To me it alludes to the debate on city versus country living. I was brought up, more or less, in the country but moved to the city - London - when I was 18 as a student, a hundred years ago. Never returned to live in the English countryside until approx eight years ago en route for rural France. For the first three or so years I missed London so much that I used to joke that my car was would take me straight back to London on the motorway if I ever took my eye off the route when driving on country roads. In fact I escaped as often as I could by train whenever I got the chance. Just to get a whiff of London taxi diesel fumes in my lungs. And an injection of liveliness and excitement and awareness. Besides I couldn't, and still can't, stand country drivers - especially those who don't know how to manage roundabouts and a million and one other aspects of driving a vehicle. Road rage is never far below the surface when I am driving in and around my country 'city' streets (in reality a market town of 40,000 inhabitants but called a city because of its cathedral). In fact I think my blood pressure have increased since I started living back here in the sticks. OK, it's not the same as living in a tiny village, but hey - not much different if you have arrived from London. I have to speak more slowly, and act more dense. Everything here is so slow and so smug. I don't mind slow, I love rural France. I do mind smug and obstructive. So why am I still here? Because I am still following plan A: en route to France. But in my dreams I live in Sydney, Australia. Another vibrant city. At the end of the world. Wow.
So where do other Woyanos live or want to live - city or country?
japaneseboats
19 Comments
Exactly where is not so important, because I intend to do a lot of traveling.
Oops! goodness. I suspect a Freudian slip. Because actually I think a town of 40,000 people, like the one where my grammar school was, isn't in fact as good as a larger one. Cardiff, nearly 500,000, may be the ideal size, certainly people brought up here tend to like it and say they'd live and work here if their family weren't here!
Hmmm warm sandy beaches, Sydney, I think, for you...
*S* but maybe far enough away i dont get hit too hard by a hurricane
The good thing about hurricanes is at least you get plenty of advanced warning.
I love sitting on my front porch, listening to the gentle splash of the waterfall into our fish pond. I love not having to lock the door to my house. I love leaving the keys hanging in my car ignition overnight, knowing that all my neighbors do the exact same thing and no one's going to touch it. I love that I only have to drive 7 minutes to buy groceries, but I have almost a full acre of land and a creek in my backyard for my boys to throw rocks into, catch fish, or trap a bullfrog. I love that I know which tree is in bloom just by sniffing the air, or walking behind my neighbor's house and picking a full basket of wild raspberries to throw on my cereal in the morning. We're a population of only 12,000 and I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
We have run into 1 problem, though. My oldest son has Nystagmus, which is an eye condition that has made him blind in one eye and extremely near sighted in his good eye. He'll never be able to drive a car. The doctors have told us that he'll need to move to a city as an adult in order to be able to take advantage of things like public transportation and being able to walk to places for food or supplies.
So, depending on when he wants to go out on his own or gets married or whatever the future holds, I may have to become a city girl....whether it's to make his life easier, or just to visit. However, I will always be a country girl at heart.
I'd be perfectly happy living in a small town -- as long as I had high-speed internet, and the means to get out and travel often. :-)
I'm quite content where I am a small town , where no-one knows me and leaves me alone. But close enough to the city to be able to get there within half an hour.
I now live in the country, and would not move back into the filthy, smelly, ar*seh*le that is a city. Interestingly, the poisoning from car exhaust fumes in a city lowers the intelligence in children by a significant percent.
Said God to St. Peter: The Earth needs an enema. Where do I stick the pipe?
St Peter to God: Just pick a city, lord. Just pick a city.
denver, KC, St. Louis somewhat.. etc.. Cost of living is still affordable, traffic isn't so bad- but you can still enjoy sports teams, theme parks, operas, concerts, etc.
Hey you know AdGuy always gets the last word! ;)