what's it like where you live?

[rattleskuttle]

i'd like to imagine moving somewhere. please tell me about where you live.
this is where i live:
jersey
mild british weather, fields and hedgerows, beautiful beaches, good schools, very low crime rate
high population density, bog standard house costs £400,000, reasonable house costs £550,000, 3 bed house rent is £1,500 per month, loaf of bread costs £1.20. main industry is international finance, no unemployment. bit of a problem with alcoholism and binge drinking. very conservative. expensive to leave (on a plane). mostly english people here with jersey families, portuguese and polish and some kenyans. language is english but use of french apparent, eg in road names.
can be about 10 years behind the times.

Exeter. rolling hills, beautiful beaches, stunning coutryside if you are into this sorts of things. Mild british weather (for me it's cold and wet, but I'm Italian). house prices certainly lower than jersey, but cheap it ain't. good primary schools. don't have a clue about secondary, I know there's general unhappiness about them. Binge drinking. Mostly English people (I know three other italians though!) not too much traffic, and a new Zara opening in October!!!

exeter sounds nice. my brother did his teacher training there ( must be about 25 years ago at least!!) and he loved it, 'though not as much as liverpool where he's lived most of his life.

Lincolnshire, very rural county, I live in a medium sized town where lots of people live who commute to london (1 hour 15 minutes by train).
4 bedroom detatched house on an estate - £225,000, very large 4/5 bedroom house in prime area of town - £400,000 - £500,000. You can rent a 3 bedroom semi for about £450 - £500 per month.
Quiet town, crime rate quite low, safe to walk about at night, nice schools.
Lovely country side with some lovely walks, lots of country houses nearby, nice villages around with some beautiful stone cottages and small schools.
I like it here

where i live:

Edge of town in South East England

Mild weather, some beautiful fields but if you look closely there's another 300-house estate just being flung up in the corner of it, oh, and look, isn;t that a humungous rail-road terminal being pegged out just over that lovely green hill;
High population density and that was before the latest 300-house estate; housing costs fine if you've just sold your £500k 3-bed terrace in London but not so good if you are trying to get on the property ladder on your £25K average salary; road system crippled by proliferation of vehicles and lack of viable / cost effective public transport options; countryside enhanced by regular fly-tipping...

Please do come and live here, it's lovely

frayedknot - you reminded me, i forgot to put in jersey the car ownership is ridiculously high - i think it's a car for every person, including children! and lots of those are big, 4 wheel drive thingies.
lincolnshire sounds lovely, feelingold.
san francisco must be about the most modern place going. isn't nanotechnology based there?

Califrau, I stayed in the holiday inn in Milpitas once,just in case you wanted to know

West London. Slightly warmer London microclimate - everyone seems to have olive trees out the front of their houses right now. The houses are mostly Victorian terraces with small-ish gardens. It's very middle class (hence the olive trees, although I have eucalyptus instead). We're not far from the river and so by walking for a couple of minutes, DD can visit her mates, the "'ucks".
Kings Road is not too far for lovely shopping and there are a couple of big lovely parks relatively near.
Having made it sound nice, please feel free to CAT me if you'd like to buy a house - I'm off to a hill in North London ASAP!

i know of an out of work actor who got married to get someone residential status in san francisco. he was happy because she supported him for a few years til the divorce went through. don't know how common that is and i suspect it's illegal

isn't london even more expensive than jersey, scaryhairy?

Harrogate, North Yorkshire. Ooop North so sliightly colder British weather and prone to high winds! Beautiful Yorkshire Dales on doorstep, Harrogate is cosmopolitan town, lots of cafes, bars and night clubs. Very expensive boutique shops - not a fantastic choics of high street stores. Excellent schools both state and private, low unemployment and low crime. Mostly English people here, quite a few Americans as we have an American base here (Menwith Hill)and quite a few Polish workers in Hotels and restaurants.

Average 3 bed semi costs between £200,000 - £280,000 depending on which side of town.

teesside, north east england, one of those towns that always crops up on "Most dire places in Britain lists" A fairly high unemployment rate, lots of teenage pregnancy, huge amounts of drug and alcohol abuse, schools mostly below the national average.

We live in a standard terraced street, small 3 bed house, area is not great as lots of houses are rented now, no stability. Hoping to move out to a nicer area very soon.

On the up side, there is some major refurb work going on at the moment, lots of new buildings and the town centre is a lot nicer. Cost of living is v cheap, house price is an average 155k, i think. We are really well positioned for the countryside, the beach, city visits, hills and all. There is not so many activities for children, but the green spaces are quite good.

We like it here cos this is where our roots are, but when i qualify and enter the land of the employed i would like to move out maybe to north yorkshire or edinburgh.

My town is featured in a book of crap towns in England, or something. I was born here, couldn't wait to get out. Spent 10 years working in exciting places. Came to visit my Mum and Dad, bumped into a top bloke & fell love, got married. His buisness is here, so I doomed to live here for ever, and ever, and ever. Thde things you do for love.

ooh, harrogate is posh, isn't it?
and my ex dh is from county durham. is that next to teeside? i can't remember but i do remember lovely places like barnard castle.
choccyface-how romantic

People always think Harrogate is posh, and yes, parts of it are but I am not. I'm from Teesside originally - Redcar to be precises. gemma IIRC you live in Middlesbrough don't you? I used to work there.

Hm, yes, London is more expensive that Jersey I think, but has its good point too (honest).

Perth ...western australia.
Emigrated here from the uk in 2004.
Its a fantastic, beautiful place.

i was in london a few weeks ago. people were so nice - offering me their seat on the tube, rushing to help with the pushchair. this happened last time i was there too. i thought they were supposed to have a reputation for being unfriendly, but not ime.

My town was in the crap towns to but I live out of the town here linked by bridge

Weather tends to be windy but not that bad!
Surrounded in water, beaches all down one side,sailing down the other.Couple of nature reserves.Roughly 10,000 people on the island and everyone knows everyone else some how!
Fairly quiet (i live near a pub and there is very little trouble)
3 bed terrace-100K ish
4 bed detached- 300K ish
Not many large houses around.
Town itself has higher unemployment than average, main employer BAE/Sellafield/NHS
Island has good pubs but the town is rougher or nightclub here
Primary schools great , secondary iffy (one private school in town and a cathloic one in town)
Shops (in town)very high street not a lot of posh stuff
They are redevoping the dock area (town)in the next few years so hopefully the town will be on the up!

I love Walney but not struck on Barrow though

i grew up in middlesbrough gemmie! it does seem a lot nicer since i moved away!

do you miss the place you emigrated from, israel? my sister moved to nz about 18 years ago. she loves it and now runs her own business with about ten employees and has a lovely house with swimming pool.

oh bugger, dh wants a turn on computer

rattle skuttle....
No I don't miss the place at all....but its been hard leaving friends and family.

I live in north London.

It's ruff!

We go through periods of hating London and then vowing to never leave!

It's big, noisy, dirty, cramped, expensive

It's busy, very diverse, open-minded, bags to see and do