality pair of noise-cancelling headphones. Oh, and a bottle of gin. I go into that place to escape. Give me a gin, a Virginia Woolf or Sherlock Holmes novel (preferably read by Stephen Fry on audiobook) and I'm OK.
The only other place where I'm not just passing the time is out in nature – somewhere beautiful and quiet. My dream would be a house halfway up a Swiss mountain filled with books and paintings, and just a couple of quiet, nice neighbours. And no cars for miles around. Just silence, sunlight glinting on the snow, and nothing to do all day but wander about and read and lay in a hot bath listening to audiobooks..