Could you live in the country.

[DulwichFox]

Living here in East Dulwich is quite unique.

With quiet side streets just a couple of hundred metres from bustling Lordship Lane.

With bars, restaurants, shops.

E.D. Has excellent transport links to the West End and City.

I have always been a 'City Person'

I also like the Sea and could live on the Coast.

Driving through the countryside there are some beautiful villages.

There are some houses that are really remote. No Pub, no shop, some with no bus service.

Have you ever though about living in the middle of nowhere.

I think I would go crazy.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I would love to - I like both.

I've house-sat for friends in deepest Wiltshire. That was a bit of a culture shock. I was used to popping out to Tesco's on the Old Kent Road (my corner shop at the time) for fags and milk anytime I needed them. You have to be very organised living in the country.

[The Minkey]

I lived in a house in Nepal for 3 months which was a row across a lake to the nearest shops, it was wonderful. Yes, you do have to be organised but it's worth it :-)

I've also travelled through Spain in a converted horse lorry, we were parked up much of the time in remote places. One place we stayed for a few months was an 8 mile round trip on foot to the nearest shops and, in the days before mobile phones, the nearest telephone. It was pretty idyllic though.

Before then I lived in a small village called Box in the Cotswolds but we did have a small local shop so it wasn't exactly remote, though countryside it most definitely was.

So, yes, I could live in the country but I'd learn to drive this time round as I'm not so keen on walking miles in the pouring rain to get the groceries in ;-)

[????]

Cirhossis, Incest, madness and small mindedness. Death by a 1000 cuts. NEVER

[Ant]

Only if I still had my city pad as well.

[woofmarkthedog]

I have done both

* breathes deep, ahhhhh city diesel *

My sanity here is more measured though

W**F

[HonaloochieB]

No. And no again.

The country's all right for three and a half days, but after that the the smell of cow sh!t and the sound of yokels begins to grate.

And as for b@stard horse [email protected]'ll gymkhana you, you hoors.

Anyway good luck to them.

After all the deal as I understand it is that they grow our vegetables and rear our meat, while we in our urban conurbations ensure they don't have to pay extortionate amounts for their utilities.

Oizey doizey doh, everyone's a winnah!

[computedshorty]

Living in the country is dependent on your age and your being able to work to maintain your lifestyle.

Isolation is the main thing to be considered, have you transport to get you to your place of work and do shopping.

Would you be within a reasonable distance from a hospital? Could your partner get there to visit you?

We now live not only in the country but on an island and in our 80th year, so things had to be in place for any future eventuality.

I found the place and climate that suited me, bought land and built my home to our mutual design, it is now becoming too much for us to do everything as we would want to.

Isolation is having no made up road, no house number or Road or Lane just a post code, no local shop, this is very awkward when buying anything in a town store as they ask for both of these, I give My name & Post Code that I give them to type in and it comes up on their computer.

There is a only a pub, and about fifty houses in about a mile, buses run only one an hour till 6 pm.

My advice is be stocked up with food and water, and the means of emergency lighting and cooking, heating is one of the main things in the winter months, and food for any pets you have.

Don?t depend on a neighbour in an emergency as they will be some distance away and most likely in the same situation as yourself. We have been totally snowed in for eleven days one year , and days over the past years.

Lived here now for thirty four years, so you will now know why my E. Dulwich knowledge is now minimal, Just memories.

I would say that if you get a chance to live even for a shot time in the country take it, but it will all depend on what you do yourself to make it work.

[woofmarkthedog]

Ah....

"The Country"

( where even bedtime has a stupid outfit )

http://cache-02.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/gallery/39/2007/12/medium_2084388486_4ab63979c5_o.jpg

W**F

[LadyTaTa]

I suppose it depends on how remote you go... I grew up in a little village just outside winchester, but there was a grocery shop in walking distance (there's also a couple of takeaways and a co-op now), the M3 was only a 5 minute drive and winchester 15 mins (or 30 mins by bus), so I never felt isolated. I would love to live somewhere like that again.

If I don't get out of the city once a week, I feel hemmed in.

[PeckhamRose]

I absolutely could not live in the country.

A friend I work for lives outside Alston Cumbria with a generator for his lecky and no other house in site.

I LOVE going there, even staying a few nights, and biking through the High Pennines ("An Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty" doncha know), but wherever I go, coming back to London and seeing the first tall building I may see, I somehow feel safer.

Like OP I also love the seaside and grew up on the coast, though was born in London. Cities such a Vancouver and Auckland appeal as they are best of both worlds.

But they're not London!

Spent the afternoon by the way, today, walking from Canary Wharf complex along the river all the way through Limehouse and Wapping, stopping at The Grapes when it rained. Perfect! And no-one around. Empty empty empty. Love London!

[Brendan]

???? Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Cirhossis, Incest, madness and small mindedness.

> Death by a 1000 cuts. NEVER

Wrong thread Quids. Here you go: http://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/forum/read.php?20,274127

[Marmora Man]

I have lived in, or been based in, London for most of my life. I love the city - have been to others that can compare in some ways but never have bettered it - Paris, New York, San Francisco, Munich, Singapore. With retirement now a far closer prospect than any other major event in my life I am beginning to consider options.

Having been a sailor I want to be close to the sea. Having been a climber and still enjoying hill walking I want to be close to rugged countryside. Counting myself a Londoner I do not want to lose all that it offers me.

Solution - downsize from Marmora Mansions in a few years time, buy smaller in Cornwall - use the difference in prices to improve pension - use extra pension to spend up to half a dozen, separate, mad weeks in London doing all that London offers - while still walking on Bodmin / Dartmoor and throwing stones into, or fishing in, the N. Atlantic in the remainder of the time.

It's a dream - but, I hope, realisable.

[ImpetuousVrouw]

How do the Marmora clan feel about it?

[Marmora Man]

Mrs MM is fine - next generation slightly concerned about loss of free bed & board in London!

[ImpetuousVrouw]

Well you should go for it.

The Marmora sprogs could always couch surf with their mates!

[matthew123]

I think the real question is whether you could live in the wild, build your own shelter, hunt down your dinner.. and the answer is yes, humans were born to survive... so living in the country would be a doddle for most people although no doubt for the weak it would be razor blade time without a mobile phone reception..

[Dorothy]

Absolutely definitely not, because my friends don't live there. I am a sociable soul and I couldn't bear to be lonely. I did move to Devon for a couple of years (husband's job) and hated it. Couldn't wait to get back to lovely dirty congested Lunnun.

[PeckhamRose]

Exactly. Going to somewhere in London and coming back. Consider the options. You can see so much on the journey and come back a different way.

Yesterday we parked motorcycle in Limehouse and walked along river from Canary Wharf to Wapping and back, stopping at The Grapes for a drink while it rained. Fabulous.

[SteveT]

The worst thing about living in the country is the provincial attitude of it's inhabitants.

When there is a bit of a knees-up, all the old wounds are opened up from three generations ago and all the locals remember it, how the great grandfather was cheated out of the bottom field in 1892.................

Nope I am a towny although I do not mind visiting the country, briefly sometimes.

[beef]

I'm an urban spaceman thru and thru, but maybe this man could convice me to make that move...

[womanofdulwich]

a weekend on norfolk is enough to crush any dreams I have ever had about returning.

The thing I hate about the countryside is that everyone knows who you are and what your social set is. Just like listening to the archers. What I LOVE about London is the freedom do meet openminded people.