General Chit Chat

[Prufrock]

I love it here, but I do like having the quiet of home a train journey away too. I'm pretty sure I'll stay down here, though not 'in the city' when it comes to kids and that.

And whilst of course there is 'stuff to do' everywhere, the idea that there isn't substantially more to do than home is laughable!

[Prufrock]

A friend linked this article on Facebook: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25427663" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's a pretty dull article on this new plastic money, but the reader comments are aamzing. My favourite is, "I can't believe this - How can the Bank of England destroy thousands of years of our cultural heritage? I will not be using these notes; I have a bend in my wallet and it is a known FACT that plastic does not bend! It's immoral. What next? Rubber coins? A disgrace!"

[Worthy4England]

I've never found any shortage of things to do where I live - and given that there's only so much "free time" to do things anyhow, can't see why that would make anywhere "better" than where I live.

I mean, really? How many museums, art galleries and the likes would you need, if you only visit them once a year maybe?

Restaurants? We have more than I'll ever visit in Manchester.

Parks - nice touch in amongst the smog, roadworks and cyclists.

Of all the Capitals I've visited, London is by far and away the biggest shithole of the lot.

[bobo the clown]

Personally, I wish I'd done a few years down there before marriage and kids.


Years ago i was offered a senior post on double my then money on a nod and a wink if I'd move down there.

Similar here. I do wish I'd experienced that.

I was offered a few opportunities in my time ... one to 'leafy' Essex, another would have been in Weybridge. In both cases the property prices pissed on the concept. To get a similar house to mine would have been to add £200k and more to the mortgage. Utterly infeasible.

I would have had hefty pay increases, but every penny taken up. Later job opportunities would have been freer to find and there'd have been other balances. Overall it just never seemed feasible.

What I do realise from friends down there who live that far out is that they are no-more likely to "go into town" as I am to pop to Manchester. However, the option is freely available and London is, truly, a great city.

You have to do it early or it's impossible.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

London's just a bigger version of Birmingham, which itself is just a massive version of my toilet between the point where I've had a poo but not flushed yet.

[TANGODANCER]

Find it hard to accept that there's anybody who can't find things to do full time in the north.
We're hardly more than one hour away from so many things to visit that won't cost you a bomb (kids do tend to be the acceptance to that rule of course), loads of sport and activities, oh, and a hobby or two doesn't go amiss. I honestly don't think I've ever been really bored in my whole life.

London, ( on the few occasions I've been there, has some wonderful sights, granted) is full of manic traffic and odd folk who give you funny looks if you don't speak with a southern accent, ( there are probably more that don't than do but I don't speak Chinese, Japanese, Russian or German ) over-charge for everything, oh, and the beer is pretty grim (or was). It just doesn't feel right. There's actually nowhere quite like the north.

[thebish]

hmmm - for those saying London is a shithole... most people who live in London don't live in the bit you tourists visit. also - Bolton town centre is an utter shithole - but it doesn't mean Bolton is a crap place to live.

it's all faux and tedious North/South divide bollox. I have lived decent lengths of time in Bolton (not really that far North), Manchester and Burnley - and up in the North East (proper North) and in that there London and now in the South West... they are all good places to live if you have a decent job and live in a decent area - they all have plenty of stuff to keep any average bloke happy.

[Worthy4England]

hmmm - for those saying London is a shithole... most people who live in London don't live in the bit you tourists visit. also - Bolton town centre is an utter shithole - but it doesn't mean Bolton is a crap place to live.

it's all faux and tedious North/South divide bollox. I have lived decent lengths of time in Bolton (not really that far North), Manchester and Burnley - and up in the North East (proper North) and in that there London and now in the South West... they are all good places to live if you have a decent job and live in a decent area - they all have plenty of stuff to keep any average bloke happy.

I also lived in London - it's a shithole, and work down there often for months at a time. It's nothing to do with North/South divide. With the possible exception of Cairo, it's the biggest shithole of a Capital city, I've ever visited. I'm sure there are worse that I haven't visited - such as, maybe, Mogadishu?

[thebish]

hmmm - for those saying London is a shithole... most people who live in London don't live in the bit you tourists visit. also - Bolton town centre is an utter shithole - but it doesn't mean Bolton is a crap place to live.

it's all faux and tedious North/South divide bollox. I have lived decent lengths of time in Bolton (not really that far North), Manchester and Burnley - and up in the North East (proper North) and in that there London and now in the South West... they are all good places to live if you have a decent job and live in a decent area - they all have plenty of stuff to keep any average bloke happy.

I also lived in London - it's a shithole, and work down there often for months at a time. It's nothing to do with North/South divide. With the possible exception of Cairo, it's the biggest shithole of a Capital city, I've ever visited. I'm sure there are worse that I haven't visited - such as, maybe, Mogadishu?

I don't know about all the capital cities you have visited and compared - obviously - but I disagree that London is a "shithole". I lived there for 13 years and brought my kids up there... enjoyed it - plenty of great stuff to see - great access to Dover for day trips to france - plenty of open green spaces - tons of excellent theatre (A lot sparser here in the South West).

Bolton town centre... now that IS a shithole... yet Bolton is a great place to live.

I suspect that the much bigger factors in our perception of where we live over mere location are:

(in no particular order)

our perception of settledness
our sense of belonging and/or family history/associations
our economic and family/friend relationship circumstances

feeling good about living in a place is a whole lot LESS about what it looks like, what amenities it has or where it falls on some subjective shithole-scale than it is about those things...

[Worthy4England]

hmmm - for those saying London is a shithole... most people who live in London don't live in the bit you tourists visit. also - Bolton town centre is an utter shithole - but it doesn't mean Bolton is a crap place to live.

it's all faux and tedious North/South divide bollox. I have lived decent lengths of time in Bolton (not really that far North), Manchester and Burnley - and up in the North East (proper North) and in that there London and now in the South West... they are all good places to live if you have a decent job and live in a decent area - they all have plenty of stuff to keep any average bloke happy.

I also lived in London - it's a shithole, and work down there often for months at a time. It's nothing to do with North/South divide. With the possible exception of Cairo, it's the biggest shithole of a Capital city, I've ever visited. I'm sure there are worse that I haven't visited - such as, maybe, Mogadishu?

I don't know about all the capital cities you have visited and compared - obviously - but I disagree that London is a "shithole". I lived there for 13 years and brought my kids up there... enjoyed it - plenty of great stuff to see - great access to Dover for day trips to france - plenty of open green spaces - tons of excellent theatre (A lot sparser here in the South West).

Bolton town centre... now that IS a shithole... yet Bolton is a great place to live.

I suspect that the much bigger factors in our perception of where we live over mere location are:

(in no particular order)

our perception of settledness
our sense of belonging and/or family history/associations
our economic and family/friend relationship circumstances

feeling good about living in a place is a whole lot LESS about what it looks like, what amenities it has or where it falls on some subjective shithole-scale than it is about those things...

I would like to respectfully point out that Dover, isn't in London, nor is France. I can get to Paris in about the same time it would take me to get from North London to Dover, from Manchester.

As it happens Bolton town centre is a shithole too. But then again, I've never lived in Botlon either.

I've lived in London a lot less than 13 years, but certainly enough years to form an opinion.

London being full of cnuts doesn't help it's case, my dislike of the dump is nothing to do with anything on your list around settledness, belonging or economics. It's a dump, because it looks like a fecking dump. It's dirty, generally impersonal (although I have friends there) and a shithole. Of the highest water. If there was a prize for shitholeness, London would be very near the top of that list.

[Montreal Wanderer]

London is good because it has lots of job opportunities and lots of things to do with your spare time?
Yeah well, so's fecking Iraq. And it doesn't cost you a quarter of a mil just to park your car there either.

Yes but car and property insurance can be expensive....

[Lost Leopard Spot]

hmmm - for those saying London is a shithole... most people who live in London don't live in the bit you tourists visit. also - Bolton town centre is an utter shithole - but it doesn't mean Bolton is a crap place to live.

it's all faux and tedious North/South divide bollox. I have lived decent lengths of time in Bolton (not really that far North), Manchester and Burnley - and up in the North East (proper North) and in that there London and now in the South West... they are all good places to live if you have a decent job and live in a decent area - they all have plenty of stuff to keep any average bloke happy.

I lived in Hendon for two years 1978-1980 and north London, more generally for a further five years - Hendon again, Golders Green, New Southgate, Tottenham and Hampstead Heath. I had a job, I wasn't in the worst bits, in fact I lived in some very salubrious parts, but I can still say (hand on heart, I'd even swear on a bible) that London was the biggest shithole cesspit I've ever had the misfortune to inhabit. It had feck all to do with north/south either.

[LeverEnd]

I found that when I left university there were people who moved to London because the job opportunities in their field were greater, some that actually enjoyed it, and some pretentious nice people that thought there was some kudos in living there. Oh, and that those of us who remained in our home towns were in some way backward and unambitious. I am, but that's just coincidence I think.

[TANGODANCER]

A little bit amazing that most folk who call Bolton a shithole don't actually live here. Just thought I'd mention it.

[thebish]

A little bit amazing that most folk who call Bolton a shithole don't actually live here. Just thought I'd mention it.

is it also amazing that those who call London a shithole don't actually live there? just thought I'd mention it.

[TANGODANCER]

A little bit amazing that most folk who call Bolton a shithole don't actually live here. Just thought I'd mention it.

is it also amazing that those who call London a shithole don't actually live there? just thought I'd mention it.

I don't er, actually recall doing that, so that lets me out. I actually made a point of saying I'd only visited it briefly, I think. I'd say, with the speed of change that unless you actually live in a place or visit it regularly, it's better to be sure of our facts, wouldn't you say?

[thebish]

A little bit amazing that most folk who call Bolton a shithole don't actually live here. Just thought I'd mention it.

is it also amazing that those who call London a shithole don't actually live there? just thought I'd mention it.

I don't er, actually recall doing that, so that lets me out. I actually made a point of saying I'd only visited it briefly, I think. I'd say, with the speed of change that unless you actually live in a place or visit it regularly, it's better to be sure of our facts, wouldn't you say?

i didn't say you did, sir!

(but then - neither did I say that Bolton is a shithole - so that's me off the hook too...in fact - I don't think ANYONE has said that Bolton is a shithole)

[thebish]

mr DIY king I am not!! just spend an infeeeeaaaasibly looooooooooong time putting up 3 glass shelves in the living room...

simple job - just six screws would do it... but - what a fecking palava I made it into! - not helped by the crappy hollow crumbly wall that always made the hole slightly too big for the fecking rawlplug..

I think they are secure now - but I'm not gonna put anything on them!

normally I wouldn't be too bothered about shelves falling down - but these are glass - quite large and in the alcove above the telly... I would not be popular were they to come crashing down during the christmas edition of Call the Midwife!

[Worthy4England]

mr DIY king I am not!! just spend an infeeeeaaaasibly looooooooooong time putting up 3 glass shelves in the living room...

simple job - just six screws would do it... but - what a fecking palava I made it into! - not helped by the crappy hollow crumbly wall that always made the hole slightly too big for the fecking rawlplug..

I think they are secure now - but I'm not gonna put anything on them!

normally I wouldn't be too bothered about shelves falling down - but these are glass - quite large and in the alcove above the telly... I would not be popular were they to come crashing down during the christmas edition of Call the Midwife!

I'm now concerned about the fire hazard from the candle holders, if this is the current form.

[Lord Kangana]

You're not meant to screw load bearing objects to partition walls!